One of the dominant themes in family-friendly cruising is "bigger is better," yet one popular cruise line has chosen to buck that trend with its newest ships. Disney Cruise Line announced Friday that three of its upcoming ships will be smaller than most of the ships in its growing fleet.
The cruise line is in the midst of a growth explosion as its fleet more than triples in size from the four ships it had before the addition of Disney Wish in 2022 to the 13 ships it plans to have in its fleet by 2031. It currently sails six ships, with two more scheduled to launch this year. Disney has now revealed that three of the upcoming new ships will actually be smaller than its most recent Dream Class and Wish Class ships.
The three ships scheduled to debut in 2029, 2030 and 2031 will form yet another new class of ships and will be only 20% larger than Disney's smallest ship, Disney Magic. That vessel is Disney's original cruise ship that first set sail in 1998. Disney Magic measures around 83,000 tons and can carry up to 2,713 passengers. The new ships will be able to carry up to 3,000 guests and measure approximately 100,000 gross tons.
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That means this new class of ships will also be about 30% smaller by gross tonnage and 25% smaller by passenger capacity than the line's Wish Class ships. Those ships include Disney Wish, Disney Treasure and Disney Destiny, the latter of which is scheduled to set sail later this year. It was also just announced that Disney will add a fourth ship to the Wish Class in 2027. This fourth, yet-to-be-named ship, like its classmates, will measure approximately 144,000 tons and accommodate up to 4,000 passengers.
By following the Wish Class with smaller cruise ships, Disney Cruise Line is moving in a different direction than the popular, family-friendly cruise line Royal Caribbean, which is building ever-larger "resorts at sea." That line now operates the world's largest cruise ship, Icon of the Seas, which can carry over 7,000 passengers; an equally big sister ship, Star of the Seas, will set sail this summer.
You might wonder why, then, Disney is going smaller with three of its coming ships.
While only Disney can answer that question with 100% certainty, we can spot obvious benefits to sailing slightly smaller ships. As some cruise ports add limits on cruise ship capacity, both on a per-day basis and a per-ship basis, having ships with fewer passengers on board could open up itinerary options that cruise lines with larger ships wouldn't have.
"As we expand our fleet, it is important that we continue to provide a variety of experiences for our guests. Families enjoy the diversity of vacations we offer, from
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