Love on the Road: They Met on a Cruise Ship — While They Were Working

Dottie and Tom in their professional attire onboard. (Photo: Tom Drake) 

After about a year of cruising together, Tom proposed. We were on a ship, under a full moon, and he simply said, “We should think about getting married one day.” He’d already been married twice, so at first I thought, “Did he have too much wine tonight?“ But he seemed serious about it. And the next morning, a friend onboard congratulated us; he’d clearly informed others already!

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Still, I brought it up with him to confirm. At that time, we were living together in the same stateroom, which, as you know, is very tight quarters. We were in our cabin and we had this huge window, and he just looked at me and said yes, he knew he could be married to me forever when we were able to live together in a room that small. Next thing we knew, we were officially engaged.

Tom and I got married on May 1, 1999. That date is very special to me because it’s my mom and dad’s wedding anniversary. We got married in Pennsylvania, where I’m from, and we had 16 people from the cruise industry come to our wedding.

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Tom and I just celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary on May 1, as well as my 27th anniversary being at sea. We’ve been so lucky in our marriage, because we’ve been placed on the same ship for about 95 percent of the time. We live in a stateroom together, and even though you may think it’s small, it’s our life. Tom is writing a sitcom and movie in addition to doing his comedy, so he’s writing a lot. He often goes and does his writing in the card room onboard, or in the library. And I’m all over the place, making sure the passengers are happy. We’re just so lucky and I love him so much.

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