Despite their best efforts, the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany cannot complete the build of Disney Wish on time. The newest addition to Disney Cruise Line is highly anticipated, and the cruise line has been steadily building up that anticipation over the past year.
Despite that, the first twelve voyages for the LNG-powered cruise ship will not be moving forward as planned. The shipyard cites delays due to the arrival of the COVID-19 variant Omicron as the main reason for the delays.
New Sailing Date Announced
The arrival of a new ship is always planned extremely tightly, making the risk of a postponement due to unforeseen circumstances a real problem. The arrival of the Omicron variant is undoubtedly proving to be a problem for Meyer Weft in Germany. The country has seen cases spiking, with several industries in the country struggling with staffing problems.
For that reason, the shipyard informed Disney Cruise Line it would be unable to deliver Disney Wish in the specified time frames and the first sailing date of June 9, 2022. At least the first 12 voyages for the newest addition to the Disney fleet have now been canceled. The cruise line did announce a new sailing date from her homeport of Port Canaveral on July 14, 2022.
Disney Cruise Line said the following in an announcement: “As a result, Disney Cruise Line has no other choice than to delay the maiden voyage by a few weeks, which will regrettably affect sailings through mid-July. Disney Cruise Line will be sending an email to guests on these sailings to share this disappointing news and inform them of options available to make vacation memories with their families.”
As the company works through the changes that have happened, it has temporarily closed all bookings for its newest ship. A message on the company website states that these bookings will be unavailable until February 8. This will enable Disney Cruise Line to make the changes to the affected voyages, and book guests on the maiden voyage to the new maiden voyage on July 14.
Disney Offering Alternatives
Disney is offering several alternatives to guests that were booked on one of the first voyages onboard Disney Wish:
“Guests who were booked on the original maiden voyage will be automatically shifted to a new sail date of July 14 at a 50 percent discount. If they are unable to move to the new sail date, they will have the option of either a 50 percent discount on a future cruise departing by December 31, 2023, with any originally paid funds converted to a Future Cruise Credit, or a full refund.”
“Guests who were originally booked on the other affected sailings will have the option of either a 50 percent discount on a future cruise departing by December 31, 2023, with any originally paid funds converted to a Future Cruise Credit, or a full refund.”
The Meyer Weft is building Disney Wish in Papenburg, Germany. The cruise ship will have space for 4,000 passengers and comes in at 144,000 gross tons.
The ship will have a brand-new design that incorporates many of the features that Disney is famous for and new design features such as an adults-only resort-style area and a Grand Hall, which resembles the grand castles found at the Disney Resorts.
The ship will be sailing 3- and 4-night itineraries sailing from Port Canaveral to the Bahamas with calls in Nassau and Disney’s Castaway Cay, the 4-night cruise will have a day at sea included.
