Key Aspects:
- Disney Adventure departed the Meyer Werft shipyard on Monday, September 1, 2025 to head for her sea trials.
- The ship is the largest ever built in Wismar, Germany. Her deep draft presented technical challenges for safely leaving the harbor.
- Originally Global Dream, Disney Cruise Line bought the ship in late 2022 and she will finally be welcoming her first guests in December 2025.
More than seven years after construction of the vessel began, Disney Cruise Line’s upcoming Disney Adventure has finally left the shipyard.
The ship is now enroute to begin her sea trials, one of the last steps before she will be handed over to the cruise line ahead of her public debut.
The Global-class ship, which will be the largest ever built for Disney Cruise Line at 208,00 gross tons, left the Meyer Werft shipyard in Wismar, Germany on Monday evening, September 1, 2025.
According to North German Broadcasting, the maneuver began at 6:30 p.m. with three blasts on the ship’s horn to alert those nearby that the ship was underway.
The ship was originally scheduled to depart on Saturday, but brief delays to Sunday and then to Monday were necessary due to poor weather and local water levels.
Tugboats assisted Disney Adventure as she moved away from the docks and into the harbor. To be clear, the vessel is not yet finished, as is customary when setting forth on sea trials.
Even incomplete, however, Disney Adventure is the largest ship to have ever been built in Wismar. Her sheer size, 1,122 feet long and 152 feet wide, makes even simple repositioning or turning in the harbor a technical challenge.
The ship’s deep draft, just over 31 feet, also created some complications. The ship’s finished draft is roughly three feet deeper than the maximum draft typically permitted by the harbor.
Fortunately, because the ship is unfinished with some items – including her funnels – not yet installed, she was not as deep are her maximum draft and was able to sail safely out of the harbor.
Additional finishing work on the outer decks as well as the vessel’s interior will be necessary in the coming weeks ahead of Disney Adventure‘s December debut.
First, the sea trials will put the ship through her paces. These intensive tests deliberately stress various mechanical and technical systems, including navigation, propulsion, and emergency responses, to ensure the ship responds appropriately.
Depending on the ship’s performance, a second set of sea trials may be necessary. Otherwise, final finishing work will begin and within a few weeks, Disney Adventure will be handed over to Disney Cruise Line.
The new ship’s 3-night maiden voyage is scheduled to depart on December 15, 2025. She will remain homeported from Singapore year-round, offering immersive 3-, 4-, and 5-night sailings to as many as 6,000 guests onboard.
A Very Long Construction Timeline
It is unusual for a modern cruise ship to take so very long from her steel cutting to sea trials. What some Disney Cruise Line fans may not realize, however, is that Disney Adventure was not originally Disney Adventure.
The ship was first ordered and meant to be the Global Dream for Dream Cruises, a company of Genting Hong Kong.
Construction began in March 2018 with the ceremonial steel cutting, with expected delivery of the ship in 2021. Three years is not unusual for cruise ship construction.
For example, Star of the Seas‘ steel cutting was held in February 2023. The second Icon-class ship sailed through her sea trials in May 2025, and just welcomed her first guests in mid-August, 30 months after her construction began.
Disney Adventure is now 90 months past her steel cutting, and still has three months before she will welcome guests.
After construction began on Global Dream, however, the COVID-19 pandemic radically disrupted shipyard operations and construction was temporarily halted in 2020. Many cruise ships were delayed at this time, including Carnival Cruise Line’s Mardi Gras.
Genting Hong Kong filed for bankruptcy in January 2022. The company’s assets, including the unfinished Global Dream, were put up for sale.
Disney Cruise Line purchased the ship in November 2022. Though the ship was roughly 75% complete at that time, the design needed to be tweaked and adjusted to fit Disney’s signature style.
This includes such iconic details as her stern sculpture characters, revealed to be Captain Minnie and Captain Mickey, which will bring the fun of Disney cruises to Asia for the first time.
The hull was completed and floated out at the shipyard in April 2025, a critical step in bringing a new vessel into service.
Fortunately, it appears that Disney Adventure is now well on her way to smooth sailing as her construction is completed and the one-of-a-kind ship should debut on schedule.
