When should Disney sink the Magic & Wonder?

[maria-fan-22]

From what I can tell cruise ships last about 50 years before the cost of refurbishing is more then the revenue received. Disney will probably sell them at 30-40 years. Unless they feel that keeping the original ships alive for longer even if they do start loosing money with them.

 

[lovethedream]

Have we become that jaded that the Magic and the Wonder are "old"

Look at the QE2, that ship was still in service until the end. People still wish the ship was in service.

As a few PP's have stated you have a long time with the Magic and the Wonder in service for Disney. They will definately sell them before scraping them.

I can't recall the last time a cruise ship was sunk because it got "too old"

I am sure Disney will think of something Magical to do with those ships but you will have to wait another 30 to 40 years at least to see that.

There have been several threads where this has been discussed, and at length. In the end, I believe we will see these ships around for another 20 to 30 years, at least. In comparison, when we sailed on the Freedom a few years ago, I was surprised to find out she was younger than the Wonder as we thought the Wonder was in better shape. Now to be fair, we may have caught one coming out of drydock versus one gettig ready to go into drydock, but still. After that experience, while I find the subject interesting, I pretty much ignore the age of a ship when looking to book. As a matter of fact, we recently sailed on a 20 year old Carnival ship Ecstasy and she was in pretty good shape.

I try not to worry about things I cannot control, and when the Magic will be retired I will say I have very little say so over.

 

[lovethedream]

If the Magic and Wonder are ever "disposed" of, it won't be via sinking them to create an artifical reef. As others have observed, that is only done for vessels that can be economically stripped of hazardous materials, which is why most artificial reefs are made from smaller ships (fishing or cargo under 15,000 tons), not huge passsenger ships.

The ultimate fate of the original DCL ships is almost inevitably going to be scrapping. That will likely come long after they have left the DCL fleet and gone throuigh second-third-fourth careers as cruise vessels run by niche lines in less developed markets.

The sad thought here is scrapping is never pretty and has become uglier, now that most of it is conducted in the Far East in countries with weak environmental and safety guidleines. Here are some examples of what that looks like in Alang, India:

They actually had a tv show about this very subject and showed it from the grounding of the ship to the end. It was not the same ship but various ships in different stages of scrapping. Sad to see any ship meet that fate.

 

[CandyMandy]

Older cruise ships are frequently sold to other cruise lines, then refurbished, and re-named. This is what happened to the France, for example. The ship sails under the new name, and at the end of its' useful life is sailed away and wrecked at a commercial wrecking yard.

Re: the France (which ended it's life as the "Blue Lady," after being the NCL Norway. It was not just "sailed and wrecked at a commercial wrecking yard."

Google that particular ship and you will walk through an absolutely horrific tale, involving illegal sale and movement of a ship full of hazardous materials, political battles over the latter that went all the way up the Indian Supreme Court and the grim world of manual shipbreaking in Alang, where poor, barefoot ship wrecking workers are exposed to just about every form of cancer-causing material known to man.

At the beginning:

At the end:

 

[MarkRG]

And, that right there is one big difference.

The problem and reasoning behind scrapping a lot of the classic older ships had to do with changes in the rules to the point that it became too expensive to refit them.

Also, a lot of them were built when the industry was simply unaware of the fact a lot of materials involved were hazardous.

The Magic and Wonder are both built to much tighter standards and with the awareness of the materials involved to the point they will probably have a far longer service life than older ships. Will their entire life be with DCL? No guess there, but I'd expect they'll keep them for a very long time yet.

 

[peabody58]

Turn them into floating DVC's!!

 

[it398]

They have a lovely unused dock at Hongkong Disneyland Resort, right next door to the HKDisneyland hotel. I think it would make a great third hotel at the resort.

 

[mkmommy]

If DCL can command the rates that people are booking at today the Magic and Wonder will be around for some time.

 

[tvguy]

Re: the France (which ended it's life as the "Blue Lady," after being the NCL Norway. It was not just "sailed and wrecked at a commercial wrecking yard."
Google that particular ship and you will walk through an absolutely horrific tale, involving illegal sale and movement of a ship full of hazardous materials, political battles over the latter that went all the way up the Indian Supreme Court and the grim world of manual shipbreaking in Alang, where poor, barefoot ship wrecking workers are exposed to just about every form of cancer-causing material known to man.
At the beginning:

At the end:

I sailed the Norway twice. I genuinely believe she would still be sailing today if it hadn't had that boiler explosion. Maybe not as the Norway, but that ship, like the Disney ships, had a loyal following of repeat cruisers.

 

[Gdes1]

How sad! I can see doing that with the "wedding cake" design ships which, IMHO, are a dime a dozen, but something special would have to be done with the Magic. Our first and so far only cruise has been on the Magic and I cried when we had to get off! I cried when I heard the horn blow as she was leaving again (we were in a hotel across from the port). And, since we got home, I have been trying to find a way to get back to her.

I think they should make a hotel at CC and find a way for people to get on and off of CC using other ships and get to stay on CC for a few days by sleeping and eating on the Magic.

 

[Gdes1]

Oh, and I forgot to say...when we tendered into Grand Cayman, the Magic was BY FAR the most beautiful ship in the harbor. It was awesome to pass by the others and go to her.

 

[TotallyAngelic]

I don't even want to think about this subject

Hopefully they both have many years of service ahead of them.