Dolphin?

Crappie food

Wow. I don't want to ask what you think of the slop served in all the major line's MDRs today.

Well, we sailed over 30 years ago and it was our very first cruise, so we were excited and happy to be there!

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Wow. I don't want to ask what you think of the slop served in all the major line's MDRs today.

The food on Dolphin was cheap garbage. The MDR on most cruise lines today are a mixed bag some good some not, the food served on Dolphin was mostly pure crap! Why do you think there out of business? Everything food, rooms, entrainment, service were sub standard!

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The Dolphin was our 1st cruise more than 30 years ago and we LOVED her! We had dinner with 3 different captains and learned she had been a freighter turned into a cruise ship, built, depending on the captain, in 1947, '50 or '52. The captains ate in the dining rom, 2nd seating, every night with passengers who were invited to eat with the captain.

There was no room service, breakfast and lunch was buffet on the back deck. Food was known on & off the ship's as very good. There were only 800 passengers on her.

The Dolphin IV was the only ship of Dolphin Cruise Line back then. They later added the Sea Breeze & the Ocean Breeze and built the Royal Majesty before they went out of business.

The Dolphin was bought by Cape Canaveral Cruises- their only ship, The Sea Breeze and Ocean Breeze were bought by Premier (the big red boat), and NCL bought the Royal Majesty and named her just the Majesty.

The Dolphin ended up going to India in about 1992. This is where all ocean going ships are scraped. The cruise line didn't have the $1,200,000+ to replace the blown engine.

The Sea Breeze sank off our coast after being reprocessed in Nova Scotia in the middle of a cruise in August. It was a local news story for us and we watched it actually sink on TV!

Don't know what happened to the Ocean Breeze after Premier went under.

The Majesty had 1200 passengers and we were on her a few times until she was sold to Louis Cruises in England about 4 years ago.

The Dolphin and ships of her age were absolutely nothing like the ships of today. We both think the food was so much better then! I still have a Dolphin umbrella and beach towel my husband won on the Sea Breeze plus some other dolphin stuff.

We have since been on more than 100 cruises and have been on ships of 5 different cruise lines that no longer exist. Last year we did 7 cruises and sailed this past New Years and an 8 day cruise two weeks ago. We have seen the differences since cruising 30 years ago- some good some not so good, but, we still cruise!

The food on Dolphin was cheap garbage. The MDR on most cruise lines today are a mixed bag some good some not, the food served on Dolphin was mostly pure crap! Why do you think there out of business? Everything food, rooms, entrainment, service were sub standard!

I am confident you hold the minority opinion for early 90s cruising. It was well and widely known that the Dolphin line had very good food on their ships. Yes, they were old ships with none of the amenities of the new ships at the time, but what they lacked in ship features they made up for in food.

I am confident you hold the minority opinion for early 90s cruising. It was well and widely known that the Dolphin line had very good food on their ships. Yes, they were old ships with none of the amenities of the new ships at the time, but what they lacked in ship features they made up for in food.

You know I was just on Yelp and some people even give the Golden Corral 5 stars, we were on Dolphin with a group of over 100 and 95 percent felt the food was substandard, so enjoy your next meal at Golden Corral, I'm sure you'll love it.

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My DH and I loved our Dolphin cruises. Sorry someone else didn't, but that won't change our wonderful memories:cool:

You know I was just on Yelp and some people even give the Golden Corral 5 stars, we were on Dolphin with a group of over 100 and 95 percent felt the food was substandard, so enjoy your next meal at Golden Corral, I'm sure you'll love it.

Talk about stating the obvious. Yeah, no ****e Sherlock, there's something for everyone. Thank you for enlightening us on that. You hated the food. I liked it. That accomplished a lot.

Doesn't change my statement that you hold the minority opinion for early 90s cruising.

My opinion is the minority's opinion according to who? We were a group of 100 ! 95 said it sucked! Enjoy your next meal at Golden Corral!

