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Big Red Boat

Lawrence22

By Lawrence22,
in Royal Caribbean International

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RoofingPrincess

RoofingPrincess

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The Big Red Boat was the name used by Premier Cruise Lines in their advertising. Their ships were actually painted a bright red! They were the "original" Disney cruise, before Disney started their own cruise line; you could book a week's package that was either 3 days or 4 days on a cruise to the Bahamas, and the remainder of the week at Disney World.

It was my first cruise. My son & I enjoyed it immensely.

At some point, the affiliation with Disney changed to one with Universal, so instead of Mickey & Minnie, it was Looney Toons characters on board. And then after that, I didn't hear about them any more. Don't know what happened to the cruise line, but I'm sure if you hit Google, you could find out for sure!

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rtrtx2

rtrtx2

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it was our first cruise, the start of my addiction. I remember they actually escorted us to our stateroom when we boarded the ship, and they were white Gloves in the dining room, oh and high tea everyday, memories!

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dsvd79

dsvd79

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This was my first cruise as well. I was 15 at the time, and I had a lot of fun at their own Island. Kinda like labadee.

 

This was my first time flying as well. At the time it was my parents and my brother was 3. We had a very early flight that was on Delta that left at 6:00am on Xmas day. Our plane ended up being delayed, and later discovered that the plane had a dead battery. That flight we would have connected in Cincinatti and then to Orlando. We ended up on Northwest via Minneapolis to get to Orlando. While we were heading to Minneapolis, there was heavy fog, so we were stuck on the runway, and ended up missing our flight from Minneapolis to Orlando. By the way that flight was suppose to be first class. =( Anyways we got another flight to Orlando, and by the time we got to the airport there was a guy waiting at our gate to get us our luggage and shuttle bus to the boat. We finally got to the cruise ship around 8:00pm, and the boat took off shortly after. They held the boat for us, but apparantly we were not the only ones that had flight problems.

 

This cruise will always be rememberable because of that!

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Arizona Cruz Chic

Arizona Cruz Chic

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The Big Red Boat was our first cruise just like many others have posted.

It was our last big family vacation before our boys were teenagers.

They loved it, we were hooked on cruising the minute I set eyes on the ship!

 

We sailed her in 1987 our package included the air fare, 4 day cruise, hotel near WDW, passes to WDW and a rental car. All that was a whopping $2100 for all four of us!

 

***

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Dive Master

Dive Master

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I cruised on the old SS Oceanic (original Big RED Boat) 4 times and really enjoyed it.I also had a cruise booked on her when Premier went bankrupt (glad I used Master Card on that one). The Oceanic is now actulaly part of Royal Caribbean International;'s European division sailing out of Spain--not sure the name of the cruise line but I think it is Pulmataar--or something like that. I understand they have become THE BIG RED INK for RCI and thus the cutbacks and surcharges.

 

The Oceanic was built to be a liner but changed to a cruise ship at the last minute when the jet age killed off the liners.She sailed for Home Lines and was/is a beautiful ship of the 1960's. She had one of the first covered pool decks (magradome) and large cabins.I will always have fond memories of her.

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celtic_beauty

celtic_beauty

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Big Red Boat( SS Oceanic) ( little red dingy..lol) was also my first cruise, first several cruises. After that we did do RC once and then we stuck with Disney Cruise line but our next cruise is with RC again hence why I am here and posting :D I believe they eventually went bankrupt.

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Nothin' But Sun

Nothin' But Sun

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My first cruise as well:eek: My BF at the time brother got married on her. Rough waters, lots of sea motion sickness, dark corridors (compared to today of course), small atrium from what I remember. It still was exciting though as I had only ever been on the Alexander Pushkin, anyone remember that Transatlantic ocean liner??

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Bases5

Bases5

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I have noticed in many peoples signatures, that they have sailed in a Big Red Boat!!!:D Was this some kind of novelty cruise ship? Or is it slang for being on land or something? Was there a big blue boat, a wee green boat....etc?

