We just got off the Wonder's Hawaii cruise. It was a good cruise. Our captain was Captain Fabian. He was recently promoted from staff captain to overall captain. Recently he was on the Magic for a short time and before that in Germany working with the shipmakers on the Fantasy. He seemed to be willing to talk about future plans more so then others. One of our fellow DISboard cruisers has posted the following:
"Juicy" Rumors:
Okay, as with all rumors, we tend to take these with a grain of salt. The information came from multiple and from independent sources, so they struck a cord of genuineness with us. Suffice it to say that these were not communicated by the equivalent of a WDW "bus driver" :
1. The Magic and the Wonder are going in for extensive (six or more weeks) dry docks in 2013 and 2014 respectively. All of the restaurants and lounges on each ship will be gutted and rethemed. All public areas are being replaced. Although it will be impossible to duplicate all of what exists on the Dream and Fantasy, there will be a theme of consistency among all of the ships. Animator's Palate on both the Magic and Wonder will be reworked into the new version of the Dream and Fantasy.
I think this would be a shame if they are making all the ships the same inside. I like the idea of having slightly different restaurant themes as it give you something to look forward to when sailing on a different ship
2. Engineers are working very hard to add the Outlook Bar to the Magic, but because of the way it was built (apparently structurally different than the Wonder) it has so far been impossible to design and implement. If it can be done (a big if), it will be added in the next dry dock.
We loved the Outlook Bar on the Wonder but I hear that the Magic was built in two halves and welding together (a simplified version of the build, I am sure it was more complicated than that) but if they can't do it then they can't.
3. A new, permanent female manager is being hired for Palo on the Wonder. A new hire from another cruise line, she will replace the temporary, rotational manager system currently being used. (As an aside, Roy was our Palo manager and, even though he was temporary, he did a great job. Very professional.)
4.
DCL has already signed the options to build two new ships with the same German shipyard, even though there are denials to the contrary. DCL liked the efficiency and timeliness of the building of the Dream and the Fantasy. No public announcement will be made for some time, but the new ships will be smaller than the Dream and Fantasy, closer to the Wonder and Magic-sized ships (in the 90,000 to 95,000 ton range).
Yeh...love the idea of two more ships of the smaller size. The Magic and Wonder are ideal sizes for a comfortable cruising life.
Captain Fabian, during his talk, mentioned that the life of the Magic and Wonder will likely be between 30 and 35 years, which is actually about ten years longer than most ships. He attributes this longevity to the amount of constant maintenance that is ongoing. Although we experienced some hiccups, let's hope it was the exception and not the rule.
If you noticed you were missing 1000 square feet of carpet (or 500 screws or 20 gallons of paint) in the middle of the Atlantic... probably a lot worse than noticing while still being in dry dock in Italy. How much work can you really complete on a moving ship? With maybe bad weather in October/November? Maybe smaller works like they would do on a regular trip but likely nothing major especially nothing that needed larger machinery?
