Disney’s Bought Its Newest Cruise Ship For a Shockingly Low Price

One of the fastest-growing areas of The Walt Disney Company is the Disney Cruise Line. For over a decade, Disney Cruise Line had four gorgeous ships in its fleet — the Disney Magic, the Disney Wonder, the Disney Dream, and the Disney Fantasy. Then, earlier this year, after a long COVID delay, Disney launched the fifth ship in its fleet, the Disney Wish.

At this year’s D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, Josh D’Amaro, Disney’s Chairman of Parks, Experiences, and Products, revealed that Disney is currently hard at work on the sixth ship in the fleet — the Disney Treasure, which is expected to launch in 2025. One year later, an unnamed seventh ship will launch.

Credit: Disney

Then, in mid-November, Disney shared that they had purchased another cruise ship to become the eighth ship in the Disney Cruise Line. The ship is called The Golden Dream and is currently being built in Germany. The ship was owned by a company based in Hong Kong, which unfortunately folded during the pandemic.

Although it would cost an estimated $1.8 billion to build the ship, Disney managed to snag the massive ocean liner for a fraction of that — spending just $41 million.

Credit: The Maritime Executive

Capital — a German newspaper — shared more on the massive discount Disney snagged.

The Disney Group got the cruise ship “Global Dream” built in Wismar at a discount price. According to information from Capital and Stern from financial circles, Disney is taking over the three-quarters-completed giant ship (also known as “Global One”) for only 40 million euros. Originally, the ship was valued at a price of 1.8 billion euros after the planned finished construction in the shipyard on the Baltic Sea.

Eventually, Disney was the only interested party. Therefore, the negotiating leeway of the insolvency administrator Morgen was small. “Disney offered the highest purchase price,” he told Capital. “It’s the price of taking that entrepreneurial risk.”

Credit: Disney

In a new filing, Disney shared that the ship’s cost was “not material” and that it would cost less to finish it than they are spending on other ships in the fleet.

Disney Cruise Line is adding the Disney Treasure and a seventh ship, which are to be delivered from the shipyard in fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2026, respectively. Both of these ships will be approximately 140,000 tons with 1,250 staterooms and will be powered by liquified natural gas. 

In November 2022, the Company purchased a partially completed ship for an amount that is not material. The ship will be approximately 200,000 tons. Disney Cruise Line will incur the cost to complete construction with total costs anticipated to be less than our recent fleet additions. This ship is expected to be delivered in 2025. 

Credit: Scott Gustin

At this time, we do not have any further details on the ship, such as a name or theme that it will follow.

Disney Dining will keep readers updated as we learn more about this exciting new addition to the Disney Cruise Line.