Disney Believe —> Galveston?

[maui2k5]

Now that Disney is announced the new Disney Believe ship, what are the chances they berth this new ship in Galveston year-round? If Disney would like to make a splash with a permanent ship, that certainly would get a whole lot of attention for the Galveston port.

 

[OKW Lover]

I'd put those chances very, very low. It's more likely that any new ship would sail out of Florida, with port Canaveral being the front runner. That's because of the easy tie-in with the parks. I could see one of the Dream class ships being moved to Galveston permanently.

 

[jimmymc]

Pretty low. My guess is it will replace the Wish for the 3-4 night sailings out of Port Canaveral. The Wish could move to Galveston year-round, or they might move it to Ft Lauderdale and put one the Dream or Fantasy in Texas.

 

[Moonspinner]

I think one of the LNG ships will head for Galveston because Galveston has LNG liquefaction. However, Disney needs to figure something out with destinations because they can’t even fill the Magic out of Galveston due to destinations. No one wants to have one stop in a random Mexican port that doesn’t even have a decent beach.

 

[holula]

I can see Dream or Wish moving to Galveston. The Fantasy seems to sell ok in PC, and I can’t see Disney sailing a new ship out of a port where they don’t have a dedicated Disneyfied terminal.

Personally I think Believe will sail from PE, but I can see the arguments for PC and then put the Wish in PE running either 4/5/5 or 7 nights.

 

[hardcorestitch]

I just wish the cruise port in Norfolk, VA was large enough to handle a Disney ship… if they can handle Carnival… I “believe” they can get the Disney ships here too!

 

[DCL58]

Whenever I look at discounted DCL sailings, it seems most every sailing out of Galveston is heavily discounted. They can’t get enough people to fill up the Magic - doubtful they could fill up a larger ship sailing from that port. The decision to have a ship sailing full time from Galveston has always been puzzling to me.

 

[maui2k5]

Whenever I look at discounted DCL sailings, it seems most every sailing out of Galveston is heavily discounted. They can’t get enough people to fill up the Magic - doubtful they could fill up a larger ship sailing from that port. The decision to have a ship sailing full time from Galveston has always been puzzling to me.

Part of the issue for us (me, wife and girls 15/17) is Disney only brings the small ships year after year during the same time of year to Galveston. If you live in Florida you have multiple choices for ship types year round. I feel only bringing the Magic and Wonder drives down the volume and interest when they come to Galveston. We have been on the Wonder and Magic out of Galveston 5x in the last 14 years, but are not so interested in those ships anymore. We also live in the Houston area and our next two cruises are on the Dream and Destiny in 2026, not the Magic out of Galveston.

 

[holula]

Whenever I look at discounted DCL sailings, it seems most every sailing out of Galveston is heavily discounted. They can’t get enough people to fill up the Magic - doubtful they could fill up a larger ship sailing from that port. The decision to have a ship sailing full time from Galveston has always been puzzling to me.

I think Galveston can work IF they change up the ships periodically.

For instance, after the summer Europe season the Wish does her TA back to Galveston in 2027. Then she spends 1.5 years there. Then maybe summer 2029 she goes back to Europe and they move the Dream to Galveston for a couple of years. Then once the Dream has spent a couple of years there, maybe they send like the Destiny or something.

However Disney are stubborn and never seem to want to do this. I think if they don’t it will be another failure like Australia was.

 

[Nick&626]

I think there is almost zero chance the Believe will go to Galveston. The Wish is going to Europe for summer 2027, it's reasonable that the Believe will take over the 3-4 night Bahamas itineraries out of Port Canaveral.

 

[DCL58]

I think there is almost zero chance the Believe will go to Galveston. The Wish is going to Europe for summer 2027, it's reasonable that the Believe will take over the 3-4 night Bahamas itineraries out of Port Canaveral.

I think it is already announced that the Dream is taking over for the Wish in PC.

 

[towels]

West coast only gets Magic class ships, which I don't personally mind, but it would be nice if they brought some of the theme cruises (Marvel, Bluey) to both other sides of the country.

 

[holula]

I think it is already announced that the Dream is taking over for the Wish in PC.

The Dream is taking over at least while the Wish is in Europe.

 

[Sleepyluke]

For us the problem with Galveston is the length of cruise and no Disney island. So far it has only been available during crappy weather and to crappy ports. If you go to a 7 night as a real option, even if every 2nd 3rd cruise, however the math works out I think you get alot more people interested. We have done a Galveston that was 7 day back several years ago and wanted to do it again next year, but it is not an option. Even changing the dates would be a win for us. The current version of a probably cool-ish foggy first day with cool for day 2 then stop at a port nobody wants to go to for day 3 then turn around is more of the problem than the ship, at least for us. Maybe you get more interest at status quo for a different ship, but with almost every Wish sailing discounted now, I am not sure it is the homerun pick, but at least worth a shot.

 

[Nick&626]

The Dream is taking over at least while the Wish is in Europe.

Probably only because the Believe won't be ready until late 2027. We'll see. I predicted the Wish would end up in Europe over a year ago, let's see if I'm right about this too.

 

[SteveMouse]

The right place doesn't exist, but the ideal situation for Disney would be to build a hotel/DVC resort on an island like Grand Cayman, Jamaica, or Mexico that had a sufficient enough airport. The resort would have sufficient beach capacity to accommodate a couple of thousand extra people up to a couple of times a week (one way of doing this would be reduce overnight capacity one night a week). That way, Disney is maximizing utility of the property rather than it being used only once a week.

 

[Nick&626]

The right place doesn't exist, but the ideal situation for Disney would be to build a hotel/DVC resort on an island like Grand Cayman, Jamaica, or Mexico that had a sufficient enough airport. The resort would have sufficient beach capacity to accommodate a couple of thousand extra people up to a couple of times a week (one way of doing this would be reduce overnight capacity one night a week). That way, Disney is maximizing utility of the property rather than it being used only once a week.

I remember seeing a rumor on here a while back that Disney has purchased land on Cozumel. Haven't heard or seen anything about it since. Castaway/Lighthouse Point sees much more use than once a week; you have at least 4 ships using those ports year-round, with a few using them multiple times per week. They save a lot on costs by using the ship's crew for the majority of the port labor force, with only a handful of resident cast members.

 

[DCL58]

I remember seeing a rumor on here a while back that Disney has purchased land on Cozumel. Haven't heard or seen anything about it since. Castaway/Lighthouse Point sees much more use than once a week; you have at least 4 ships using those ports year-round, with a few using them multiple times per week. They save a lot on costs by using the ship's crew for the majority of the port labor force, with only a handful of resident cast members.

DCL has partnered with Kuza on Cozumel for tons of excursions. I suspect that is where the rumor originated.