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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!

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Dolphin Cruise Lines merged with Premier in 1997, but DOLPHIN IV was not part of the merger. In 1996 she was sold to a company called Cape Canaveral Cruise Line and operated short cruises from Port Canaveral. The ship was taken out of service in 2000 because of corroded tanks. Cape Canaveral attempted to find a replacement but did not, and went under. DOLPHIN IV was laid-up at Freeport until February 2003 when she was sold for scrap. She was beached at Alang, India in April 2003 and broken up.

 

This is a ship with a long and fascinating history. She was built in 1956 in Germany as ZION for Zim Israel Lines. A decade later in 1966 she was sold to Portuguese owners and renamed AMELIA DE MILO. She was then sold in 1972 to Greek owners, Ulysses Cruises, and renamed ITHACA. She was extensively rebuilt into a cruise ship and was chartered to various UK package tour operators until 1979. At that point Ulysses entered into a joint venture with the French shipping company Paquet, called Paquet Ulysses Cruises. They renamed the ship DOLPHIN IV, and she entered service in the Caribbean. In 1984 Paquet pulled out and Dolphin Cruise Line was born; they later formed a holding company called Cruise Holdings which bought out Premier and Seawind. By 1996 DOLPHIN IV did not fit in even with the aged Cruise Holdings fleet and with the impending merger of their three lines into the reborn (and ill-fated) Premier, they sold her. The rest of her history is described above.

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I forgot the history of the Dolphin myself (I even forgot the "IV" on her name until I saw the thread!).

 

I was on the Dolphin a long time ago as well...always had a good time on my early cruises, though looking back it was in pretty bad shape at the time!

 

(BTW - my graphic has the wrong date for the Dolphin cruise...I was trying to rebuild my cruise history by memory when I made the graphic, but after checking all my slides and photos, I discovered I was off on my Mardi Gras, Dolphin, and Holiday dates. I need to make a new signature...this time with official years and months of each cruise).

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  • 2 weeks later...

My first cruise was on Dolphin Cruise Line's Seabreeze, and I remember how the size of the ship amazed me. Then this year I went on the Carnival Legend and realized it could probably hold three Seabreezes!

I heard that the Seabreeze "mysteriously" sank, no one on board.

I still have fond memories of that first cruise, and hope to continue cruising every year. You can't beat the value for a vacation!

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  • 7 months later...

Me and DH cruised on the Dolphin, too Grand Bahama it was really special, we got to swim with Dolphins etc, but the best was we were asked to sit on the Captains table! still think it was a dream to this day, but, boy do I bore people with those photographs!! Shame she is still not in service, #

Wonderful memories:)

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Hubby and I were on the DOLPHIN IV around 1991. I have video of it somewhere.... I remember taking a zoom of the orderly string of lights on the deck of Carnival's brand new FANTASY docked next to us in Nassau, and then panning to our pitiful little string of lights going every which way, quite a contrast. One night hubby and I were up on top deck and noticed the ship was listing to the right. We asked the captain about that the next day and he said that the ballast was uneven. (???) We had rough seas one night, and, being on the lowest deck, looked out our porthole to see water splashing up over it! I got some video of that too. I remember great food and a live pianist right next to our table in the dining room. We really enjoyed our short 4 day cruise on the Dolphin. I'm sorry to hear that she is no more.

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Dolphin remains my favorite cruise line of all time. Few have come close. I regret having never sailed on Dolphin IV... she was eventually transferred to Cape Canaveral Cruise Line, and we were in the process of booking when the line went out of business.

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Hey All,

 

I was the cruise director on the Dolphin IV....for a short stint when she was still with DCL, (1995) and then for a year and a half when she was with Cape Canaveral. Although she was old, and a little beat up, I had the most wonderful time on her...it was certainly lacking in a lot of amenities, but I think the staff and crew worked extra hard to make up for it, and I hope we gave some people a memorable experience.

 

It saddens me to think of her beached in India, and torn apart.....but I guess it happens to us all in one way or another eventually...right?

 

By the way, if anyone is cruising the Caribbean Princess this summer, I will be on board as part of the duo in the Wheelhouse Lounge. Please stop by and say hello to myself and my partner Faline. We are called "Elua".

 

Aloha,

David

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  • 3 weeks later...

My very first cruise was on the Dolphin. Was there more than one? I know it was the smallest of the fleet. I remember it had a dolphin on the stack. I had never seen a cruise ship and I thought it was huge inside--until we went into port with some other cruise ships. lol. I had beautiful memories of that ship. We had a round type of bunk built into the wall with such narrow stairs to the bottom where we were. I think the disco was in the bottom too! I fell in love with cruising on that ship.

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I never sailed on Dolphin, but worked on the Crown line out of the Port of Palm Beach. We had a comedian onboard by the name of "Carme", I remember him saying he was also a regular on Dolphin. Anyone remember him?

