If you’ve ever been on a Disney cruise, you know they’re something special — and if you haven’t, well, you’ve heard the glowing reviews. With all of your favorite characters on board, you can travel in magical style to faraway destinations (and knowing you’re in a kid-friendly environment really helps everyone relax). Now, Disney is preparing to launch a brand-new cruise line: the Disney Destiny.
Over the last few days, Disney has revealed more and more about the ship — from its first-of-their-kind themed dining experiences to glimpses of the amazing staterooms inspired by favorite films like Hercules and Fantasia. Here’s everything we know about the Destiny so far, including when it might set sail.
Does the Disney Destiny have a theme?
If you’re one of the many fans holding out hope for a future park featuring Disney’s antiheroes and more nefarious characters, this ship should help tide you over until that (hopefully) becomes a reality. Disney Destiny is all about the Disney, Pixar, and Marvel heroes ~and villains~ you love most jumping off the screen and into your adventure with you.
You can catch live shows starring Loki, Cruella De Vil, Dr. Facilier, and Maleficent. You’ll see Spider-Man and Black Panther around the ship, as well as plenty of princess appearances, like Rapunzel overseeing her art studio inside one of the onboard kids’ clubs.
What sort of experiences can guests expect?
In keeping with the theme, the ship’s signature dining experience is a nostalgic hero-versus-villain experience from The Lion King. Live musicians and actors will take the stage in Pride Lands: Feast of The Lion King to entertain your family with iconic songs from the film while you dine (on something even tastier than Timon and Pumba’s log full of bugs).
You can also grab dessert at Edna A La Mode’s — so cute. The lab of The Incredibles‘ famed fashion designer will be transformed from where she whips up outfits for the Supers to a unique confectionery where sewing equipment gets repurposed into sweet-making devices.
If you’ve cruised with Disney before, you’ll be pleased to know that fan-favorite, Broadway-style shows “Frozen, A Musical Spectacular” and “Disney Seas the Adventure” will be performed on the Disney Destiny, too.
There are also lots of adults-, teens-, and kids-only spaces on board so every member of your family can do something just for them. Children can visit the Imagineering Lab to build their own roller coasters, board a starship and ready it for a mission with the Resistance, and more.
Meanwhile, parents can grab a specialty cocktail in a Doctor Strange or Beauty and the Beast-themed lounge, depending on your mood.
FWIW, De Vil’s, an adults-only piano lounge inspired by the Queen of Mean, Cruella herself, looks like the place to be. It’s giving Hollywood Regency decor, but you know, with a literal Dalmatian-spotted piano front and center. You can sip on upscale cocktails and martinis or pop a really good bubbly while you wind down and listen to someone tickle the ivories.
When does the Disney Destiny set sail?
If you can’t wait to hop aboard, just know you’ll have to wait a bit before you actually walk up the gangplank. The Disney Destiny will take its first four-night and five-night cruises — from Fort Lauderdale to the Bahamas and the Caribbean — beginning in November 2025.
That said, you can book your rooms starting on September 12, 2024. Select Disney guests and Castaway Club members can book even earlier on September 6. (You can peek at the staterooms over on Disney’s blog already.) For now, the 4,000-passenger ship is still under construction at a shipyard all the way in Germany, Cruise Hive reports.
For more information and sneak peeks inside the Disney Destiny, head over to Disney’s website and sign up for updates on itineraries, new experience reveals, and more.
