New Disney Ships: News, Rumors, Speculation.....and Names!

[nmoody1]

I think it looks lovely.

Will be curious to see the other areas and just what they do with regard to dining (I can't see it being rotational).

This ship is going to break the mould of Disney Cruise Line - which after sailing the Wish I'm not adverse to. Yes this isn't the classics, but they are ships from a different Disney age. We aren't getting those back, same as you aren't getting parades in all 4 Disney World parks or Plaasure Islans or walk up dining reservations in the parks.

This feels like a Disney experience at sea - immerive areas and experiences for a market that loves the modern Disney IP.

This ship isn't necessarily designed for the DCL fan base - look at this as something different, something new. If it was designed for the average US/European Castaway Club member/Disney parks fan - it would have been all on show at D23. We are less than two weeks away from that event - they would have had the concept art and the information to share should they have wanted to. But, as indeed saying, for now (at least) this will be marketed so hard in Asia and the Treasure and Destiny shoukd create a nice distraction for the domestic market (bar some hard core fans that are going to go just for the bragging rights - myself invluded).

 

[o&smom]

I don't really think that's an upgrade tho? The space feels claustrophobic?

You wanted a mega ship, and now you think it’s claustrophobic!

 

[nalababybear]

I spoke with a CM at D23 at the DCL pavilion and she is training the staff on the Adventure (corrected ).

She thinks the 3-4 day cruises to nowhere are.perfect for the ship to show off all of its activities and things to do.

She admitted the 7 days with Port stops would be a nice option in the future once the initial surge of ship interest abates. Singapore is absolutely a destination city that warrants 3-4 days. The ship adds a reason to extend for a 7+ day trip now. Their tourism board knows what they are doing to capture longer stays and repeat ones too.

Disney got Adventure for a song and I bet Singapore home.port too. It's a great way to start a Pacific presence.

Clearly Orient thought so and placed their own order of ships to replicate same out of Tokyo.

 

[o&smom]

I spoke with a CM at D23 at the DCL pavilion and she is training the staff on the Treasure.

She thinks the 3-4 day cruises to nowhere are.perfect for the ship to show off all of its activities and things to do.

She admitted the 7 days with Port stops would be a nice option in the future once the initial surge of ship interest abates. Singapore is absolutely a destination city that warrants 3-4 days. The ship adds a reason to extend for a 7+ day trip now. Their tourism board knows what they are doing to capture longer stays and repeat ones too.

Disney got Treasure for a song and I bet Singapore home.port too. It's a great way to start a Pacific presence.

Clearly Orient thought so and placed their own order of ships to replicate same out of Tokyo.

I think you mean Adventure.

 

[peder]

You wanted a mega ship, and now you think it’s claustrophobic!

I'm just comparing the before/after of the Genting Dream design vs the Disney design. Disney's is too dark and makes the space look tiny. The railings on the balconies above make them appear like they're right on top of you. It feels like you could give someone on their balcony a high five as you walk past.

But also, my statements wouldn't be a contradiction? If I like mega ships, wouldn't I like spaces that appear big? I also don't like small ships with small spaces, so...? I don't really get your point.

I give Disney points for trying to do something unique... topiaries on a cruise ship seems fun. But I think it looks like Caribbean Beach / motel rooms? It doesn't look like an inviting balcony space at all.

 

[nmoody1]

I spoke with a CM at D23 at the DCL pavilion and she is training the staff on the Adventure (corrected ).

She thinks the 3-4 day cruises to nowhere are.perfect for the ship to show off all of its activities and things to do.

She admitted the 7 days with Port stops would be a nice option in the future once the initial surge of ship interest abates. Singapore is absolutely a destination city that warrants 3-4 days. The ship adds a reason to extend for a 7+ day trip now. Their tourism board knows what they are doing to capture longer stays and repeat ones too.

Disney got Adventure for a song and I bet Singapore home.port too. It's a great way to start a Pacific presence.

Clearly Orient thought so and placed their own order of ships to replicate same out of Tokyo.

Also makes business sense to start with shorter cruises to build uo a database of local followers and then entice them back with a longer cruise.

On the flip side also, there is more money to be made charging people for 2 cruises (1 3 night/one 3 night) to make a 7 night cruise which I'm sure many loyal fans will do a B2B if they do visit in the early days of operation.

 

[asgur5]

Because they're not relying solely on Singaporeans to fill the ship. Singapore is pretty much the centre of South East Asia, they get a LOT of tourists from countless Asian countries, India, Australia, New Zealand plus those from further afield in Europe, the UK and the US. You have some of the world's most populated countries within several hours flight time.

I apologise for the generalisation, but there are certain people that need to start realising the entire world doesn't operate the same way it does in the States, where the vast majority of people visiting Disney or going on the cruises are citizens of that country. I've seen comments on other sites that people "aren't flying all the way to Singapore for a cruise to nowhere". That's fine, because those people aren't the ones Disney is trying to target with this ship.

There arent enough tourists. Singapore tourists are around 13-16 million a year taking the combined population plus incoming tourists to around 19-25 million.