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My very first cruise was on the Dolphin. Was there more than one? I know it was the smallest of the fleet. I remember it had a dolphin on the stack. I had never seen a cruise ship and I thought it was huge inside--until we went into port with some other cruise ships. lol. I had beautiful memories of that ship. We had a round type of bunk built into the wall with such narrow stairs to the bottom where we were. I think the disco was in the bottom too! I fell in love with cruising on that ship.

 

I remember the disco being all the way at the bottom of the ship. And the hallways were so narrow compared to what I see now.

 

The food and service were great on Dolphin and I enjoyed my cruise on her a lot.

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  • 5 months later...

wow, my first cruise was on the dolphin IV i think the summer of '99....i took my two kids, i was a single mom at the time, and we had a wonderful time! i never could remember what cruise line she was with though...thanks for all the info

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  • 1 month later...

We had a short conversation with a couple last night that went on their 1st & only cruise on the Dolphin cruiseline. We had never heard of it before. They said they liked the cruise, but they got tired of always having to change their clothes for breakfast, lunch, & dinner before going to eat in the Dining Room. Did the cruiseline have buffets? I don't know which ship they were on.

 

Gail

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The Dolphin was a cruise ship that sailed a long time ago from Miami to the Bahamas on short cruises.

 

No, they had a very nice dinining room with very good food. The ship was VERY small and quite old and basic but IMO the food was among the best of the short cruises. I cruised on Dolphin II in the early 80s.

 

I have no idea what they are talking about regarding clothing. There was one formal night on board and people dressed well each night for dinner. That was in the days before cruising got so commercial and people started wearing jeans and shorts to dinner.

 

They are no more.

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I used to be a Purser on the Dolphin. I've read through the comments and agree the A/C was a problem - I used to deal with all the complaints! The cruises were twice a week. Nassau and Nassau/Freeport. It was one of the smallest ships doing these cruises. One of my memories was entering a lifeboat race with another ship's lifeboat/crewmembers. I was the cox and I gave the wrong order and turned the boat the wrong way! At least we came second! LOL:D

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just poking around the boards when I decided to search for my first cruise ship - yup, the Ithaca in July 1978. My DH & I had booked a honeymoon to Seawind Island in Jamaica that got cancelled. The TA convinced the owner to send us on our first cruise. It took us another 20 years to start cruising again, but I'll never forget that first cruise. I remember sitting on deck throwing empty bottles of wine over the side (how bad is that!), partying until the wee hours. The slot machines (maybe 10) were in the bar along one wall and a very very small room was set aside to play roulette and maybe 2 poker tables. Our beds were 2 very small singles (some honeymoon), but we laughed and used them both. Our cabin was right beside the dining room (which is smaller than most theatres now). Our waiter, George, (funny how I remember that after all these years) spoiled my husband rotten. The waiters used to bring dinner on large trays and serve from platters. After George served everyone, he would scrape all the rest of the food from the platters onto his plate. Too funny.

 

Well, thanks for the memories. Heading off on an eastern Caribbean in 10 more sleeps.

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  • 4 weeks later...

It's hilarious to read these posts about the great food! The staff's food was so awful. I lived on Rice Krispies for my time working on that ship. The staff got passenger food on the other ships but not that one. I'm sure it was great food though, Apollo did an awesome job.

 

That was such a fun ship to work on. :) It was always the best when officers, staff, & crew could all hang out together. Key West was such a great port for that too (just every other week). Loved, loved, loved working that ship, even though the SeaBreeze was my absolute fave!

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  • 8 months later...

As I understand it, there was a SHIP called the Dolphin (not sure what line it belonged to), and a LINE called Dolphin Cruise Line, which eventually merged with Premier.

 

My husband and I took a 4 day cruise on Dolphin's Seabreeze in 1996--it was one of those bargain basement specials where the price was just too good to pass up! :D

 

The ship was really small, especially since the cruise we took before that one was RCCL's Majesty of the Seas! (Which, at the time was brand spanking new and one of the biggest ships). We were impressed that our room on the Seabreeze was quite large and thought the food was pretty good. Not up to RCCL's standards, to be sure, but definitely worth the price we paid! ;) I also recall that the staff was great--really wonderful service. And the decor of the ship was hideous!

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I remember taking a cruise on Dolphin back in the early 90s. It was a last minute special when our regular plans fell through, and they gave us a "run of the ship" cabin. It turned out to be an inside directly over the disco that was located on the bottom of the ship, end every night at 10pm our walls would start vibrating from the heavy bass. It was amazing. We had a couple people from the cruise line come to our cabin and they acted shocked, but of course the ship was full and we couldn't be moved. Right. We still had a great time! I loved the old small ships, but then again I was much younger and much more easily impressed. I have old video of the noise and vibrating walls and pipes, if I can find it and convert it to WMV I'll try to post it. It was pretty funny.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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