Cruise Line Expansion Confirmed

[lrodk]

Disney Cruise Line is in talks with four European shipyards regarding a new shipbuilding program for its two-vessel Disney fleet, said DCL president Matt Ouimet.
The line is in discussions with France's Chantiers de l'Atlantique, Finland's Kvaerner Masa-Yards, Germany's Meyer Werft and Italy's Fincantieri. Fincantieri built the lines existing ships, Disney Magic and Disney Wonder.

Ouimet said he expects to formalize an order "within a year," with delivery slated for 2005. He declined to say how many ships are planned.

He added that Disney has a design team in place to plan construction of the ship(s), which would be "about 10% or 20% bigger" than the 83,000-ton Magic and Wonder, but below 100,000 tons.

Disney also is pondering where to deploy the fleet, with the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, Southern California and Alaska as possibilities.

 

[wdwguide]

It looks like the Cruise Line has been a great success after a slow start, and there is definitely demand for different routes. In my eyes, buying a couple more shps would be a good decision.

 

[lrodk]

With the eastern and western carribean covered right now, I would love to see a mediterranian cruise, with perhaps a possible side trip to Disneyland Paris, in much the same way they combine cruises out of port canaveral with 3 day stays at WDW. There are lots of exciting possibilities, including the other destinations that were mentioned.

 

[Werner Weiss]

Just two weeks ago, Disney Cruise Line was saying, "Just because we've formed a design team does not necessarily mean we are building a ship at this time."

Go to http://www.cruisecritic.com/bargains/cruisenews.cfm and click on "Disney May Add Ship."

There's short article there that includes new insight into the potential DCL fleet expansion. I won't copy and paste the entire article here because of copyright considerations. But here's an interesting paragraph:

Still, any possible expansion plan remains a pie-in-the-sky endeavor for now; [Mark] Jaronski says the team plans to investigate options for at least a year before making a decision about whether to go forward -- or remain a two-ship line. "Just because we've formed a design team does not necessarily mean we are building a ship at this time," he says.

Irodk, what was the source of you information? I'm not challenging the authenticity of the news; I'm just curious where and how it was announced.

 

[lrodk]

I read about it on 8/23 at TWCrossroads.com, a site dedicated to the travel industry. The author of the report interviewed cruise line president Matt Ouimet, who all but said it was a done deal. What they're doing right now is narrowing the field of shipbuilders to one or possibly two. I can understand your reluctance based on the other article, which saw them basically denying or unwilling to confirm anything. I guess they finally felt the time was right to come clean. Perhaps they didn't want to show their cards whilst in the midst of negotiations with the various shipyards. It could also be that Eisner gave the project the green light after DCL recently posted an increase of $9 million in revenue and a near 90% occupancy rate in the face of a struggling U.S. economy, which in and of itself is pretty remarkable. There's no other division within the company that grew at such an accelerated pace this past quarter.

 

[JimB.]

****sigh****

It would be nice if there was an American shipyard that could pull this off...........................


But new routes DOES sound cool!!!

 

[YoHo]

As Far as I know, The only American Shipyard Big enough to build a 100,000 ton ship would be Newport News and If I recall correctly, the brand new USS Ronald Reagan is being built there. (displacment of Nimitz Class is 97,000 tons).

I think Newport News would love the buisness, but the government has them locked up till at least 2003.

 

[Werner Weiss]

United States Lines is having two new 1,900-passenger, 72,000-ton cruise ships built in the United States -- in Pascagoula, Miss., at Ingalls Shipbuilding, a division of Litton Ship Systems.

These new ships, the largest ocean-going passenger vessels ever built in a U.S. shipyard, are scheduled to enter cruise service in Hawaii in 2003 and 2004. Because they'll be under U.S. registry and have a U.S. crew, these ships will be able to cruise intineraries that don't include foreign ports.

United States Lines currently is allowed to operate the ms Patriot (which is the former Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam) under U.S. registry -- even though it's not a U.S.-built ship.

