Does Disney Cruise Line Have Plans to Purchase Abandoned Cruise Ship?

[Drfate102]

If they can get this (or any) ship to sail between Tokyo, Shanghai, and HK - visiting the three parks in one 7-day itinerary, we will sign up in a heartbeat!

I never knew I needed this until you typed it.

 

[jrapps]

This whole idea is very intriguing. I for one would love to see DCL do something like this, but I wonder how the timing would work. The shipyard wants to sell it, finish it, and get it out of their shipyard as quickly as possible, but DCL buying it would mean massive layout and theming changes that (let's be honest) will take Disney YEARS to design & implement. If an existing cruise company was going to buy this and finish the build mostly as designed, this could be a quick turnaround. If they instead throw out a lot of the non-Disney elements, figure out how to add a 2nd smokestack, make the exterior look closer to the classic DCL visuals, that will take a lot of time.

Still, waiting to hear if this is anything more than just rumor.

 

[malba2366]

It is highly doubtful that Disney would ever buy this ship. Disney is extremely disciplined in their cruise capacity and keeping the ships and the entire line to a certain capacity where they can maintain the service and pricing. A ship of this size would be difficult to fill year around, and they would need to start the rampant discounting that all of the other cruise lines engage in to fill the ship.

 

[Kwami]

If they can get this (or any) ship to sail between Tokyo, Shanghai, and HK - visiting the three parks in one 7-day itinerary, we will sign up in a heartbeat!

Those three cities are not very close together. I don't think you could do a 7-day itinerary that visits all three parks.

 

[OKW Lover]

Those three cities are not very close together. I don't think you could do a 7-day itinerary that visits all three parks.

Not only that but you'd need several days in the parks. Perhaps an itinerary that started in Tokyo (so you could do their parks before embarking), stops at Shanghai for a couple of days and ends in Hong Kong so you could do the park there after getting off the ship? Then do the trip in reverse?

 

[Ohmymonty]

9000 may be a lot of people for a cruise, but would that translate to a lot of people for a hotel?

I don't know of its even possible to permanently dock a ship that size, but it seems like it could fit in really well to the Tokyo sea theme if they make it an area hotel....as an alternative to cruising.

 

[Intr3pid]

Those three cities are not very close together. I don't think you could do a 7-day itinerary that visits all three parks.

Yes, but they need not dock the ship in Tokyo and HK overnight. You would simply add vacation days before and after - much like the Hawaii and Panama Canal cruises.

Tokyo and Shanghai are 1,210 nm apart - which the ship can traverse in just over 60 hours at 20 knots. Then, it's 955 nm between Shanghai and HK, doable in about 48 hours. You can build a cushion of 6 to 10 hours into the runs and still end up with two days in Shanghai.

 

[Scalemaster34]

9000 may be a lot of people for a cruise, but would that translate to a lot of people for a hotel?

I don't know of its even possible to permanently dock a ship that size, but it seems like it could fit in really well to the Tokyo sea theme if they make it an area hotel....as an alternative to cruising.

The 9000 is at max occupancy... so rooms that sleep 4 or 5 being full. There are 2,500 guest cabins all told, in comparison a large hotel like Disney Contemporary Resort, only has about 650 rooms. The DisneySea's MiraCosta Resort is only 500 rooms. So that would be like building four big resorts.... does DisenySea need that much additional hotel room space? And while on a Cruise you might accept a 225 s/f cabin, for $300 pp/pn, I'm not sure how well it would compete with land based hotels. If the DisneySea Hilton is $180 a night total, and has a room that is 400 s/f...

A lot of ships have been scrapped during COVID... I think if turning them into permanently docked hotels was a viable option, there would be one in most every major city with a water front.

 

[MamaMermaid]

I cannot imagine DCL will actually follow through with the sale but who knows!! 9k passengers sounds absolutely awful to me but Asia would be great!

