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A family ready to embark on The Big Red Boat

Premier Cruise Line was a cruise line that operated from 1983 to 2000. It was at one time the official cruise line of Walt Disney World and used the trademark "The Big Red Boat" based on the color scheme of some of its ships.

Premier Cruise Line was formed in 1983 by two cruise veterans and later bought by Dial Corporation who owned the Greyhound Bus Company. The ships typically operated 3-day and 4-day Bahamas trips out of Port Canaveral, Florida. The company was earning in excess of $20 million annually on a gross revenue of $100 million during the 1980s. During the mid to late 1990's, Premier Cruise Line was successfully led by Jim Naik, President and CEO, formerly CEO/President of Royal Cruise Line in San Francisco.

The successful niche that Premier served was the Family Cruise Line, especially attractive to Grandparents sailing with their children and grandchildren. Also, all food on The Big Red Boats (1995-1997) was fresh, not frozen.

Premier operated in conjunction with Universal Studios themeparks, after serving as the "official Disney cruise line". Premier did market cruises as part of a land/sea vacation package including visits to the Disney and Universal Studios theme parks in Florida. Disney decided to start its own cruise line business in 1995 and ended its relationship with Premier. Premier then affiliated itself with the Looney Tunes characters to maintain its family friendly image, and was returned to profitability under the direction of 20-year cruise veteran Jim Naik. The company also had an aging fleet of Italian-designed ships competing with newer and larger liners. Mr. Naik brought Premier to a point of profitability in his first quarter with Premier. Premier's parent company, Dial (of Dial Soap) who also owned The Greyhound Bus Company, sold the company after posting profits for 1995, 1996, and 1997. New owners and new leadership followed, with Larry Magnum as President in 1998.

The older ships were designed before the current disability acts. Much later, after 1997, Premier was sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act for not making accommodations for people with disabilities. Premier Cruises eventually went into bankruptcy and, unfortunately, due to poor leadership practices, folded in September, 2000.

Some Premier ships included the Majestic (the former Sun Princess of Princess Cruise Lines), the former Home Lines flagship Oceanic, the Atlantic (another former Home Lines ship), and the Royale, a former Costa liner known then as the Frederico C. The original four ships had the prefix "Star Ship" or S/S before their names. During Premiers' reorganization in the mid 1990s all but the Oceanic (Big Red Boat I) were sold off. Premier then became an amalgamation of Dolphin and Seawind Cruises. Later, the Rembrandt, formerly the Rotterdam of Holland America Line was added to the line.

The Oceanic (Big Red Boat I) is still sailing today for Spain based Pullmantur Cruises. The Big Red Boat II, formerly Eugenio Costa, was sold for scrap. The Big Red Boat III, formerly Carnival Cruise Line's Festivale was also sold for scrap. The former Frederico C (called the Seabreeze I) was to be scrapped at India but instead sank in a storm 220 nautical miles (407 km) off the Virginia coast. Lastly, the Rembrandt, formerly the Rotterdam, was purchased by the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, to be restored and kept as a historic landmark.

At the time of its sinking, the Seabreeze I had been under arrest by creditors in Halifax since September 2000. The investigation into the sinking of the Seabreeze I caused international concern, based upon numerous suspicious incidents, including the fact that the ship was likely to fetch only between $5 and $6 million for scrap, but had a $20 million insurance policy on it. The cruise ship sank in international waters flying the Panamanian flag, making Panama responsible for the investigation of the sinking of the boat.

The ship's captain told U.S. Coast Guard rescuers that his boat was in imminent danger of sinking as a result of its engine room being flooded in heavy seas. At the time, the Coast Guard rescuers believed that it was highly unlikely for a ship that large to sink that quickly, and were astonished when the Greek captain demanded that he be exfiltrated from his boat, rather than stay aboard it and try to shepherd it to shore and recovery.

At the time of the sinking, Steven Cotton of the International Transport Workers Federation in London stated that he wished that the ship, which went down 225 nautical miles (417 km) off the Virginia coast, had gone down 25 nautical miles (46 km) closer to the coast because that would have put the case in the hands of American investigators.

According to Cotton, "Panama's track record of carrying out comprehensive investigations into vessel sinkings is not very good." Suspicion on the sinking was also cast based upon the fact that ships flying the Panamanian flag had in recent years lost more ships than any other flag-state in the world.

The United States Coast Guard organized interviews with the 34 crew members it rescued from the sinking vessel, but the Greek captain refused to talk to them. Without engaging in an expensive and dangerous deep-sea dive to investigate the wreckage of the Seabreeze, it is highly unlikely that the true reason behind the sinking will ever be discovered.