The latest vessel in Disney Cruise Line’s growing fleet left its shipyard home Friday making the slow 20-mile river trip so it can complete sea trials ahead of a debut from Port Everglades later this year.
The Disney Destiny, a sister ship to Port Canaveral ships Disney Wish and Disney Treasure, left the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany making its way on the Ems River toward the North Sea.
The inland shipyard requires a tugboat-assisted conveyance of the 1,119-foot-long, 128-foot-wide ship traveling on the river facing in reverse.
A live stream of the conveyance was broadcast by YouTube channel Hamburg Port Live.
The vessel is first headed to Eemshaven, Netherlands, before it heads out for sea trials in the North Sea. The shipyard has a lot of practice getting vessels up the river, traveling at only 3-5 mph over several hours.
In the past, parts of bridges had to be disassembled to allow for a ship’s passing, although Disney Destiny, while the largest in Disney’s fleet along with Treasure and Wish to date, isn’t the biggest transported from Meyer Werft.
It comes in at 144,000 gross tons with 1,246 staterooms, compared to the 130,000 gross tons of Disney Dream and Fantasy and the 84,000 gross tons of the line’s two original ships Disney Magic and Wonder.
Destiny is the third of five Wish-class vessels constructed at Meyer Werft. The fourth, ordered by the Oriental Land Co. in partnership with DCL, will sail out of Japan in 2029, while the fifth was part of an announcement that DCL would expand to 13 total vessels by 2031 including three new ships in a new class.
Disney Destiny had its first steel cut in November 2023 and keel laid in March 2024, so its trip out to sea trials comes at around 20 months since the beginning of construction.
The ship won’t be handed over to Disney Cruise Line until after it has completed a series of sea trials to prove its seaworthiness, and won’t make the transatlantic sailing to Florida until late October or early November. Once in Florida it has a few weeks before its maiden voyage Nov. 20 from DCL’s new second Florida home in Fort Lauderdale, where it will begin four- and five-night voyages to the Bahamas and western Caribbean.
It marks the first time Disney will have debuted one of its ships somewhere other than Port Canaveral. DCL took over Port Everglades’ Terminal 4 as its permanent, year-round second Florida home in 2023.
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The Disney Destiny cruise ship is floated out into the harbor at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. (Courtesy/Disney Cruise Line)
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The Disney Destiny cruise ship is floated out into the harbor at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany on Saturday, Aug. 9, 2025. (Courtesy/Disney Cruise Line)
Its arrival will grow the DCL fleet to seven ships, with the Asia-bound Disney Adventure also under construction coming in spring 2026.
Disney’s first two ships, Disney Magic and Wonder, debuted in 1998 and 1999 followed by sister ships Disney Dream and Fantasy in 2011 and 2012, then Wish at Treasure in 2022 and 2024.
The ship features multiple Marvel-inspired spaces, including a statue of Black Panther’s T’Challa, king of Wakanda, in the Grand Hall; an entertainment parlor themed to “Doctor Strange”; and the latest iteration of the World of Marvel restaurant.
The ship will also have a new venue themed to Cruella de Vil from “101 Dalmatians” and a new stage show based on “Hercules.”