 

[maui2k5]

The main thing I associate with the so-called ‘Asian market’ (usually meaning Chinese by my understanding) would be a casino on board and I’d personally prefer Disney to not compromise on that point. The family atmosphere onboard is one of the reasons I only sail DCL (even as a single adult) as I appreciate the focus not being on drinking and gambling. It would be quite a shift if Disney did decide to go that route.

The size alone doesn’t reduce my interest if there’s a commensurate amount of activities onboard to space people out.

With Chapek wanting to get into sports betting, it would not shock me if he wanted to add a casino to future DCL ships.

 

[happycamper47]

A lot of ships have been scrapped during COVID... I think if turning them into permanently docked hotels was a viable option, there would be one in most every major city with a water front.

They also need to find open dock space with parking close by. Most piers have ships constantly coming and going.

 

[nikem3]

I cannot imagine DCL will actually follow through with the sale but who knows!! 9k passengers sounds absolutely awful to me but Asia would be great!

As someone earlier said, the 9000 passengers would be if every room had 4-5 passengers in it. This cruise has 2500 cabins which is about 200 cabins less than the Oasis of the Seas. Oasis can only about 5,400 passengers. So if you limited it to that, I think they'd be fine.

In terms of filling it, they would definitely need to lower the prices, but I think it can be as competitive as the newer ships run now and days. The Wonder of the Seas still costs around $800-$1400 per person for a week and they do perfectly fine.

 

[OKW Lover]

With Chapek wanting to get into sports betting, it would not shock me if he wanted to add a casino to future DCL ships.

That would shock me greatly. There is a huge difference between sports betting associated with ESPN and sports betting associated with DCL or the parks. As little as I care for Chapek, I'm pretty sure he, and the Board, knows it.

 

[nikem3]

That would shock me greatly. There is a huge difference between sports betting associated with ESPN and sports betting associated with DCL or the parks. As little as I care for Chapek, I'm pretty sure he, and the Board, knows it.

I agree with this. ESPN just striked a big deal with DraftKings which is what he was looking for. That doesn't mean they are bringing sports betting or draftkings to Florida. Disney still fights and lobbies against gambling coming to Florida, regardless of what rumors might be. I think even though this cruise has a casino on it, they would turn it into something else. There would still be a lot of work needed to update this cruise, but they would save a ton of money on costs and time.

 

[jrapps]

I think people are overlooking some key statistics in the design of this cruise ship..

The ship is just a tad smaller than Royal's Oasis-class ships (Which my family LOVES by the way, also Royal has 5 of these ships and has no issues filling them, I think Disney can handle 1 oasis-sized ship)

The Largest of these, the Wonder of the Seas has 2874 staterooms, but a "Capacity" of 6,600...how do they calculate that? Simple. They have 18 life boats that can hold 370 people each. (in case you are wondering, ships never have enough life boat space for all passengers and crew, they have inflatable life rafts to accommodate the difference in crew)

The Global Dream, in comparison, has 2350-2500 cabins (depending on which press release you read), and rather larger cabins than industry standard. Most cruise ship cabins are 14-17 sq m, Disney tends to be larger in the 15-18 sq m, the Global Dream has 20 sq m rooms.

So its basically an Oasis-sized Ship, with about double the number of staterooms of a Dream/Wish sized ship, but with cabins slightly larger than those in the Disney Magic/Wonder.

How do they claim 9,000 capacity? Well renderings show 20 life boats on the Global Dream. Its not to hard to believe they have slightly larger lifeboats that can hold 450 people each. But this also means to hit 9,000 people, almost every room on the ship would have to be filled with 4 people.

Asian families tend to travel as generational groups (kids, parents, grandparents), so if this is targeted at the Asian Market I can totally see 4-5 people per room, or up to 10 people in 2 adjoining rooms.

I can also easily see Disney setting the capacity as something closer to 6,000 with the usual 2-3 people per room occupancy they have on existing ships, that is IF they were thinking of bringing this to a US or European market. If they plan to keep it in Asia, then this may be exactly what they are lookign for.

