The Australian
August 25, 2018 Saturday
Princess perfect: How a cruise line has harnessed the stars
by KATRINA LOBLEY, SUSAN KUROSAWA
How a cruise line has harnessed the stars
In a meeting room an hour's run up the I-5 from Hollywood, Gavin MacLeod bursts through the door. The actor, best known for playing Captain Merrill Stubing in the TV series The Love Boat, is singing the show's theme song at full volume. The showbiz veteran sure knows how to make an entrance.
The razzmatazz unfolds in the most incongruous of settings.
Princess Cruises' global HQ is in Santa Clarita, a city not usually on tourists' radars, unless they're into roller-coasters and zipping to the Magic Mountain theme park.
Chatting with MacLeod is part of a behind-the-scenes look at how Princess buffs and polishes passenger experiences for its 17 ships until they're as shiny as an Oscar statuette.
In May, Princess Cruises and The Love Boat's original cast received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The much-loved show, which ran on television screens from 1977-86, was mainly set on a real Princess ship. Today, passengers who switch on their cabin's TV can catch re-runs and see the cast reunited in a tongue-in-cheek safety video.
MacLeod has been Princess's global ambassador for 32 years. After watching him in action for an hour, fielding any question thrown his way and dealing with starstruck Princess employees who bump into him on his way out of the building, it seems like the guy who grew up in Pleasantville, New York, is indeed a brand ambassador straight from central casting.
Santa Clarita is also home to Princess's -rehearsal studios, where the ships' stage shows are finessed. Here, 15 dancers from across the world, including Australia, are rehearsing a disco-themed show in their active wear and dance shoes. Taped lines on the floor guide them to the right spot for spacing and pre-programmed lighting. They must find their marks while keeping up those high kicks and dazzling smiles.
The building also houses $500,000 worth of shoes. Some feature non-slip rubber soles, others leather soles for ballroom-style gliding. High heels are braced so they don't snap off when women land after a lift. Each dancer typically takes 10 pairs aboard for the season. With 17 ships to staff and each ship a home away from home for two casts a year, that adds up to a lot of expensive footwear.
The shoes share space with kaleidoscopic racks of costumes from retired shows. Still in good shape, these fantasias might emerge for a cameo such as a single show aboard a three-month-long cruise. As storage space tightens, the line donates the handmade costumes to appreciative local theatres and dance schools.
Many of the spangled outfits come from Silvia's Costumes, a revered Hollywood workshop. Silvia Tchakmakjian, with her -"Armenian army" of designers, pattern–makers, cutters, fitters and beaders, creates costumes for a galaxy of stars such as Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Pink, Jennifer Lopez, Katy Perry and pint-sized Danny DeVito. Signed publicity photos from many hang in the workshop's foyer.
Her team also works to breathtakingly short deadlines. "I'm going to tell in front of them," the straight-shooting Tchakmakjian says, nodding at the Princess representatives in the room. "They don't ever give me enough time." Her workshop is in demand not only for the quality of its work, particularly beading, but because she delivers on time.
Yet even Silvia's can cut it fine. One story involves Tchakmakjian inviting a FedEx man inside to enjoy a little Armenian food, turning up the music and encouraging him to dance, while her army was putting finishing touches to the costumes he was there to pick up.
It's a short run from Silvia's up to Griffith Observatory. Before darkness falls, though, Princess combines two of its illuminati with a dinner at neighbourhood eatery Electric Owl. Chef Ernesto Uchimura created a signature burger, the Ernesto, for Princess's The Salty Dog Gastropub aboard select ships.
Cruise Critic gave this tongue-tingling burger, which includes caramelised kimchi and beer–battered jalapenos, the title of Best Burger at Sea. This month, Princess -announced the burger was available on land for the first time at Electric Owl.
At the dinner table is former gun-carrying teen gangster turned astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi. His story is the kind of Cinderella-style fairytale Tinseltown loves. His series of space-themed lectures, filmed while cruising the Mediterranean aboard Island Princess, can be viewed in cabins across the Princess fleet. At the art deco observatory he shares titbits about the stars, which are struggling to compete with the glittering streetlights that map out the sprawl of Los Angeles.
Stars? The town's full of 'em. One of the most unusual, Kermit the Frog, appears to burst through a wall at the Hollywood headquarters of Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Princess worked with the renowned company to create life-size puppets that appear in its stage show The Secret Silk, rolling out this year aboard Royal Princess, Island Princess and Diamond Princess.
Another three Princess ships – Emerald, Ruby and Sun – feature Australian chef -Curtis Stone's specialty restaurant Share. Stone's touch is evident on other Princess ships, too, thanks to his dishes featuring on menus in the main dining rooms.
He's made it big in LA with television cooking shows, his newly wine-centric Beverly Hills fine-diner Maude, and its more boisterous meat-centric Hollywood counterpart, Gwen. Outside Gwen's butcher shop, on Sunset Boulevard, Stone jumps up into the back of a produce truck to taste-test strawberries, corn, golden raisins and purple daikon radish. Passers-by pause when they recognise the strapping figure in chef's whites and navy butcher's apron.
Certainly, Stone knows how to fast-track his way to people's hearts. He pauses to say: "We make great coffees here. Cappuccino? Latte? Americano?" He memorises the complicated orders and makes them happen.
Stars come in all shapes and sizes but, for me, it's how they behave away from the limelight that really floats my boat.
Katrina Lobley was a guest of Princess Cruises.
IN THE KNOW Majestic Princess will arrive in Sydney on September 15 for its inaugural season down under. With capacity for 3560 passengers, the new mega-liner is the largest Princess ship to sail in Australian waters. Princess Cruises announced this week that its fifth Royal Class liner, Enchanted Princess, is scheduled to launch on June 15, 2020 with a series of European summer voyages. It can't be easy coming up with ship names, whether river or ocean (surely all the celestial, propitious weather and musical terms are taken), but the Enchanted label has a certain dreamy elegance about it and the 3660-passenger liner will be followed in 2022 by the debut of the sixth member of the Royal Class fleet. The line is in expansion mode with two Liquefied Natural Gas powered ships also on order. Meantime, construction of Enchanted Princess will take place in Italy's Fincantieri Monfalcone shipyard and bookings will open for the maiden season on November 8 this year.
â– princess.com SUSAN KUROSAWA
More to the story When Princess Cruises wanted to rethink its passenger sleep experience, including the 44,000 mattresses aboard its fleet, it turned to LA celebrity sleep doctor Michael Breus.
The fresh-faced doctor (pictured), whose clients include actors, musicians and athletes, says his "superpower" is distilling complicated sleep research into bite-sized chunks – a power that's in demand because there's a "sleep-deprivation epidemic".
Want to alleviate jet lag? Use daylight to reset the body clock. "Light is the same as a cup of coffee for your brain except it lasts longer and helps shift that circadian rhythm," he says. To induce sleepiness, eat a bedtime snack that's about 70 per cent carbs and 30 per cent protein, such as cheese and crackers, nut butter on apple, or avocado on toast.
A hot bath or shower raises your core temperature and, as the body cools, releases the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin.
Princess passengers have access to a bag of sleep-inducing goodies designed by Breus, including lavender spray, earplugs, eye mask and accessories for that pre-bed hot shower. They also get to loll in a bed fitted with a soft-as-a-cloud mattress topper, removable for those who prefer a firm mattress. KATRINA LOBLEY
