DCL Buys Unfinished Mega Cruise Ship - Genting Golden Dream ???

[monothingie]

I wonder what that really means, "not suitable for 'western' cruise markets." Are the rooms smaller? Casino? Lots of red paint and pictures of Xi?

What exactly could be different on an "eastern" cruise ship?

I believe the main differences are passenger density and on board amenities.

For example, in Asian markets guests are more likely to travel in multi-generational groups, meaning that connected guest cabins or suits are more likely to be incorporated into the design. Additionally, there is more focus on indoor amenities versus outdoor. Royal Caribbean for example differentiates the Spectrum of Seas which was specifically designed for the Chinese market to incorporate more indoor features while removing traditional outdoor features common in the rest of their fleet. Other examples include everything from choice of on board shows to the interior design color palettes.

It will be interesting to see how much Disney changes to bring it inline with the rest of the fleet. But given the ship is 75% complete, I don't know how much they will deviate from the overall original design in terms of number of cabins and signature features.

 

[monothingie]

I was under the impression it is mostly cosmetic. Dining, entertainment and activities geared towards Asian guests. Although I believe many of the ships out there were designed to cater to cruises in both warn and cold climates.

RCL is not doing China in 2023, if that says anything...

Royal Caribbean Not Returning to China Anytime Soon - Cruise Industry News | Cruise News

The Royal Caribbean Group is not returning to China in 2023, said the company’s President and CEO Jason Liberty. Instead, Royal Caribbean is now expecting to resume operations in the Asian country before the end of 2025, he added during Thursday’s third quarter earnings call. Previously an...

www.cruiseindustrynews.com

I think that's also why you see the late 2025 planned entry to service. Disney is clearly looking to take its time with this. Icon of the Sea for comparison is not as far along construction wise, but is already available for booking for January 2024 sailings.

Don't discount construction delays (cough Wish cough) and that the plan today may not be the plan next year or the year after that.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I believe the main differences are passenger density and on board amenities.

For example, in Asian markets guests are more likely to travel in multi-generational groups, meaning that connected guest cabins or suits are more likely to be incorporated into the design. Additionally, there is more focus on indoor amenities versus outdoor. Royal Caribbean for example differentiates the Spectrum of Seas which was specifically designed for the Chinese market to incorporate more indoor features while removing traditional outdoor features common in the rest of their fleet. Other examples include everything from choice of on board shows to the interior design color palettes.

It will be interesting to see how much Disney changes to bring it inline with the rest of the fleet. But given the ship is 75% complete, I don't know how much they will deviate from the overall original design in terms of number of cabins and signature features.

I'm actually surprised that Disney and other primarily-Caribbean ships don't offer more accommodation choices for families. The Icon of the Seas has some family cabins with a King, full fold-down, and twin bunk beds that can accommodate 6, but the pricing on them is absolutely insane, way more than double the cost of two regular cabins and nowhere near double the square footage. I don't understand the economics of it.

 

[monothingie]

But I've also seen it heavily implied that the reduction from the initial intended capacity of 9,500 to "only" 6,000 was because it wasn't going to Asia.

So getting more information on this. There are two numbers to consider. Max Passengers and Double occupancy. I'm not sure if it was clarified that the max passenger number was the 6000 or 9500 since commonly the double occupancy number is used to denote cruise ship capacity.

 

[sanctumsolitude]

This ship was designed with larger staterooms than industry average featuring a split bath so the staterooms fit nicely into Disney's stateroom design (structurally). They also advertised eight onboard theaters when this ship was first announced. Obviously there is a lot of retrofitting/redesigning of the décor and interiors to match the higher quality expectations of Disney, but structurally it sounds like it fits the Disney design philosophy from a high-level. The exterior isn't quite as graceful as Disney generally designs (that transition to balconies is abrupt).

This ship compares very closely to Royal Caribbean's Oasis line. It features less staterooms so it is likely that the actual occupancy will be quite a bit less than the maximum on any given cruise.

