BREVARD HISTORY: Ocean Liner Carla C Inspired ‘The Love Boat’, Made Call On Port Canaveral in Sept. 1979

vessel was scrapped after a major fire in 1994

BREVARD COUNTY • PORT CANAVERAL, FLORIDA – Port Canaveral came out on top of the Cruise Hive Cruise Ship Awards, an annual event recognizing the best in the industry.

Port Canaveral is the second-busiest cruise port in the world, with over 4.5 million cruise passengers. However, the ocean liner Carla C paid Port Canaveral a visit in September 1979, long before it became a major cruise port.

Carla C was the inspiration for The Love Boat, a romantic comedy/drama television series that aired on ABC from 1977 to 1986.

The 20,469-gross-ton vessel was 599.7 feet long with a beam of 80.3 feet and originally launched as a French ocean liner named SS Flandre in 1952, sailing for the French Line.

By comparison, Utopia of the Seas is a cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean International, a 236,000-gross-ton, 1,130-foot-long vessel with a 7,500-passenger capacity, and was homeported at Port Canaveral in 2024.

A group of producers reportedly originated the idea of the popular television series “The Love Boat” and wrote the first scripts while aboard the Carla C.

Costa bought the former SS Flandre in the late 1960s, renaming it the Carla C. It was then renamed the Carla Costa and sailed to various Caribbean itineraries.

In 1992, Costa sold the ship to the now-defunct Epirotiki Line, which renamed her Pallas Athena. The vessel was scrapped after a major fire on March 23, 1994.

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