Dolphin Shopping Centre Reviews Summary

Shopping Experience

Pros:

• "I visit here on a regular basis as it's a great place for shopping or just wandering round to see if something catches your eye."
• "Love this shopping centre."
• "This has been done up since we were last here! There are more shops and more to come!"
• "Indoor shopping centre with plenty of shops, including a large primark, M&S with food hall, and KFC, a Chinese buffet place, upstairs there's a kids soft play area (not free) it's always clean and out of two of the rear doors is access to loads more shops & Poole High street with some great shopping all in one Place."
• "A reasonable shopping centre with a few big name stores (Primark, Wilko, Next, Boots) and local stores."
• "A multitude of shops all undercover with lift and escalator to first floor shopping area too."
• "A broad range of shops to suit most - jewellers, HMV, Wilkinson, Next, Top Man, Primark, Holland and Barret, Poundland etc."

Cons:

• "The choice of stores are disappointing and repetitive."
• "It seems an empty shell with very few shops left to browse round."
• "It's becoming very empty store wise, especially upstairs."
• "Quite a depressing shopping centre - promising to have a re-fit but it's a long time coming!"
• "Desperate for a complete upgrade, The Dolphin Centre is not what it used to be, it used to have a much friendlier atmosphere with many more shops."
• "There was however also a lot of shut shops when we visited."
• "Most of the small upper level units remain empty."

Accessibility & Facilities

Pros:

• "The shopping centre is located in the center of Poole with loads of parking in a multi story car park."
• "Close to multistorey car park, swimming pool and cinema."
• "Parking provided by the adjacent multistorey, good public transport access with Poole bus station at one end and the main rail station not too far away."
• "Bus station/travel links are right next door to the centre, plus it’s only a 5-10 minute walk down to the popular Poole quay."
• "The centre is very bright and spacious with wheelchair friendly options as well."
• "Really lovely shopping centre, access to Shopmobility, but sadly lacking in public toilets, which is a big problem for able bodied and disabled visitors to the centre."
• "The Dolphin shopping centre has a varied selection of shops situated on two floors."

Cons:

• "The multistorey is old and difficult to navigate."
• "The bays are very narrow."
• "The parking garage is very tight and you have to be careful driving around and round the corners."
• "There are minimum amount of lifts for familys with buggys and wheelchairs and so can be busy to get to the top levels."
• "Certain areas of the shopping centre are closed later in the evening and it can be difficult to find your way back to the carpark."
• "Lift out of order so had to use car park lift to go back down. (Can't use down escalator). Very difficult to find way back to bus station from there."
• "Escalators were out of order and there was a queue for lift."

Cleanliness & Maintenance

Pros:

• "Very clean and well kept shopping centre."
• "Great shopping centre, well cared for and clean - think I’ll be coming here more often - recommended."
• "It's also well managed, and security presence is strong which I'm sure lends itself to the trouble free ambience of the communal areas."
• "The centre is always clean and you often see cleaners and security guards patrolling making it feel safe too."
• "Adjoining car park was reasonably priced and gets you straight into the shopping area."
• "Clean and bright with a great selection of shops and cafés."
• "The Dolphin shopping centre is always clean and tidy."

Cons:

• "Bus station is grey and dreary, not the faintest of smiles in sight."
• "The external bus station is dreadful and also needs upgrading."
• "It also feels quite dirty."
• "The adjacent bus station is drab and uninspiring."
• "From the outside it is dirty and rundown."
• "The whole centre looks outdated even though it has supposedly been refurbished."
• "Sorry to have to say this is a dull place now regarding atmosphere because of the large amount of closed shops and appearance."

Customer Service & Security

Pros:

• "Very good place to eat and drink staff are polite and helpful."
• "It has amazing staff that will help if you need to find a place to buy a certain item and security that will help with anything that you feel is worrying you."
• "The staff are very pleasant, great swimming lessons."
• "Brilliant customer service, very knowledgeable and helpful."
• "Lovely people working there. Always very helpful."
• "Help point throughout as well as security patrol and cameras over the entire area, keeping this safe for everyone."
• "Loads of shops here, a wide range of places to look about, a very big primark here, the shopping centre is very clean and staff seem to be always cleaning right down to the handrails of the escalators."

Cons:

• "Coffee shop in the centre near Primark very expensive for what they serve."
• "Myself and my friend were followed around the whole shopping complex by security workers."
• "Great shopping venue all under one roof sad that Beales is closing, great bargains, the only disappointment was going to Subway where the assistant with an accent was not helpful not bothered whether she served me or not.!!!"
• "Just been into Poole dolphin centre, went on the upper level, and was VERY rudely asked to leave by a security guard after being in there for 5 minutes and doing nothing wrong."
• "Only downfall is having to walk through the bus station wow the smell of stale urine and beer and cigarettes is so overwhelming."
• "No smiley face or friendly service."
• "The staff were then rude telling us we had to go different way."