Disney Cruise Line’s first new ship for more than a decade was launched in Cape Canaveral in Florida on Wednesday when a champagne bottle “full of dreams” was emptied over the vessel.
In a cruise ship naming first, a helicopter picked up the 16-foot bottle, filled by Captain Mickey with dreams about adventure, romance and fun in a song-and dance spectacular, and emptied on the new vessel, which holds 4,000 passengers when full.
At a glittering port-side naming ceremony at Port Canaveral, Master of Ceremony, president and CEO of Walt Disney Company Bob Iger said the “dream of many at Disney were coming true” with the launch of the new ship.
Jennifer Hudson, who worked as a singer on Disney Wonder in 2003 and was a runner up on American Idol in 2004, was Godmother of the ship, which will be based in Port Canaveral, sailing three, four and five-night cruises to the Nassau and Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island in the Bahamas.
The new ship features the first water coaster at sea, cameras that project a sea or port view back to passengers in inside cabins and a $75 per person speciality restaurant, Remy, based on the Paris-based film Ratatouille.
A plane flew over head with the message, Welcome Home Disney Dream, as a team of 600 cast members paraded with the Stars and Stripes and the flags from the 62 countries represented by the ship’s crew.
* Read Jane Archer’s report on Disney Dream in next week’s Travel Weekly.