	Disney New	Oasis of the Seas	Disney Wish
Gross Tonnage	208,000	226,838	144,000
Number of Staterooms	2,350	2,796	1,254
Maximum Occupancy	6,000	6,699	4,000
GT/Maximum Occupancy	34.66	33.86	36

 

[CaptainAmerica]

This ship was designed with larger staterooms than industry average featuring a split bath so the staterooms fit nicely into Disney's stateroom design (structurally). They also advertised eight onboard theaters when this ship was first announced. Obviously there is a lot of retrofitting/redesigning of the décor and interiors to match the higher quality expectations of Disney, but structurally it sounds like it fits the Disney design philosophy from a high-level. The exterior isn't quite as graceful as Disney generally designs (that transition to balconies is abrupt).

This ship compares very closely to Royal Caribbean's Oasis line. It features less staterooms so it is likely that the actual occupancy will be quite a bit less than the maximum on any given cruise.

	Disney New	Oasis of the Seas	Disney Wish
Gross Tonnage	208,000	226,838	144,000
Number of Staterooms	2,350	2,796	1,254
Maximum Occupancy	6,000	6,699	4,000
GT/Maximum Occupancy	34.66	33.86	36

How does that number of staterooms square with that maximum occupancy? Can't all Disney staterooms sleep at least 3, and some of them 4 or 5? I would expect Maximum Occupancy to be at least 3x number of Staterooms.

And how would they have ever gotten 9,500 people onto there?

I'll be very sad if this thing is loaded up with 5- and 6-person family rooms and never makes it to the West.

 

[monothingie]

This ship was designed with larger staterooms than industry average featuring a split bath so the staterooms fit nicely into Disney's stateroom design (structurally). They also advertised eight onboard theaters when this ship was first announced. Obviously there is a lot of retrofitting/redesigning of the décor and interiors to match the higher quality expectations of Disney, but structurally it sounds like it fits the Disney design philosophy from a high-level. The exterior isn't quite as graceful as Disney generally designs (that transition to balconies is abrupt).

This ship compares very closely to Royal Caribbean's Oasis line. It features less staterooms so it is likely that the actual occupancy will be quite a bit less than the maximum on any given cruise.

	Disney New	Oasis of the Seas	Disney Wish
Gross Tonnage	208,000	226,838	144,000
Number of Staterooms	2,350	2,796	1,254
Maximum Occupancy	6,000	6,699	4,000
GT/Maximum Occupancy	34.66	33.86	36

Disney has not been very clear about that 6000 number and specifically stating it being the max occupancy. I don't think it's unintentional that the original design had a MAX occupancy of 9500 and a Double Occupancy of 6000, but now only the 6000 number is being used publicly.

 

[sanctumsolitude]

Disney has not been very clear about that 6000 number and specifically stating it being the max occupancy. I don't think it's unintentional that the original design had a MAX occupancy of 9500 and a Double Occupancy of 6000, but now only the 6000 number is being used publicly.

No, 6000 was not the double occupancy. Double occupancy was 4,700. In the past Disney has used the maximum capacity when talking about the capacity of their ships (e.g. Disney Dream was touted as 4,000 passengers). However, your point remains that Disney has not made it clear what the 6,000 refers to.

I have no clue how this ship was supposed to handle 9,000+ passengers previously. That number is insane for the gross tonnage and number of staterooms.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Global Dream was design for the Hong Kong market. If it is now bought by Disney, then make sense to hv an itinerary to start from Hong Kong, hopping Shanghai and Tokyo, connecting all resorts together. What an experience.

Are you thinking that each resort would be an excursion? It certainly couldn't be three on-boardings.

 

[raymusiccity]

This seems like a no brainer. They get a ready made superstructure and can fit it however they like and get it launched far sooner and cheaper than a full build.

Some of the comments here seem to think they've bought a fully kittted out ship and it wont look like a Disney ship - far from it, its a big empty box right now, they can fit the whole thing out however they see fit. Chances are its going to be a European cruiser so once done will be very much in their current style (although maybe with a bit of insulation and heating tweaks for when its freezing cold!).

Everyones a critic but come on, we've got basically nothing to go by, speculating that it's going to be awful or in some way hampered because its partially built is pretty silly at this early stage of development.

