Mickey weighs anchor on new schedule
Disney Cruises to set sail with 5-ship fleet in summer 2023
ORLANDO, FLA. >> With a full five-ship fleet at its disposal, Disney Cruise Line is spreading the love with its deployment for summer 2023.
While new ship Disney Wish and Disney Fantasy will remain at Port Canaveral, instead of sending Disney Magic like normal, Disney Dream gets to travel across the Atlantic.
Disney Magic will stay in the Caribbean sailing both out of PortMiami but also some Southern Caribbean trips departing from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Disney Wonder will remain on the West Coast as it performs Alaska summer sailings.
“We are thrilled to have five ships at sea in summer 2023 with a wide array of destinations for families to enjoy,” said Sharon Siskie, senior vice president and general manager of Disney Cruise Line, in a news release.
Disney Wish is set to debut at Port Canaveral on July 14. It’s the first of three planned ships in the new Triton class. It recently left the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany and has been performing sea trials in the North Sea ahead of an official handover to the cruise line. It will arrive to
Florida in June for some preview sailings for cast members and media.
The 1,119-foot-long, 128-foot-wide ship comes in at 144,000 gross tons with 1,254 staterooms, compared to the 130,000 gross tons of Disney Dream and Fantasy and the 84,000 gross tons of the line’s two original ships Disney Magic and Wonder.
It’s the first new ship in more than a decade with the unnamed second and third ships in the class due in 2024 and 2025. When it arrives, it will take over the Disney Dream’s three- and four-night voyages to the Bahamas, including stops at Disney’s private island Castaway
Cay. That duty will continue through summer 2023.
Disney Fantasy will continue performing primarily seven-night sailings from the port, but will also offer one eight-night Bermuda and Bahamas sailing, one 10-night Southern Caribbean trip visiting Aruba and Bonaire, and one five-night sailing with two stops at Castaway Cay.
Disney Magic will perform three-, four-, five- and sevennight Caribbean and Bahamas sailings from Miami, but will migrate in May for an eight-night and 10-night trip to the Southern Caribbean from Puerto Rico visiting Curacao, St. Kitts, St. Lucia and Antigua among other ports. Some Bahamas voyages will feature two days at Castaway Cay.
Disney Dream is sizing up Disney’s game in Europe, with a 13-night trans-Atlantic voyage from Miami to Barcelona on May 7. The ship will spend the first part of the summer in the Mediterranean, also sailing from Civitavecchia, Italy, near Rome. Among its destinations are a first-ever seven-night Greek Isles sailing including stops in Santorini and Mykonos. Later in summer, the ship will sail out of Southampton, England, for voyages that hit Spain, France, the British Isles, Norway and Iceland.
New ports of call include
La Rochelle, France, and Skjolden and Sandnes in Norway.
Disney Wonder will migrate from San Diego on May 11 to begin mostly seven-night voyages from Vancouver, although it will offer one five-night and one nine-night voyage ending its Alaska season on Sept. 4.
Sales for the newly announced itineraries are not open to the general public until Monday, although existing customers and those with access through Adventures by Disney, Disney Vacation Club and other preferred membership groups can book now. For details, go to DisneyCruiseLine.com.