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We went in October of 1989 and the food (to me) was amazing. THREE formal meals (two seatings) per day with same table mates/waitstaff. I also remember a midnight buffet that had a photo op prior to...

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My opinion is the minority's opinion according to who? We were a group of 100 ! 95 said it sucked! Enjoy your next meal at Golden Corral!

If you read and comprehend my words, your opinion is the majority according to me!

If you read some of the posts in this thread, your opinion is the minority and that is fact, not my opinion.

Nice Golden Corral reference. That's what I have used on these boards to describe MDR food on Carnival and NCL lately. Crapola.

Dolphin next to Nordic Empress at Nassau

Nordic Empress (coming back as Empress of the Seas) is 48K tons. Can you imagine what the Dolphin would look like next to one of the really huge ships now?

Dolphin next to Nordic Empress at Nassau

 

Nordic Empress (coming back as Empress of the Seas) is 48K tons. Can you imagine what the Dolphin would look like next to one of the really huge ships now?

Yep.

I remember in 1992 being in Nassau on the Oceanic. Initially it was us on the Oceanic, her sister the Star/Ship Atlantic, the Mardi Gras and the Carnivale. The Mardi Gras and Carnivale left. Then the Fantasy (before she was Carnival Fantasy) and the Nordic Empress pulled in. Then Dolphin IV pulled in. She was quite tiny compared the other ships in port.

Two questions (actually several together but all kind of related under a theme):

Does anyone know of any interior pics of Dolphin IV? I've always wanted to see its interior under the Premier and post-Premier days. Did I miss any in this thread? I kind of just skipped to the end.

Second question:

Am I the only one that thinks that the Premier group wasn't very imaginative with names? There were an awful lot of Big Red Boats and only one Dolphin, though oddly that was named Dolphin IV. Was there any particular reason on naming it Dolphin IV? Was the name Dolphin popular with other ships or was there something special being honored?

When we started cruising in mid 1980's the Dolphin was the only ship of Dolphin Cruise line. It had been a freighter turned into a cruise ship. When Dolphin went under, Cape Canaveral Cruise line bought the Dolphin. Premier (the Big Red boat) bought Dolphin's Seabreeze and OceanBreeze. The Royal Majesty, which was also a Dolphin cruise line ship, was bought by NCL. (It was sold to Louis Cruises in London about 3 years ago and is still sailing.)

You can Google the Dolphin and find out all sorts of info about her and get pictures too.

Just finished reading this entire post. I too have great memories of the Seabreeze. It was around 1987 I first sailed her. I had a great TA (back when they handled most cruises pre Internet) who would give me a call with some great deals. She knew I cruised solo. She told me about the Seabreeze "Solo" cabins. I think there were 2 or 3. A 7 day cruise in a solo cabin was $199.99. total. For the following few years I would give her a call and ask for the dates the solo cabins were available. That is when I would schedule my vacations. And yes I do remember that stair case all the way down to the disco, the midnight buffets and going to the DR for EVERY meal with my table mates.

Great memories.

Maybe noone still watching out for Dolphin but im posting anyway

i was sorting some of my daughters memorabilia and she had kept her sea pass for the Dolphin as a souvenir

it sent me looking for info on the ship

went on dolphin out of Canaveral with my wife and two young daughters in 1996

our first cruise and thankfully not our last

what we experience now on celebrity or royal caribean or whichever makes me think about the contrast with Dolphin - i remember a wonderful cruise 

i still prefer going on smaller more intimate ships - smaller restaurants, a piano bar fewer people and somehow more social

On 10/19/2004 at 9:20 AM, kelleya said:

My first cruise was back in the mid eighties on Dolphin Cruise Line, on the Dolphin IV. What ever happened to this cruise line and ship, does anyone know? If I remember, weren't they bought out by someone? Thanks for any help you may give!

