During this week’s earnings results webcast, a caller asked about the incremental capacity at the parks and attractions, specifically about timing and location of such projects. Bob Iger replied with the following statement which specifically referenced Disney Cruise Line.
I’ll take the first one on parks, timing, and location, you know, we’re already hard at work at basically determining where we’re going to place our new investments and what they will be.
You can pretty much conclude that they’ll be all over, meaning every single one of our locations will be the beneficiary of increased investment and, thus, increased capacity, including on the high seas, where we’re currently building three more ships.
And in a business that is obviously extremely positive to us, we may look expansively, at least in the next decade in that direction.
I’m not going to really give you much more of a sense of timing, except that, you know, we’re hard at work at getting these things, you know, basically conceived and built.
And we’ve got a menu of things that will basically start opening in ’25, and there’ll be a cadence every year of additional, basically additional investment and increased capacity.
Previously in the earnings result webcast, Hugh Johnson, the Chief Financial Officer for The Walt Disney Company stated, “Record-setting results this quarter were primarily driven by our performance at Shanghai and Hong Kong theme parks, continued strength at Disney Cruise Line, and the success of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 at our games business.”
On the surface, Iger referenced the 3 new builds: Disney Treasure, Disney Adventure, and the third Wish Class vessel. Then, continued what I believe is a reference to the cruise line and a hint at a further fleet expansion in the next decade beyond the 3 ships currently announced.
And in a business that is obviously extremely positive to us, we may look expansively, at least in the next decade in that direction.
At some point, there will likely be new builds announced to eventually take over and expand on the current inventory offered by the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder which are currently in their 25th and 24th years of services respectively.
Did I take Iger’s statement out of context? Maybe, maybe not. Only time will tell, but I wanted to put this out as something to keep an eye on. What do you think?
I hope that nothing takes over the Magic and Wonder. I love those ships. I honestly have found the Wish to be disappointing and am not really excited by the Treasure as the layout is the same as the Wish. As an adult traveling I find it lacking in adult areas. The first four ships are so much better at having spaces. Although I’ve been hearing lately that CMs aren’t actively keeping kids out of those spaces like they used to. Hopefully that is not a trend.
I agree. Being two adults (one of whom travels in a wheelchair), we were highly disappointed in the Wish. We couldn’t get a handicapped accessible stateroom and nobody told us or would give us a straight answer on where we could park the wheelchair at during the night, like how on the Magic/Wonder you can park it on deck 6 midship by the elevators or Dream/Fantasy deck 2 by Enchanted Garden. I had to fold it up after my mom got out of the chair and put it in our room, but there was very little space. To get to the adult areas were a joke. They were not ADA accessible. We were seated at a less-than-desirable table in the Frozen restaurant to the point where we couldn’t see the stage. I was so thankful that we were on a 4-night cruise and not a 7-night.
I have to agree about the Wish being accessible. At least in our case as well. My daughter is visually impaired and she found in it incredibly difficult to navigate the Wish. She does not have any issues with the other 4 ships.
I agree with Angie and Chrissy!
Build them, and we shall sail.
The Magic/Wonder capacity replacement theory does make some sense… but in itself may not be an expansion unless they are to be replaced by mega ships, so I could even see new builds beyond those two replacements. I am hopeful that DCL does keep one or two smaller ship in the fleet as it allows visiting unique destinations and port of calls, that larger ships can’t offer. With that said, DCL is also getting a taste of mega ships with the Disney Adventure so they may finally decide to play that game.
Agreed!
Build more ships and more itineraries because we will keep sailing !
I love the Wish, we are on it again in April, and booked the treasure for 2025. The new ships are much more accommodating, especially on the pool decks. I wouldnt want to go back to the old ships and the crowded pools and less then desirable food options. I’m not a fan of the mega ships, but the smaller ships just dont offer what kids want today.