The newest Disney Cruise Line ship Disney Wish sailed into Port Canaveral for the first time on Monday morning to the delight of fans released into Jetty Park to attend his arrival.
The first new ship in the DCL fleet in more than 10 years arrived at its new homeport at around 5 am, sailing by hundreds of fans who either woke up early or did not sleep at all for the ship's arrival before dawn. With lightning in the background and under the moonlit cloudy sky, the pier was eerily quiet despite the lines of people.
The waves crashing along the pier were only interrupted by the sound of a drone buzzing overhead, but then the screams and cheers of the ship's crew as the ship sailed were greeted with shouts of welcome from the crowd. Then the ship blew the melody of Cinderella "The dream is the wish that your heart fulfills" and the audience shouted even more.
Shelley Thomas and Nicole Dugan or Orlando are super fans of the Disney cruise line who sailed on all four other ships and are reserved for the inaugural voyage on July 14.
“We just wanted to be one of the first ones to see it as she comes home,” said Thomas, who has been on 47 Disney cruises since 1999. “We’re really excited for that first day just to be able to walk around the ship and see what’s new.”
Theo Arnold from Tampa in a T-shirt Captain Mickey excitedly talked about the ship with his colleagues at the dock with caffeine merriment.
“I got myself out of bed at 1 in the morning and just drove over. I didn’t go to sleep. I tried to, but got maybe 20 minutes,” he said. “I’ve only ever been on Disney. I mean I’ve thought about going on other ones, but when I go to book it, I’m just like I’ve got to come back to Disney.”
He arrived in North America after a transatlantic voyage from Europe, after he was officially handed over on June 9 by shipbuilders Meyer Werft, who have been building a ship of 144,000 gross tons since 2020.
The baptism of the ship will not take place until June 29, and the first voyage with passengers will not take place until July 14, but the first ships of the new Trident DCL class withdrew near Disney's cruise terminal 8 after 6 o'clock in the morning.
The sister ship of dreams Disney fantasy will stay in port for mostly seven-night Caribbean voyages.
