Disney to build smaller ships – is this a future for cruise lines?

• Disney has given the first look at their upcoming class of ships which will debut from 2029.
• The new ships will be smaller than the majority of Disney’s current fleet.
• This shows a shift in strategy compared to other cruise lines, which have been building larger vessels.

Disney has revealed it will build smaller ships for its future fleet, bucking a trend that Royal Caribbean, MSC and Carnival Cruise Line have adopted with their new builds.

It came as a surprise to cruise industry experts who expected the line to announce a ship would be around the same size as its newest vessel, the Disney Adventure. The ship which is currently homeporting in Singapore, accommodates more than 6000 guests.

While the exact size of the ship isn’t known, we know they’ll be larger than Disney Wonder, and smaller than Disney Wish, which translates to a passenger capacity between 2700 and 4000.

This new ship class will be made up of at least three ships, rolling out in 2029 and 2030. Including Disney Believe which is coming next year, this will give Disney a total fleet of 13 ships. Little is known about where these ships will deploy, but Disney’s announced fleet expansion doesn’t seem to include the ship being built for Oriental Land Company in Japan, which will operate exclusively out of Tokyo and other Japanese ports.

Check out renderings of the new ships below.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Disney Parks (@disneyparks)

Why smaller ships? A new way to future proof?

The idea of building smaller ships is to give these upcoming ships more ability to pivot to new destinations and ports around the world that may not be able to accommodate megaships such as Disney Adventure.

This presents an interesting strategy from Disney and shows a strong juxtaposition to how some of their competitors are looking to move forward. 

The past few years have been tense ones for the cruise industry in general, with cruise seeing increased opposition in the forms of protests, cruise caps, new taxes, other legislation and more. This has been mostly focused in Europe but also has proved to be an issue in Alaska, the Caribbean, the South Pacific and more. 

How many cruise lines have been ‘future proofing’ their operations against more potential opposite to cruise is through building their own infrastructure via private islands, exclusive beach clubs and more, where they know their megaships will always be accepted. The majority of new builds that we see head straight to the Caribbean and stay there, where sailings can be enjoyed year-round and go directly to private destinations. 

Disney actually do have two private destinations in the Caribbean, Castaway Cay and Lookout Cay, but the confirmation of the details of this fleet expansion shows that Disney isn’t content to centre its operations entirely around the Caribbean. 

This makes sense given the global appeal of Disney’s brand. The smaller ship sizes will free up more options across Europe, Asia, Latin America and more for Disney to continue connecting with cruisers around the world. 

On the other side of the coin, less capacity and more far-ranging itineraries can mean higher prices, and close to luxury level pricing has proved to be an issue at times for Disney, for example in Australia, where many Disney-loving families felt priced out of the Disney experience. 

The next few years will show whether Disney’s scale back solution or other lines Caribbean central private destination model is the better way to future proof against the threats to cruise.