Disney Cruise Line out of Tampa Bay!

[anniet]

We spent 2 days in St. Pete's Beach (1/19-1/20) before heading up to WLV on 1/21. We stopped at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa on our way and we took a behind the scenes tour at the Aquarium. The tour guide was mentioning all the kinds of ships in Tampa Bay and mentioned off-handedly that Disney Cruise Line just received a permit to dock a cruise ship there.

 

[Werner Weiss]

I'm always interested in rumors. When I read rumor, I like to analyze what the chances are that it's really true -- especially rumors that claim something has already happened, such as "Disney has begun construction of a new theme park in...[insert name of state here]."

Let's look at this rumor: "Disney Cruise Line just received a permit to dock a cruise ship there" (the Port of Tampa).

This one is highly unlikely to be true. Please consider:

• Disney has an underutilized asset at Port Canaveral where the impressive Disney Cruise terminal is only used three days per week.
• Disney has an underutilized asset in the Bahamas, where Disney's private island of Castaway Cay is only used three days a week -- and Port Canaveral, not Tampa, is the right place for departures to Castaway Cay.
• To meet the customer expectations that have have been set by Disney's cruise terminal in Port Canaveral, Disney would need to construct an equally impressive (and thus equally costly) terminal at the port of Tampa.
• There would be no financial benefit to Disney to use the Port of Tampa.
• Disney owns only two cruise ships, and has no new ships under contract (although that could change some day).
• Any plans by Disney Cruise Line that require a "permit to dock a cruise ship" would be public record, and it would be big news in the Tampa area newspapers and in the cruise industry news. But no such news has ever been published.
• I would not consider a Florida Aquarium tour guide to be particularly good source for such information.

Now having said all that, allow me to add that I wouldn't be surprised if Disney has made some sort of arrangements with the Port of Tampa to be able to use that port in an emergency (such as if a hurricane is headed for Port Canaveral).

Also, I'm not attacking anniet. Please continue to post anything you hear, anniet. And then allow the folks on this board to analyze the rumor.

 

[Figmentrocks]

Werner,

Your hurricane emergency point might very well be correct. Ships sailing from Tampa head out to the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico, so the odds of Disney sailing from Tampa seems very unlikely.

 

[anniet]

Originally posted by Werner Weiss
Also, I'm not attacking anniet. Please continue to post anything you hear, anniet. And then allow the folks on this board to analyze the rumor.

That's what I did Werner...I didn't take it as an attack at all

I just passed along what I heard and figured I'd let this board figure it out!