A new Disney ship will take to the seas after the company's cruise line took over a vessel seemingly destined for the scrap yard.
Disney Cruise Line has announced it is going to take on the partly-completed mega cruise ship Global Dream.
The 208,000-gross-ton ship is expected to have a passenger capacity of about 6,000 with around 2,300 crew members, and will start taking customers in 2025.
The company has said it will "bring the magic of a Disney Cruise Line vacation to new global destinations”, after the Meyer Werft shipbuilding company helps finish her off in Wismar, Germany.
“The ship will be renamed with certain features reimagined under the world-renowned expertise of Walt Disney imagineers and is expected to set sail in 2025," a spokesperson for the company said.
The new ship will be based outside the United States, meaning there is a chance it'll be docked in a UK port.
The exterior will be adorned in the iconic, Mickey Mouse-inspired colours of the fleet, complete with signature red funnels.
The ship is expected to be among the first in the cruise industry to be fuelled by green methanol, one of the lowest emission fuels available.
While the true final construction cost of the ship isn't clear, its initial construction cost was 1.6 billion euros (£1.4billion), the Edge Markets reported.
The amount Disney Cruise Line paid for it is not known.
The ship's sister vessel, which was called Global Dream II, made headlines earlier this year when her previous owner Genting Hong Kong filed for bankruptcy before it was completed.
The vessel cost a whopping £1.2billion to build - which was still £200million short of its budget - and has long been looking for a buyer to splash £900million on it to save it from the scrap heap.
Global Dream II would have been, in terms of passenger capacity, the largest cruise ship in the world.
The current record is held by the Royal Caribbean liner Wonder of the Seas which can fit 6,988 passengers on board.
Despite all of this, a buyer for the ship could not be found for months, leading to speculation that its engine would be sold and its hull scrapped.
Before Disney Cruise Line stepped in to buy it, there were concerns that Global Dream, which is slightly smaller, would meet a similar fate.
Disney Parks, Experiences and Products chairman Josh D’Amaro said: “Our cruise ships give us the unique opportunity to bring Disney magic to fans no matter where they are, and the addition of this ship will make a Disney Cruise Line vacation accessible to more families than ever before.”
Disney Cruise Line recently announced its first cruises for passengers in Australia and New Zealand beginning in late 2023.