It's amazing all of the expert opinions coming out of the woodwork. I haven't seen one photo of the 'innards' of this ship. Is this really a 'big empty box'? The photo released from dry dock, shows a cruise ship already painted and seemingly ready to go. ... (of course, this is a 'bus driver' type of comment as well.) I think there's a significant amount of details that will be revealed in the coming weeks.

 

[peter11435]

It's amazing all of the expert opinions coming out of the woodwork. I haven't seen one photo of the 'innards' of this ship. Is this really a 'big empty box'? The photo released from dry dock, shows a cruise ship already painted and seemingly ready to go. ... (of course, this is a 'bus driver' type of comment as well.) I think there's a significant amount of details that will be revealed in the coming weeks.

I wouldn’t expect additional details for a while.

There can be a huge difference between how a ship looks inside and out. When the Wish initially left Papenburg it looked ready to go but was still nowhere near finished inside.

It’s not exactly a big empty box but likely inside the interiors are not finished. Think bare steal and conduit. So a lot can be altered regarding how these spaces are finished.

 

[monothingie]

I wouldn’t expect additional details for a while.

There can be a huge difference between how a ship looks inside and out. When the Wish initially left Papenburg it looked ready to go but was still nowhere near finished inside.

It’s not exactly a big empty box but likely inside the interiors are not finished. Think bare steal and conduit. So a lot can be altered regarding how these spaces are finished.

Except if the rough in work for say the guest cabins is done already, changing that is not an easy or cheap thing.

Enough of the ship is built to safely say the overall configuration of a lot of the ship is locked in.

The big work Disney has is modifying signature features, amenities, and aesthetics to bring it inline with the DCL brand.

 

[deix15x8]

No, 6000 was not the double occupancy. Double occupancy was 4,700. In the past Disney has used the maximum capacity when talking about the capacity of their ships (e.g. Disney Dream was touted as 4,000 passengers). However, your point remains that Disney has not made it clear what the 6,000 refers to.

I have no clue how this ship was supposed to handle 9,000+ passengers previously. That number is insane for the gross tonnage and number of staterooms.

It was supposed to be a lot of 3rd, 4th, and more in each cabin. That's more common in the asian market than the US where people often book multiple cabins for families (Disney is kind of an exception to that). If you look at the Icon of the Seas it's significantly higher for the maximum capacity than Oasis class despite double not being much more because they went all in on families and made most cabins support more than 2 people. Icon of the Seas is 5,600/7,600 compared to Oasis' 5,606/6,699 despite only being about 23,000 GT larger. The double is nearly identical and the maximum is 2,000 additional vs 1,000 additional purely because of the number of cabins given extra berths. That's part of what made MV Global Dream's 6,000/9,500 stat seem so crazy when announced since she is smaller than the Oasis Class yet has such a massive difference between her two figures. That variance is actually really bad for a ship, Royal Caribbean is being incredibly strict on the 3 or more in any cabin that allows it rule which is making the ship sell out quickly while being empty since most book for 2. The ship has to be designed for a number though, and if the capacity fluctuates massively it becomes impossible to design the capacity of the spaces or even operate the vessel since the needs can vary so much week to week.

 

[deix15x8]

This seems like a no brainer. They get a ready made superstructure and can fit it however they like and get it launched far sooner and cheaper than a full build.

Some of the comments here seem to think they've bought a fully kittted out ship and it wont look like a Disney ship - far from it, its a big empty box right now, they can fit the whole thing out however they see fit. Chances are its going to be a European cruiser so once done will be very much in their current style (although maybe with a bit of insulation and heating tweaks for when its freezing cold!).

Everyones a critic but come on, we've got basically nothing to go by, speculating that it's going to be awful or in some way hampered because its partially built is pretty silly at this early stage of development.

