Disney Cruise Line’s new ship won’t be sailing from Port Canaveral until July, but it dipped its toes into the water for the first time.
The 144,000 gross-ton, 1,254-stateroom vessel has been under construction at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenberg, Germany since 2020, assembled in pieces in the massive covered dry dock, but saw the light of day in a slow hour-long float out that was accentuated with Disney’s signature fireworks once it made it all the way out.
The hull structure was completed in August, but work continued such as the installation of the two massive Azipod engines, but crews have been ready to flood the dry docks awaiting good weather conditions since last week.
Now, the ship is floating on its own as work continues likely for at least six more weeks before it’s ready for the slow tugboat-assisted conveyance on the Ems River, a 20-mile trip from the inland shipyard to eventually arrive in Eemshaven, Netherlands to prep for sea trials in the North Sea.
Disney this month announced the ship’s debut was being delayed by six weeks so its first sailing from Port Canaveral will be July 14. Citing delays at the shipyard partly because of the omicron variant of COVID-19, the cruise line had to cancel 12 sailings, working with customers to either rebook or refund deposits.
The delay isn’t the first as original plans before the pandemic slammed the cruise industry including shipyards had Disney Wish being delivered to the cruise line in December 2021 and its first sailing from Port Canaveral was to have been last month.
Now, though, work will continue on interior spaces of the ship and construction of some exterior features such as the AquaMouse, the signature water ride attraction on the top deck that’s a mashup between a Disney dark ride and the popular water coaster found on Disney Dream and Fantasy.
Disney Wish is the first of three ships in what is dubbed the Triton class with two unnamed vessels slated for delivery in 2024 and 2025 that will also be built at Meyer Werft. Disney Wish’s debut will come more than a decade since the maiden voyage of its last new vessel, Disney Fantasy, which first sailed with passengers in March 2012.
Disney Wish and the next two vessels will all run on liquefied natural gas. It will join Carnival’s Mardi Gras as the only two cruise ships to home port in North America to use the cleaner burning fuel.
The Wish is set to take over from the Disney Dream the three- and four-night voyages to the Bahamas including stops at Disney’s private island Castaway Cay. The Dream is moving to Miami on June 7 while Disney Fantasy remains at Port Canaveral for seven-night sailings.
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