MEYER WERFT and Disney Cruise Line will continue their long and successful part-nership: the German shipyard will build four additional ships announced over the weekend at D23 that will join Disney Cruise Line’s fleet between 2027 and 2031, giving families more opportunities to experience the world-class dining, exceptional entertainment, and signature hospitality that Disney Cruise Line is kown for. The ship names, designs, and itineraries are still in development.
“We are very happy to continue our partnership with Disney Cruise Line and build four additional outstanding ships over the next seven years. We now have eight ships for Disney Cruise Line in our order book which reflects the trust in our capabilities and hard work of our team”, says Bernard Meyer.
“Our Disney cruise ships are the true ambassadors for our brands and beloved by fami-lies the world over,” said Thomas Mazloum, president, New Experiences Portfolio and Disney Signature Experiences. “As we embark on this ambitious and unprecedented expansion for Disney Cruise Line, we are delighted to work with Meyer Werft once again.”
MEYER WERFT and Disney Cruise Line have a longstanding relationship, that started with Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy, which were delivered in 2010 and 2012. In 2022, the first Wish-Class cruise ship Disney Wish was handed over to Disney Cruise Line. The two sister ships Disney Treasure and Disney Destiny are currently under con-struction in Papenburg and will be delivered in 2024 and 2025.
With this new order, MEYER WERFT has contracted 10 cruise ships, a research vessel and four offshore converter platforms, which will be delivered until 2031.
It’s official!
Hopefully they will built one or two ships along the lines of the current Magic & Wonder that at least will be bigger than the current ships but smaller than the Wish class, more along the boutique type for Alaska and Austalia and home port one or both on the West Coast, and plan multiple longer itineraries that many of us crave and book.
About the size of the Dream and Fantasy, then?
Dream Class and Wish Class have the same passenger count almost. I think Wish can hold 100 more. The size increase went into public spaces. However, I agree on the smaller sized ships. I enjoy the Magic class a lot more.
I do hope that the MAGIC & WONDER stay with the fleet, despite their age, as it is not the years but the days at sea that count. However, if they are ever replaced, we will have very fond memories. This does bring up a good point in that ships home ported in the Orient, Port Canaveral, Port Everglades, Barcelona, Dover and hopefully, year round in San Diego. We seem to be left out on year round cruising here on the west coast. While I do admit that west coast sailing are very limited compared to southeast coast, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan, Australia, Mediterranean, and Scandinavia. We should have alternative intenerates that could last longer than 7 days to Mexico by combining the Ensenada & Catalina to a 7 day Mexican Riviera cruise? More sailings to Hawai’i and back? A long cruise to Costa Rico? San Diego to Vancouver and Alaska? Panama Canal would be nice again.
I think year round service from both San Diego and Galveston are coming at the end of this expansion. I think those longer itineraries are in the cards. For Galveston, I would love them to sail to the Bahamas, hit the private islands, Walt Disney World, and then back. They used to sail this itinerary and it’s disappointing they stopped.
The MAGIC and the WONDER are our go-to DCL ships. They are very intimate and their crews are top notch. Of our many DCL cruises, all but one, on the Disney Fantasy, have been on these two ships. I would love to see DCL homeport a ship here on the West Coast. It could have a tie-in with Disneyland. San Francisco was recently removed from the San Diego-Vancouver repositioning cruise. San Francisco, with all of its natural beauties and man-made wonders, would be an excellent stop for DCL. San Francisco to Hawai’i and back, one can dream. I am glad DCL will increase the size of its fleet and make more dreams come true.
I sincerely hope they change the designs on these new ships. The very fact that they had someone who had never cruised design the ship still baffles me. I love the Magic and Wonder and I hope that they keep them and consider how lovely the adult areas are on those ships and the Fantasy and Dream. I do not like the adult areas on the Wish. I also miss the promenade deck on the Wish. I don’t like the two elevator areas either. There are just so many things I’m not a fan of. I think Cabanas is better than Marceline market. While the food is better on deck, there is not much eating space. So Marceline is so crowded. Anyway. Not jumping up and down until I see more about these new ships and see if Disney has listened to feedback.
