Disney celebrates cruise industry comeback with an Adventure

April 19, 2025, 1:54 PM · Talk about a comeback.

In 2016, Genting Hong Kong ordered its biggest-ever cruise ships - forming a new class called the "Global" class. These ships ultimately would be designed as 208,000 GT, placing them among the largest cruise ships in the world at the time.

Construction of the first ship, Global Dream, began in 2018. But when the Covid pandemic hit, construction stopped, and Genting Hong Kong fell into deep financial trouble. The company filed for liquidation in 2022.

The collapse of Genting Hong Kong took German-based shipbuilder subsidiary MV Werften down with it. The Global Dream and its sister ship Golden Dream II seemed destined for the scrapyard, becoming the symbols of the cruise industry's troubles.

But Global Dream has a different destiny awaiting it. In a deal that helped sustain the troubled German shipbuilding industry after the lockdowns, Disney Cruise Line agreed to buy the unfinished Global Dream (for a reported deeply discounted price of just €40 million). Disney redesigned the ship, reducing its passenger capacity and plussing its decor to match Disney's cruise ship standards.

And today, the former Global Dream sailed out of shipbuilder Meyer Werft's construction hall in Wismar, Germany - not as scrap, but as the biggest ship ever in the Disney Cruise Line fleet, the Disney Adventure.

Disney Adventure
Photo courtesy Disney Cruise Line

Much work remains to be done on Disney Adventure before it sails to its home port at Marina Bay in Singapore this fall. Meyer Werft still needs to install four of Disney's iconic red funnels on the ship, as well as the attractions that guests will find on its upper deck.

Those include Disney Cruise Line's first coaster, Ironcycle Test Run, as well as the Groot Galaxy Spin and other attractions on the ship's Marvel Landing. You can read more about what awaits cruise fans aboard the ship in A cruise fan's guide to the Disney Adventure and Disney's Duffy and Friends look to set sail from Singapore.

But today's milestone provided a moment that many people in and who follow the cruise business could not imagine just four or five years ago, when it looked like the Global class - if not the entire cruise industry - was becoming nothing more than a dream. This ship's comeback is a real "adventure," indeed.

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Replies (1)

April 20, 2025 at 12:00 AM

I'll likely be sailing on this next year. Unfortunately they're not docking at any ports, but I'm expecting there'll be enough to keep us occupied for 3-4 days on the ship.

Is be interested in hearing any updates on the ship as they're made public.

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