Couple gets free honeymoon on Norwegian line

PEABODY, Mass. -- A Peabody couple, now engaged, who met on a Norwegian cruise two years ago, is about to continue their fairytale romance in a way that's right out of the hit television show “The Love Boat.”

“She wrote that letter and it was really, really sweet. And we get to have a honeymoon because of it. We appreciate everything everybody’s done,” said Erin Picard.

Two years ago, Erin Picard was struggling. She had just gone through a break up, she was trying to pay for a new house, and her grandmother was sick. A cruise from Boston to Bermuda was the last thing on her mind. But little did she know, it would change her life.

“I wasn't going to go at last minute because my grandmother was sick and the doctor said it was okay I could go, and I went and within an hour or two Todd bought us a drink,” said Picard.

Todd O’Neil was on the ship with some friends.

“And I happened to notice her and her friend Kristen walking around the deck a couple times, and I said, ‘Ray, what do you think of them?’ He said, ‘Oh, let me go ask them,’ so I said, ‘Can you send over a drink for me?’” O’Neil said.

It worked, and the two spent the entire cruise together.

Fast forward to last fall when Picard's mother emailed Norwegian about the love story and their plans to get married. The cruise line reached out to Picard and that's when the story took another romantic twist.

“They asked if we were going on a honeymoon and we said we weren't ‘cause we're paying for the wedding and we're just going to put that off for a while and they gave us a 12 day cruise to Mediterranean as a gift for our honeymoon,” said Picard.

As the couple gets ready for their wedding this summer, they can also dream about celebrating their honeymoon on the same ship where their love story started two years ago.

“I don’t know what can top this,” O’Neil said.

The couple will be married on July 6. The honeymoon started July 9.

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