The Cruise of Deception was a major cliffhanger and resolution storyline on the daytime drama Days of Our Lives. Billed as a "miniseries" by NBC advertisements, it aired from June 7 until July 16, 1990.
The story included several of the show's most popular characters attending a masked ball on a cruise ship, which is taken over by a vengeful Ernesto Toscano, played by Charles Cioffi. The miniseries acted as the climax of several stories that had been developing previously to it, and the launching pad of several more, some of which played out through most of the 1990s.
Among the characters impacted were Bo and Hope, a popular couple. Hope died at the end of the storyline, allowing actress Kristian Alfonso to exit the show. Alfonso was nine months pregnant at the time. Roman's romance the next year with Isabella was considered an example of the storyline's ongoing impact.
A storyline of this magnitude had not been developed for the series before this time, and even today it is remembered as one of the most ballyhooed ratings events in the show's history. In 2005, SOAPnet named the Cruise of Deception one of the 40 most memorable moments in Days history.
Development
The show prospered from the Cruise of Deception. In late 1989, its ratings were in a freefall and its popularity was on the wane. Former executive producer Al Rabin, who had helmed Days of our Lives during the popular mid-1980s period, was lured out of retirement to restructure the show. He, along with then-head writers Anne M. Schoettle and Richard J. Allen, concocted the Cruise of Deception.
The show even changed its opening credits for the first time in its history to correspond to the storyline. At the half-way point of the famous hourglass opening, the shot faded to that of a dark, ominous-looking ocean, and the words "Cruise of Deception" scrolled into place as "Days of Our Lives" appeared in smaller lettering below it. An announcer intoned, "The story continues on 'Cruise of Deception.'"
One of the memorable elements of the story was the red dress worn by Julie Williams (Susan Seaforth Hayes), which was noticeably unseaworthy when the character abandoned ship. Julie and Victor were dressed as Kate and Petruchio from The Taming of the Shrew, with Julie wearing an elaborate evening gown. A Soap Opera Digest columnist wrote, "The dress got wetter and wetter and tighter and tighter and Julie, her hair damp, looked positively bedraggled... Shipwrecked and stranded, Julie didn't need a life jacket. That red dress saved her — and the cruise." Costume designer Richard Blore said, "The infamous red dress. I think that is going to haunt us... I have never had so much story or reference in magazines about that red dress."