Given that Ingalls Shipbuilding will be finished with the new builds for United States Lines on 2004, they might have production capacity to build ships for DCL. But it seems DCL has already narrowed their list of shipyards strictly to European companies.

I assume that ships under U.S. registry with U.S crews face higher operating costs -- as well as possibly costing more to build in the first place.

 

[YoHo]

Litton is a division of Northrop Grumman. In 2000 they underwent a major upgrade of the drydock facilities including a hug new boom Crane. That's why I missed them, up until that construction was/is complete, there was no other shipyard with big enough cranes.

Incidently, those cruise ships are Of Finnish and other non-US design.

 

[wdwguide]

What is the difference between American and foreign-built ships from a guest's point of view? I know absolutely NIL about the cruise business, so please pardon my ignorance.

 

[Werner Weiss]

What is the difference between American and foreign-built ships from a guest's point of view? I know absolutely NIL about the cruise business, so please pardon my ignorance.

Today the difference is that American-built cruise ships don't exist, for all practical purposes. American Hawaii Cruises operates the ancient (1951), American-built, 30,090-ton SS Independence. The 53,330-ton SS United States -- built for a staggering $70 million in the early 1950s -- is still around, but she's been out of service since 1969. There are American-built riverboats, such as the Delta Queen, and small ships offering Coastal Voyages.

But all those big, modern cruise ships operated from ports in Florida, California, Texas, Louisiana, and other mainland locations by companies such as Carnival, RCCL, NCL, Celebrity, Princess, Holland America and the other big names -- including Disney Cruise Line -- are foreign-built, foreign-registered ships. The itineraries must include foreign ports. That's why you don't see cruises from Los Angeles to Seattle or Miami to Charleston.

 

[gary]

My money is on a California-based cruise (coastal cruise, maybe down to Mexico) from the Long Beach area. It's a short hop from Disneyland (MUCH shorter than WDW/Canaveral), would tie the cruises with the expanded Disneyland resort (especially relevant if they go ahead with the 3rd park plans), and would serve a popular cruise route, with destinations already catering to cruise traffic.

Could they get their own island?

Just a thought...

Gary

 

[YoHo]

There was a bunch of rumous floating around that the western Caribbean cruise would allow them to move one ship through the Panama canal and run West coast cruises during the winter. It sounds like this option has become even more likely.

 

[Werner Weiss]

First, I agree the Southern California -- Long Beach or Los Angeles Harbor -- would be an excellent port for a new DCL ship (or for one of the existing ships, when a new DCL ship goes into service in Florida). First, California has huge population. Also, a tie-in with the Disneyland Resort is a natural.

gary asked:

Could they get their own island?

Even if a private island isn't available, Disney Cruise Line could potentially offer a private beach on Mexico's Baja California coast. Such a beach could offer a similar experience to Castaway Cay, even if it isn't on an island.

 

[gary]

...Disney Cruise Line could potentially offer a private beach on Mexico's Baja California coast.

I had considered that... it would be cheaper than trying to buy all of Catalina.

Gary

 

[Werner Weiss]

And Catalina Island isn't for sale. Most of the island is owned by the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy, which is preserving and protecting the island.

The islands of Channel Islands National Park aren't for sale either.

 

[gary]

Actually, I was kidding. I know about Catalina and the Channel Islands. But I was looking at a map and noticed a San Nicolas island. Know anything about it? It doesn' t seem to be part of the Channels. (Doesn't mean it's not protected - most of these places are one way or the other).

Just Wondering.

Gary

 

[gary]

Good Ol Google - found this in a flash:

San Nicholas, a.k.a. San Nick, is the most northwesterly of the four southern Channel Islands. Like its eastern neighbor,San Clemente Island, San Nick is a U.S. Navy owned and operated island. Above the water, San Nick is not a thing of beauty. Its desert island landscape coupled with exterior decoration by the Navy make this island an ugly duckling.

Okay - enough of this tangent!

Gary

 

[Werner Weiss]

Gary, I knew you were kidding about Catalina Isalnd.

There are also islands off Baja California. I don't know anything about these islands and their status, so I have have now idea whether DCL could lease one -- or whether they would even want to.