Australia on the other hand can only justify a ship with half the capacity of the Adventure for 25 percent of the year and its population is 27 million with another 9 million tourists. I.e. a total of 36 million population and incoming tourists.

Ie Singapore has only just over half the potential people as Australia but 8 times the annual capacity of DCL passengers. These numbers dont stack up.

 

[nmoody1]

There arent enough tourists. Singapore tourists are around 13-16 million a year taking the combined population plus incoming tourists to around 19-25 million.

Australia on the other hand can only justify a ship with half the capacity of the Adventure for 25 percent of the year and its population is 27 million with another 9 million tourists. I.e. a total of 36 million population and incoming tourists.

Ie Singapore has only just over half the potential people as Australia but 8 times the annual capacity of DCL passengers. These numbers dont stack up.

Australia is a little bit bigger than singapore - and more isolated.

 

[holula]

Australia is a little bit bigger than singapore - and more isolated.

I suspect there will also be Disney fans who combine the Adventure with Hong Kong Disneyland and potentially Shanghai too. Makes sense to hit all of them in one trip.

 

[OhThePain]

I suspect there will also be Disney fans who combine the Adventure with Hong Kong Disneyland and potentially Shanghai too. Makes sense to hit all of them in one trip.

I'm sure this is what Disney is hoping for too, but the problem with this logic is that it's over a 4 hour flight from Hong Kong to Singapore and over 5 hours from Shanghai to Singapore. Do many people pair trips to Disneyland with a cruise on the Wish out of PC? I'm not saying no one does, but Disney isn't filling the Wish with people visiting Disneyland twice a week. The Adventure seems like a nice ship and I'd be open to trying it, but it just seems Singapore is the wrong port to gain much traction as a 3 or 4-night cruise to nowhere.

 

[peder]

Right, it's just too far for the average person to consider visiting Hong Kong or Shanghai in the same trip as the Adventure.

But RE: concerns about population, there's another 23 million or so people living in peninsular Malaysia. So the area that can drive to the port has a population similar to Australia. And beyond that, they'll be drawing international travelers from the surrounding region.

 

[Lucien Franciosa]

I'm sure this is what Disney is hoping for too, but the problem with this logic is that it's over a 4 hour flight from Hong Kong to Singapore and over 5 hours from Shanghai to Singapore. Do many people pair trips to Disneyland with a cruise on the Wish out of PC? I'm not saying no one does, but Disney isn't filling the Wish with people visiting Disneyland twice a week. The Adventure seems like a nice ship and I'd be open to trying it, but it just seems Singapore is the wrong port to gain much traction as a 3 or 4-night cruise to nowhere.

That’s one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is do people often pair a DCL cruise with a visit to the nearest park? Yes. Even if I am sailing out of port Everglades I go to Orlando for WDW, 3 hours away. People who fly 20 hours half way around the world to go on a short DCL cruise could very likely combine with the nearest park 4 hours away as a bucket list item. Not saying the will sell a lot of tickets that way, but the will sell some.

 

[OhThePain]

That’s one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is do people often pair a DCL cruise with a visit to the nearest park? Yes. Even if I am sailing out of port Everglades I go to Orlando for WDW, 3 hours away. People who fly 20 hours half way around the world to go on a short DCL cruise could very likely combine with the nearest park 4 hours away as a bucket list item. Not saying the will sell a lot of tickets that way, but the will sell some.

The nearest park being a 1-3 hour drive from the cruise is one thing, the nearest park being a 4-5 hour flight is something different. That 3 hour drive is less time than you need to arrive at the airport PRIOR to the 4 or 5 hour flight. Most people who fly half way around the world are probably not going to want to go through the extra time or money it takes to add another flight and more running around, in a foreign country, for what amounts to 2 or 3 days on a ship (not counting embarkation or debarkation days) on a cruise to nowhere. As you said, some, yes, but enough to get a fair percentage of 6,000 passengers, twice a week? I'd highly doubt it. Singapore as a home port for DCL has shades of Star Wars Galactic Cruiser written all over it. Once the die-hards have their experience with the new ship, it's going to be a struggle to make sailings close to profitable. I wouldn't be surprised if in a year or 2 DCL finds (or builds) a home port a lot closer to Shanghi or Hong Kong for the Adventure.

 

[peder]

Even just the hassle of going through all the passport checks makes it not worth it. We spent an hour at Charles de Gaulle in Paris just going through the passport line to leave the country. This was after we had already gone through the regular airport checkin and security. I know this is typical outside of the US, but gosh it's so frustrating to have that extra check. And my experience with these checks right outside the international terminals is that they consistently have long lines.

I recall my airport experience in Shanghai and Beijing being similar? But that's been a decade so other folks might have a better idea how it works today. But basically if you were flying from Shanghai to Singapore, you'd want to plan on spending your whole day traveling. I assume it would be similar from Hong Kong, but maybe slightly more streamlined and a bit shorter flight.