This is far from an empty box. It was started in 2018 and was to be delivered in 2020 until the pandemic shut things down resulting in the line and ship yard going bankrupt. Most of the work at the end is visual so ships go a long distance to completion in the last weeks, but structurally they are locked in long before then. She was nearly done at that point. Once the steel is being cut your blank sheet is gone. At this stage her insides are already complete but not fully furnished, they have to view this more like a dry dock where they can renovate the ship, not as a new build. All of the structural steel is in place and everything has been balanced to ensure strength and stability of the vessel. If there is a large open space they can potentially fill it in, but have to balance that weight somewhere else to keep the ship stable and potentially even have to modify the hull to counter the added weight (why some ships receive duck tails after large dry docks). If they want to create a large space, that is nearly impossible at this point without massive work which would cost more than a new build by the end. You can't just cut away all of the structural beams as that is a fundamental design element. A ship is very different from a building.

 

[Elijah Abrams]

Is there time for Disney to change the planned amenities and interior designs of the ship, when it was going to be the Global Dream, in order for it to be on-par with the other members in the Disney Cruise Line ship fleet?

 

[deix15x8]

Is there time for Disney to change the planned amenities and interior designs of the ship, when it was going to be the Global Dream, in order for it to be on-par with the other members in the Disney Cruise Line ship fleet?

Cabin installation started in 2019 and they are already furnished when installed. They would have to renovate each room to replace the carpets and change the paint. The public spaces of the ship are done structurally, but likely lacking most furnishings so supplies may have been ordered (I'd expect that to be a shipyard loss figured out in the contract), but they could be changed. The extended amount of time (long enough to build an entire cruise ship) is because of the work to strip and redo so much of the furnishings.

 

[Green Fox]

If you believe this article, which was written several months ago, long before Disney came in to the picture (at least publicly), this ship has to go to Asia, as the current design is not suitable for Europe or the US due to "port regulations, environmental codes, safety features, and more."

 

[DCBaker]

Press release from MEYER WERFT -

"MEYER Group will complete the build of the cruise ship under construction at the former MV Werften in Wismar for Disney Cruise Line. MEYER WISMAR plans to employ several hundred former team members of MV Werften and will equip the ship with the some of the greenest technologies available together with companies of MEYER Group. The ship is expected to set sail in 2025.

“There is a great passion for shipbuilding in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and we believe in the abilities and courage of both the team in Wismar as well as our MEYER team to complete this grand ship. That will mark another innovative chapter in the long and rich history of shipbuilding excellence here.” says Bernard Meyer.

“As passionate shipbuilders we are very happy to save the investments, which have already been made to complete the ship and modernize the shipyard in Wismar, and deliver an innovative vessel”, explains Aloys Meeman, Managing Director of MEYER WISMAR.

Both Disney and MEYER are committed to reduce emissions, use and waste less, lower the impact of our product and build sustainably. “When Disney approached us to jointly complete the ship, we saw great opportunities. MEYER stands for innovation, so we are especially happy to deliver a ship that will be among the first in the industry to be powered by methanol,” says Thomas Weigend, Managing Director of MEYER WERFT and MEYER WISMAR.

That will require an elaborated transformation of the ship’s engines, additional tanks and many more measures that will make the ship one of the most future-proof. The ship can cruise climate neutral as soon as green methanol is available. In addition, the waste management onboard will be updated according to the newest technology available.

MEYER WERFT has already delivered three cruise ships to Disney Cruise Line. Whilst Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy entered service in 2011 and 2012, Disney Wish was the latest addition to the Disney Cruise Line fleet in summer 2022. Two sister ships are scheduled to be delivered in 2024 and 2025 by MEYER WERFT in Papenburg."

MEYER Group to complete cruise ship for Disney Cruise Line

MEYER Group will complete the build of the cruise ship under construction at the former MV Werften in Wismar for Disney Cruise Line.

www.meyerwerft.de

 

[Andrew C]

That will require an elaborated transformation of the ship’s engines

So definitely not just "update interior."

 

[Disone]

So definitely not just "update interior."

Definitely not. I know some said it was too late to do major interior changes but honestly looking at the ship it really isn't and clearly this press release confirms that. It also confirms that it will be the 8th Disney Cruise line ship. While it doesn't specifically say that, it does confirm the other two Triton class vessels with " Two sister strips are scheduled to be delivered in 2024 and 2025"