Disney bucks a big trend in family travel by going smaller with 3 new ships

One of the dominant themes in family-friendly cruises is “bigger is better,” but one popular cruise line has chosen to buck that trend with its newest ships. me. Disney Cruise Line announced Friday that three of its upcoming ships will be smaller than most of the ships in its growing fleet.

The cruise ship is in the middle of one growth explosion as their fleet is more than three times the size of the four ships they had before adding Disney Wish in 2022 to the 13 ships they plan to have in their fleet by 2031. They currently operates six ships, with two more scheduled to launch this year. Disney has now revealed that three of the upcoming new ships will actually be smaller than its most recent Dream Class and Wish Class ships.

The three ships scheduled to launch in 2029, 2030 and 2031 will form another new class of ships and will be only 20% larger than Disney’s smallest ship, Disney Magic. That ship is the original Disney cruise ship that first sailed in 1998. The Disney Magic weighs about 83,000 tons and can carry up to 2,713 passengers. The new ships will be able to carry up to 3,000 passengers and have a gross weight of about 100,000 tons.

Related: Disney Cruise Line ships are ranked from largest to smallest

That means this new type of train will also be about 30% smaller in total tonnage and 25% smaller in passenger capacity than the line’s Wish Class ships. Those ships include Disney Wishes, Disney treasures And Disney’s fateThe second is expected to sail later this year. It was also just announced that Disney will add a fourth ship to the Wish class in 2027. This fourth, as-yet-unnamed ship, like its sister ships, will have a tonnage of approximately 144,000 tons and a capacity accommodates up to 4,000 passengers.

By going Desirable Class with smaller cruise ships, Disney Cruise Line is going in a different direction from popular, family-friendly cruise line Royal Caribbean, which is building “resorts at sea” ” is getting bigger and bigger. That line now operates the world’s largest cruise ship, Symbol of the seacan carry more than 7,000 passengers; An equally large ship, the Star of the Seas, will set sail this summer.

You might be wondering why Disney is scaling back with three ships coming out.

While only Disney can answer that question with 100% certainty, we can see clear benefits to sailing slightly smaller ships. As some cruise ports add limits on cruise ship capacity, both by day and on a per-ship basis, having ships with fewer passengers can open up cruise options that cruise lines cannot afford. Schedules with larger ships will not be available.

“As we expand our fleet, it is important that we continue to offer a variety of experiences to our customers. Families enjoy the variety of holidays we offer, from classic ships to our Wish Class ships, they also look forward to exploring a variety of ships,” Thomas Mazloum, president of New Experiences Portfolio & Disney Signature Experiences, said in a statement.

Additionally, as Disney doubles down on onboard experiences that only it can offer using its characters and stories (such as the Haunted Mansion bar on Disney Treasure), the opening Extending some of that experience to meet the requirements of superships will pose real challenges.

For example, there is only one Mickey Mouse and he cannot be in two places at once on a ship. Can Disney satisfy every visitor’s need to take pictures and hug their favorite character or princess with larger cruise ships and passenger numbers?

It’s also possible that to maintain its current above-average pricing model, Disney is choosing ships with fewer cabins that can be easily sold at higher prices instead of building ships with many cabins that will be difficult to fill. fuller if current high demand for quality. Cruises will soften in the future.

Finally, with the line’s original ships, the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder, approaching 30 years of service by the time these three new ships launch, Disney may not only be able to introduce additional smaller ships for fleet but also replace the existing smallest ships with several smaller ships. get a little older and can take over their journey.

All that said, it’s not just about Disney’s smaller ships. The shipping line will receive its largest ship ever, Disney Adventuresat the end of this year.

This ship will compete with Royal Caribbean’s super ships as it can accommodate up to 6,700 passengers. However, this is a ship built for the Asian market and will be headquartered in Singapore. Disney purchased the midsize ship from another cruise line.

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