AD68 – You summed it up perfectly.
I totally agree with you, the thing i love about the Wish is the beautiful Atrium, big and spacious. Also agree that Cabanas is way better, i also feel they need to make the dining area a big bigger, on the Wish, The Marvel dining, they need to take the carpet out, people were having a hard time getting in and out of their chairs, and your always bumping into everyone, way to crowded.. and with the dining areas without the carpet, i think things would look better, and easier to clean. I DO NOT like the adult area too, on the 4 first ships, it feels more cozy and more alone time for adults, and love the location on the front of the ships, on the Wish, it does not belong on the Aft, and my opinion, don’t like where the cove cafe is, and the pool, you still don’t have enough room to go and enjoy that Mickey pool when everyone is there. Oh, i also don’t care for the spa area on the wish, in the front of ship where the rainforest area is for adults to enjoy alone time, i don’t like how the top part is open for just anyone to walk around and look down to see what the adults are doing. Anyways, i could go on forever, but everyone is going to find something they do not like but Disney does need to make changes eventually to the Wish, and hopefully there new ships will be better and hope the developers put more thought in what people want on these cruises.
I agree with all comments above. Being 70+ and a life long Disney fan I really enjoyed the first four ships, especially the Wonder. We recently traveled on the Wish and found mobility a challenge with all the different level and poor signage to ramps and accessible entries. On the last evening we discovered the bow section of the Wish is where the ramps were for the pool decks. I hope the new ships are not big hotels that happen to be on the water. They need to bring the walking decks back as on the Wonder and Magic. Remember guys it’s an ocean cruise not an on land resort. Looking forward to new designs to see if passenger feedback is truly effective.
I agree with Deann and AD68. Will continue to cruise on the first 4 ships as long as they are in service and kept well maintained; have no interest in the Wish class.
I wonder if they’ll make smaller ships to go through the Panama Canal
With the new locks even the Disney Wish could transit through the Panama Canal. Max ship length for the new locks is 1200ft, Disney Wish is just over 1100ft (1119 to be exact).
Yes you’re right, technically ALL the DCL ships can go through the new Expanded Canal locks now, however the biggest obstacle is the height, since the Dream and Wish class ships are too tall to fit beneath the Bridge of The Americas on the Pacific side of the Canal. The Magic & Wonder are the only DCL ships that can fit under it. That’s why I’m hoping they’ll build some NEW comparibly sized ships to replace the Magic & Wonder that can continue sailing through the Panama Canal. I have mentioned in previous posts that DCL has re-registered the names Wonder & Magic for new builds, this isn’t technically OFFICAL from DCL but it’s more or less been spread around through crews and other higher ups at the company, they obviously are keeping from announcing it publically for now. They may not use them again but I think creating new bigger ships (than the Wonder & Magic currently are) yet keeping them smaller than the Wish class ships could open up a whole new market for longer itineraries that some of the high end cruise lines like Viking, and Seven Seas do with their “boutique” style ships do.
Doesn’t say which Meyer Werft yard they will be built in.
I wonder if they’ll go to Wismar and that will be the Disney Shipyard as it were?
With the promise of 4 ships in 5 years, it sounds as if they may need to use two shipyards and build simultaneously. Maybe they will use Wismar as well as Papenburg! It will be interesting!
Wishmar is currently leased to Meyer for the completion of the Disney Adventure. MV Werften Wishmar was sold to TKMS in 2022.
We need a bigger Castaway cay also like Royal has, that would be great. Please think about it.
Wismar is not planned as a shipyard for cruise ships. The former MV Werften plant in Wismar will be sold to a TKMS consortium to construct new submarines for the german navy.
Thanks.
In a way, 4 ships on the bounce in Papenburg makes life a lot easier for MW. No rejigging between ships, assuming they are consecutive builds.
From what I’ve read via google translate is that this should secure MW for years to come.
Do we know how much the order total is? That might give us an idea on size…
We, also, love the two oldest ships. They feel like home to us when we board them. Disney is slowly outpricing us from future cruises with them.