Would this impact pricing on existing Disney cruises? I doubt it. The Asian cruise market is very different from the US one. Different economics & demographics. It would be comparing an apple to an orange.

I personally would love US-based, Oasis size and style ship, themed as Disney. I always thought Disney could have done amazing things with a split hull design, like Royals Promenade but Main-street themed! Sadly, I truly do believe if DCL buys this it is to keep it in Asia, but I see a lot of potential here.

 

[Kennywood]

 

[Jocelynaus]

^^ 100% agree, Gentring referred to it most often as 5000 capacity and ‘up to 9000’ if every pillow was filled.

The stateroom they have a video tour of has no bunks, just one king bed and a foldout king, so they only sleep 4 in double beds. Unlikely to ever hit 9000 capacity in that case.

Staterooms https://fb.watch/g4f42Ty_c5/

I assume the glass bathroom is for the display!

TBH I think the 9000 was to give it a “biggest in..” tag because it’s 20m shorter than the Oasis of the Seas.

 

[Kidguile]

DCL could keep capacity high on this ship by running the Disney+ offer or a kids sail free offer

 

[nikem3]

I think people are overlooking some key statistics in the design of this cruise ship..

The ship is just a tad smaller than Royal's Oasis-class ships (Which my family LOVES by the way, also Royal has 5 of these ships and has no issues filling them, I think Disney can handle 1 oasis-sized ship)

The Largest of these, the Wonder of the Seas has 2874 staterooms, but a "Capacity" of 6,600...how do they calculate that? Simple. They have 18 life boats that can hold 370 people each. (in case you are wondering, ships never have enough life boat space for all passengers and crew, they have inflatable life rafts to accommodate the difference in crew)

The Global Dream, in comparison, has 2350-2500 cabins (depending on which press release you read), and rather larger cabins than industry standard. Most cruise ship cabins are 14-17 sq m, Disney tends to be larger in the 15-18 sq m, the Global Dream has 20 sq m rooms.

So its basically an Oasis-sized Ship, with about double the number of staterooms of a Dream/Wish sized ship, but with cabins slightly larger than those in the Disney Magic/Wonder.

How do they claim 9,000 capacity? Well renderings show 20 life boats on the Global Dream. Its not to hard to believe they have slightly larger lifeboats that can hold 450 people each. But this also means to hit 9,000 people, almost every room on the ship would have to be filled with 4 people.

Asian families tend to travel as generational groups (kids, parents, grandparents), so if this is targeted at the Asian Market I can totally see 4-5 people per room, or up to 10 people in 2 adjoining rooms.

I can also easily see Disney setting the capacity as something closer to 6,000 with the usual 2-3 people per room occupancy they have on existing ships, that is IF they were thinking of bringing this to a US or European market. If they plan to keep it in Asia, then this may be exactly what they are lookign for.

Would this impact pricing on existing Disney cruises? I doubt it. The Asian cruise market is very different from the US one. Different economics & demographics. It would be comparing an apple to an orange.

I personally would love US-based, Oasis size and style ship, themed as Disney. I always thought Disney could have done amazing things with a split hull design, like Royals Promenade but Main-street themed! Sadly, I truly do believe if DCL buys this it is to keep it in Asia, but I see a lot of potential here.

If the rumors ARE true, I really hope it isn't just Asia-based. I'd very much love a Disney-styled Oasis of the Seas sailing around the Caribbean at least for part of the year. Seems like it could have so much potential.

 

[o&smom]

It is highly doubtful that Disney would ever buy this ship. Disney is extremely disciplined in their cruise capacity and keeping the ships and the entire line to a certain capacity where they can maintain the service and pricing. A ship of this size would be difficult to fill year around, and they would need to start the rampant discounting that all of the other cruise lines engage in to fill the ship.

I think the capacity would end up being reduced by quite a bit. DCL would need to remove many staterooms to put in all of the kid’s clubs at a minimum. They may even need more room to add main dining rooms if they plan to keep some form of rotational dining. I still think it would have more capacity than any other Disney ship, but much less than 9000.