But I really do think we've got this backwards. They are not expecting a large % of their customers to travel to the parks in the region. Instead I think Singapore is planning on becoming the Miami of SE Asia, and the ships will be the destination. I wouldn't be surprised if we see an Icon-type ship from Royal here, and I already suspect the MSC World Asia will also homeport there. This would follow all the work that Singapore is doing to consolidate and build up their cruise terminals. Maybe folks who have sailed out of Singapore could chime in on this? Since I haven't sailed out there yet, I have a hard time reading up on stories about Marina Bay expansion/consolidation.

 

[peder]

Most people who fly half way around the world are probably not going to want to go through the extra time or money it takes to add another flight and more running around, in a foreign country, for what amounts to 2 or 3 days on a ship (not counting embarkation or debarkation days) on a cruise to nowhere. As you said, some, yes, but enough to get a fair percentage of 6,000 passengers, twice a week? I'd highly doubt it. Singapore as a home port for DCL has shades of Star Wars Galactic Cruiser written all over it.

Strongly agree with this, except to say that Disney's breakeven on this ship will be a much different calculation than their other ships because they acquired it for very little and I think they've mostly made cheaper cosmetic changes after buying it. So this can be a longer-term bet for them--a chance to grow the Disney / DCL brand in SE Asia over the course of many years.

 

[Lucien Franciosa]

The nearest park being a 1-3 hour drive from the cruise is one thing, the nearest park being a 4-5 hour flight is something different. That 3 hour drive is less time than you need to arrive at the airport PRIOR to the 4 or 5 hour flight. Most people who fly half way around the world are probably not going to want to go through the extra time or money it takes to add another flight and more running around, in a foreign country, for what amounts to 2 or 3 days on a ship (not counting embarkation or debarkation days) on a cruise to nowhere. As you said, some, yes, but enough to get a fair percentage of 6,000 passengers, twice a week? I'd highly doubt it. Singapore as a home port for DCL has shades of Star Wars Galactic Cruiser written all over it. Once the die-hards have their experience with the new ship, it's going to be a struggle to make sailings close to profitable. I wouldn't be surprised if in a year or 2 DCL finds (or builds) a home port a lot closer to Shanghi or Hong Kong for the Adventure.

I’m not arguing Americans are going to fill the Adventure. Only 320,000 Americans visited Singapore last year after all, much less Shanghai. So the market is small. I’m arguing your statement is flawed that most Americans who cruise the Adventure WONT consider a ‘local’ park for the same reason most people who cruise out of Florida don’t combine with a California Disney land visit, why would they when there is Disney World? Your logic on that part is skewed. I’m arguing that many Americans that do consider the Adventure as a bucket list cruise will also cross off a local park. For a lot of Disney fans the goal is to visit all the parks, and for some DCL cruisers the goal is to sail on all the boats, there is an intersection of those groups and it will mean some American passengers for the adventure. But obviously the majority of the market is Asia.

By the way, I am one of those Americans that will do both. I’ve flown halfway around the world and taken side trips because it was easier than completely separate trips. That’s what I’m arguing.

 

[nalababybear]

Reason for Adventure is multifactorial as usual. Disney has low risk opportunity here to try new venture with huge upsides.

1. Acquired Adventure for a song. Literally. 80% completed already and at point of adding finishes which probably cost more than the purchase.

2. Singapore probably gave a sweet incentive package. Singapore tourism probably did the math. Currently most use Singapore as a gateway stopover with perhaps 2-4 days in the city country. They want to entice it to become 7 days+. A 3-4 day cruise will certainly help to this end and expand Singapore as a destination.

3. Gateway into Disney. Regional enticement for Disney. Much like Universal Studios Singapore getting 4M visitors a year to wet their appetite for more. Same for Disney.

I really don't believe Disney is targeting Americans with Adventure. They had literally nothing at D23 DCL pavilion on it. It was all Caribbean with the Wish class vessels.

 

[Flossbolna]

I really don't believe Disney is targeting Americans with Adventure.

Certainly not. They have a separate and very active DCL Singapore Instagram account which most certainly is geared to people from that region. It’s totally separate from the regular DCL account. This shows that this is its own thing entirely.

 

[nmoody1]

Bet Universal will be rubbing their hands together for anyone that wa to to tag a theme park onto a cruise!

 

[Mommb]

Singapore as a home port for DCL has shades of Star Wars Galactic Cruiser written all over it. Once the die-hards have their experience with the new ship, it's going to be a struggle to make sailings close to profitable. I wouldn't be surprised if in a year or 2 DCL finds (or builds) a home port a lot closer to Shanghi or Hong Kong for the Adventure.

This is from the initial press release (https://www.stb.gov.sg/content/stb/...gical-Cruise-Vacations-to-Southeast-Asia.html):
Under a recently signed Memorandum of Understanding, Disney Cruise Line and Singapore Tourism Board agreed to collaborate to homeport a brand-new Disney cruise ship exclusively in Singapore for at least five years beginning in 2025.

So while it is possible that if the Adventure sells well Disney could port another ship in southeast Asia, it is unlikely the Adventure will move elsewhere before 2030.