Princess Founder Stanley McDonald Dies at 94

The founder of Princess Cruises, Stanley McDonald, died in Seattle last week at age 94. His death came just weeks after he was honored in a tribute during the christening of the Regal Princess, an event that also celebrated the company’s 50th anniversary.

“We are so saddened about the passing of Princess Cruises founder Stan McDonald,” the company said in a statement. “Without his bold vision that people would love to vacation on the seas and explore fascinating ports along the way on ships full of exciting amenities, the vacation world would be very different today. We at Princess are deeply grateful for his passion to create and grow our company, and we’re happy we got to pay tribute to Stan just three weeks ago at the launch of Regal Princess and our 50th anniversary celebrations — and that he got to see the ceremony remotely. Our thoughts and prayers are with Stan’s family as they say goodbye to a beloved husband, father and grandfather.”

McDonald originally came up with the idea for a cruise line after chartering a ship to use as a hotel during the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle.

“We bought a ship and brought it out to the west coast from the Caribbean and it sailed from San Francisco to Victoria B.C., then down to the Seattle World’s Fair for a 10-day cruise,” McDonald recalled in a 2005 Q&A posted on the Princess website. “For four days of the cruise the ship was used as a hotel while our people onboard visited the fair. This was a howling success and it continued operation during the entire fair.”

After that, he secured a vessel to operate as a cruise ship. It was named Princess Patricia, and so the new company took part of that name. “It turned out to be very successful — we operated it in Seattle and Los Angeles, and had an office in San Francisco,” McDonald recalled. “That was in 1965 — the year we sailed the first Princess ship to Mexico.”

In fact, Princess is credited with coining the term “Mexican Riviera” to promote its new cruises.

McDonald also was at the helm when “The Love Boat” TV show filmed aboard the Pacific Princess and Island Princess — and it almost didn’t happen.

“I will never forget the time when an executive came in to tell me: ‘I got rid of this person who wanted to make a deal with us on putting a TV show aboard the ship.’ ” McDonald recalled in the Princess Q&A. “He told me a little bit about what it was, and that night I left the office and came back the next morning and said, ‘Hey, I’ve been thinking about this more — let’s put this back on the front burner.’ It was a big commitment for us, the small company that we were. And carrying this 100-some crew was costly. It turned out that it was ‘The Love Boat’ that we nearly threw out — but it was an incredible success. And the show made the cruise industry jump way ahead, years and years with that one program.”

Princess Cruises also posted a video tribute to McDonald on YouTube. It’s full of old video and photos as well as McDonald’s own memories.

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