In June 1983, The Love Boat embarked on a 14-day voyage to China, Hong Kong, and Japan to film three special episodes. Taped aboard the Pearl of Scandinavia, according to People, the project cost a huge-for-the-time $12 million. It took months to plan, and producer Doug Cramer wondered if it would happen at all after the political tensions that developed after Chinese tennis player Hu Na defected to the U.S. in 1982. But the real issue, Cramer said, was with cast members, with a level of hostility on the ship he likened to "a miniature World War III." After guest star Susan Anton scored a large cabin on the exclusive "skydeck," cast member Gavin MacLeod got so angry that he made a cruise line official give him their own skydeck room. Guest star Erin Moran cried until she got a better room.
And, as was usual operating procedure on The Love Boat, the ship was full of real people who paid big money to be on the boat as it made its way around East Asia. Some paid as much as $8,550 to blur reality with TV and be on this Love Boat cruise, which included activities dropped or rescheduled to accommodate shooting, and — during a stop in Tianjin, China — two nights stuck in a cheap motel because all the good hotel rooms got swiped by Love Boat cast and crew.