 

Not all of premiers ships were red, just 1 the rest were dark blue, That does not really matter, My wife and I got married on Premieres Seabreeze. What fond memories. We vowed to take our 10th anniversary on here. After bankruptcy while sailing from Boston ton the Carolina's for a refit after new owners bought her, she magically took on water and sunk.:eek: Skeleton crew only. Oh well.

Here are some pictures of the Big Red Boat.

 

http://www.ssmaritime.com/oceanic2.htm

http://www.ssmaritime.com/oceanic.htm

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RM

RM

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We sailed on both the Oceanic and the Atlantic and loved it. The Atlantic was the first cruise we had taken since our honeymoon 12 years before. We even went without the kids and loved it. We took the kids the following year pre-Christmas on the Oceanic and they loved it! Back then Tweety, Bugs Bunny and Sylvester etal were aboard and the kids loved it. Great memories!

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KarinaGW

KarinaGW

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Our first cruise too. Many fond memories...the service was the best I've had ever. My happiest memory, though, was that the hot tub was at the aft of the ship about 20 feet from the railing and you could just sit in it and relax and watch the waves and the trails and the birds and your last island receding.... That is probably the thing I miss the most and am always kind of a smidge disappointed when I go on other ships.

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Leslie K

Leslie K

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Like the others, The Big Red Boat was my cruising beginning. By the time we went, Disney was no longer connected with them - their ship came out about a year or so later. Tweety Bird came to the cabin to put my daughter to bed! She was so excited, planned her pj wardrobe and everything. Once tucked into bed, after Tweety left, my daughter got up and asked to go to the mid night buffet! The ship was small in comparison to today's RCI, the staircases were narrow but the main mode of getting deck to deck since there were only a couple of small elevators, and the hallways weren't as flat as we experience now as you were very aware each time of going through a water tight doorway. I didn't have half as much fun as I do on board now.

when I look back, I was such a novice who didn't utilize many of the things the ship did have to offer. But we won a free cruise on our first trip and looked forward to when we could cruise again!

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bs_kc

bs_kc

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Our first also. Our cabin actually had a small porthole window. I remember being on the top deck and looking down below, seeing private verandas and thinking, "Those guys must be rich!". I also remember docking in Nassau next to the Carnival Imagination. She seemed so huge!

 

Brian

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land lover

land lover

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We did a Disney package with her with our kids in 1998....then had another package booked in 2000.....we had our deposit in and about 3 weeks later they were out of business( I remember reading and hearing on the news that the ship just let people off at the ports they were at and it was up to the pax to find their way home) lucky for us we were able to get our deposit refunded from our Visa, but not without alot of paper work....once Disney took to the Seas...the big Red boat could not compete.....Fond memories.......

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Cruising89143

Cruising89143

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Not all of premiers ships were red, just 1 the rest were dark blue, That does not really matter, My wife and I got married on Premieres Seabreeze. What fond memories. We vowed to take our 10th anniversary on here. After bankruptcy while sailing from Boston ton the Carolina's for a refit after new owners bought her, she magically took on water and sunk.:eek: Skeleton crew only. Oh well.

Here are some pictures of the Big Red Boat.

 

http://www.ssmaritime.com/oceanic2.htm

http://www.ssmaritime.com/oceanic.htm

 

Actually there was more than one ship painted red. The line had four ships that were all painted red in their early years. Starship Royale, Starship Atlantic, Starship Oceanic and Starship Majestic. The Royale was sold to Dolphin Cruise Line and became the Seabreeze and then later the Dolphin fleet were sold back to Premier and that is when she was painted dark blue.

 

For anyone wanting to see photos of the entire fleet and history of Premier Cruise Lines check out this link. Look under cruise ship galleries.

 

http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/

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Bases5

Bases5

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Actually there was more than one ship painted red. The line had four ships that were all painted red in their early years. Starship Royale, Starship Atlantic, Starship Oceanic and Starship Majestic. The Royale was sold to Dolphin Cruise Line and became the Seabreeze and then later the Dolphin fleet were sold back to Premier and that is when she was painted dark blue.

 

 

Thanks for the heads up, also thanks for the links, bring backs memories

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