My first cruise was also on Dolphin Cruise Line back in the 90's. I was actually looking for information on it when I came across this post.

On 10/19/2004 at 9:20 AM, kelleya said:

My first cruise was back in the mid eighties on Dolphin Cruise Line, on the Dolphin IV. What ever happened to this cruise line and ship, does anyone know? If I remember, weren't they bought out by someone? Thanks for any help you may give!

You can look it up. They went into bankruptcy not long after we sailed on either the Sea Breeze or Ocean Breeze. They just went into the next port and said everyone had to get off. Then they took it out into the ocean and sank it. The kid workers called it the Big Dread Boat instead of Big Red Boat. Food was great, staff great, entertainment so so. Then we started doing cruises with Royal and that was FAB! Sue Kalis

On 2/8/2017 at 7:07 PM, goldenrod said:

My opinion is the minority's opinion according to who? We were a group of 100 ! 95 said it sucked! Enjoy your next meal at Golden Corral!

 

 

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You are a typical grouchy old person from SCG.  Your opinion is the only opinion and everyone else is wrong. You're probably the oldster who had shat themselves horribly on the Granite Falls course earlier in the year.  Not knowing or caring how awful it really was.  I'm guessing you didn't care. But, everyone saw you.  You're probably the same old fool who yells at the waitress in CoCo's when she's slow to bring you your non alcoholic beer when you go there after getting your pills at the CVS as well.

Dolphin was a fun little line.  The food was great! The service was personalized.  As for your oh so witty Golden Corral remarks I've only been there a couple of times and it was full of the walking dead from SCG and SCW.  I bet you were there fueling up for another pants filling moment!

The Dolphin was our 1st cruise about 1984 or 85. (WE have well over a 100 now!) It was a Christmas gift for my husband. I put the cruise documents on the bottom of a box. Then I wrapped his oldest, worst bathing suit in tissue paper. when he opened the box and found the bathing suit, he couldn't figure it out till I told him to empty the box. It was quite a delightful surprise you him and got us sold on cruising!

WE LOVED the Dolphin & its small size. Then Dolphin Cruises got the Seabreeze & Oceanbreeze.  When the Dolphin Cruise line died, The Dolphin went, the only ship of Cape Canaveral Cruise line. They did like 2 days cruises but the Dolphin was still fun when we found it and went on it before a longer cruise on different cruise. Like the old days it was shooting soote out of the smoke stack. It was dying so it was sent to India. This is where ships are run up onto the ground and taken part for scrape.

The SeaBreeze and Oceanbreeze were bought by Premier, know once as the big red boat. The Seabreeze, we were on her 5 time, was prepossessed in Canada in the middle of a cruise. This was in August, never found out about all the passengers who had to leave the ship the morning.  

 In early November she was back on her way to Miami, with a crew of 35, when she started taking on water off the VA ,NC coast. Watching it sink was a local news story for us. Was saw a crew member being pulled off the ship by the pool I had been swimming in the year before.

Don't know what became of the Oceanbreeze but she have become a daily gambling ship.

We are still cruising but miss smaller ships. Our favorite ship is now Carnivals Sunshine!

I am so glad I found this group. I sailed the Seabreeze back in 92-93. We left from Miami, sailed to Mexico, Jamaica and Grand Cayman. There were two entertainers on the ship that played the keyboard and sang. I believe one of their names was Esau? I remember buying his cassette tape as we loved the music. If anyone remembers anything about them, could you let me know. I lost the tape and would love to hear the music again or find some information as to what happened to them. Thanks for the memories, this has been a great read.

tomr@tomrundle.com

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25 minutes ago, pack2much said:

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Was anyone on the Dolphin the summer of 1982 when she ran aground for several hours before we were supposed to depart the ship? They reopened the bars and restaurants so passengers could eat, helicopters with tv reporters came, and we had a great time! But it was a disaster for them because it really screwed up the next cruise, which was supposed to depart again that afternoon!