Go to Jail. Go Directly to Jail.

When ships rescue people clinging to a boat in the Florida Straits off the Coast of Cuba, they are usually trying to leave Cuba. Last Thursday, Disney Fantasy rescued three men clinging to the side of a capsized boat, but once they handed them over to the US Coast Guard, it was discovered they were probably trying to go TO Cuba.

Details appeared in the April 27 edition of Cruise News Daily. 

Cruise News Daily Headlines for March 7, 2012

* Dropping the Anchor Earns a Trip to Jail 
Remember the man aboard Holland America's Ryndam in November of 2010 who had a few drinks, and then found his way into an off-limits area of the ship through an unlocked door and deployed the ship's stern anchor?
   After earlier pleading guilty, he was sentenced yesterday, and some of the court records were opened and we got a little insight to what the man was thinking. Video

* Other Things You'll Want to Know
  CND subscribers also read about Costa neoRomantica quietly re-entering service ... new ship has its own Cat ... family of missing passenger believes foul play is involved ... Disney Fantasy arrives home (photos/video) ... and special guests aboard Crystal Serenity.

The complete text of these stories appeared in the Cruise News Daily and was sent to subscribers.

Disney Fantasy Arrives at Port Canaveral

Disney Fantasy arrived at Port Canaveral, her new home port, early this morning fresh from her christening last week in New York. Shown in the photos and video below are the fireboat salute and fireworks that greeted her just as dawn was breaking. As you can see, there was a special welcoming party on the dock that was so early, some of them didn't even get to put on pants.

Time Lapse Video of Disney Fantasy's Departure from New York

After Disney Fantasy's christening in New York last week, it left for Florida, but on it's way out, Disney videographers shot this interesting video of the trip out of New York Harbor. They positioned their camera on the Disney Fantasy's top deck looking forward at the giant video screen over the pool, which is playing the video from the ship's bow camera. In the video you then see the dusky panorama unfolding to the sides over the railings of the ship, while you see the view out the front of the ship broadcast on the video screen. To add a touch of surrealism, they time-lapsed the video. Enjoy!

Cruise News Daily Headlines for March 2, 2012

* Royal Princess to Have New Stateroom Type, Features
Princess Cruises said today that the new Royal Princess will have a new stateroom type, Deluxe Balcony Staterooms, which are between a Balcony stateroom and a Mini-Suite in the hierarchy of categories. In additional all staterooms will have some subtle new features based on feedback from Princess passengers.
   At the same time, to promote the new stateroom type, Princess is having an eBay auction for one, which will allow the winner to be the very first to book on the new ships. All the proceeds from the auction will go to charity.

* Disney Fantasy Christened 
As christenings go, Disney has not made much of a splash in the media about the christening of Disney Fantasy. They hadn't done a lot of promotion of the event, even though it was in New York City, purportedly the media capital of the world. They didn't even announce a high-profile godmother in advance and get the publicity value of that. More- photos & video

* Other Things You'll Want to Know
CND subscribers also read about a medevac from Carnival Liberty ... videos from aboard Costa Allegra ... and the end of a search. 

The complete text of these stories appeared in the Cruise News Daily and was sent to subscribers.

Disney Fantasy Christened

Disney newest ship, Disney Fantasy was christened last night in New York by godmother, singer Mariah Carey, shown in the photo and video below.

Singer Mariah Carey joins Walt Disney Company President and CEO Robert Iger (right), Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Thomas Staggs and Mickey Mouse for the christening of the newest ship of Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Fantasy, in New York City, on March 1, 2012

In an unusual ceremony (probably designed around the ship being christened in New York in the winter) Carey led the audience in a countdown that triggered a 6-foot tall bottle of champagne in the Atrium Lobby to erupt and shower onlookers with confetti and streamers as a traditional bottle of champagne broke against the ship’s hull.

"At Disney Parks and Resorts, we strive to be the most trusted and highest quality provider of shared travel and leisure experiences in the world,” said Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Tom Staggs. “From stem to stern, the Disney Fantasy was designed and built with the singular purpose of surprising and delighting our guests, helping them make memories to last a lifetime.”

Disney Fantasy enters service from Port Canaveral on March 31, 2012.

Disney Fantasy left New York Friday afternoon (March 2, 2012) about 4:30pm en route to her home port in Florida. As she left, one of our favorite videographers NJPhotographer62 on YouTube took this short video of the departure with the added bonus of a short concert on the ship's whistles as it says good-bye to the Big Apple.

Disney Fantasy Arrives in New York

Disney Fantasy, the sister to Disney Dream, arrived in New York today where it will be christened on Thursday.

After traveling almost 3,800 miles, the ship arrived in New York from Bremerhaven (Germany), where it completed its sea trials. In the photos below, Disney Fantasy can be seen sailing up the Hudson River past the Big Apple's iconic landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty and the new tower of the World Trade Center, and getting a traditional salute by fireboats in the river.

Once the christening festivities in New York are over, Disney Fantasy will sail to its home port at Port Canaveral. Disney Fantasy's maiden voyage will sail on March 31.

Disney Takes Delivery of Disney Fantasy from Meyer Werft

Meyer Werft delivered Disney Fantasy to Disney Cruise Line today in Bremerhaven. The ship will spend another week in Bremerhaven being crewed and provisioned. Departure for the US is planned for February 16, with arrival in its home port of Port Canaveral on March 6. Disney Fantasy's maiden voyage is scheduled for March 31, 2012.

The flag changing that took place aboard Disney Fantasy this morning as soon as the documents were signed and the ship officially changed hands with Disney assuming ownership from Meyer Werft.

Disney Fantasy's Atrium

The Tube, one of Disney Fantasy's dance clubs

The Walt Disney Suite

The Pool Deck

The documents officially transferring ownership were signed by Bernard Meyer, managing partner of Meyer Werft (left) and Karl Holz, president of Disney Cruise Line.

Disney Fantasy Goes Down to the Sea

When a ship is built in the inland yard of Meyer Werft, its first journey is always the conveyance down the Ems River to the Dutch seaport of Eemshaven.

There is a tremendous sense of pride of the Meyer Werft product in the region, and a conveyance is always cause for people to come down to the river to watch the giant ships pass.

The journey is always a slow, methodical trip through narrow locks and drawbridge, and down the shallow river. Because of the treacherous conditions, the timing is always subject to change due to the weather, wind and tide conditions. For that reason, today's conveyance was suddenly moved up almost twelve hours to take advantage of better conditions.

Disney Fantasy left Meyer Werft about 9:00am this morning (January 20, 2012).

While looking at the photos, it's easy to forget how things are actually happening.
Because the ship is traveling backwards down the river, this photo actually shows
Disney Fantasy traveling toward the camera as it passes Weener.

Mickey and Minnie made their first appearance on deck to wave to fans as the ship
passed Weener. The official story with the early departure from the yard was because
Mickey just couldn't wait to get the ship to the sea, but don't be fooled. Our money
is on Meyer taking advantage of the better weather conditions.

Disney Fantasy approaches Leer in the late afternoon.

As Disney Fantasy passes through this drawbridge, note how little clearance
there is on each side of the side of the ship.

The conveyance goes on through the night. Here Disney Fantasy is nearing Emden about
9pm, and still people come down to the river to watch the ship pass.

Photos courtesy of Meyer Werft and vidcaps from live video by NDR TV

Meyer Floats Out Disney Fantasy

Disney Fantasy was floated out of the covered building dock this afternoon (January 8, 2012) at Meyer Werft's Papenburg (Germany) yard. The slow process was witnessed by several hundred people, mostly local, who had come to the yard for the event, complete with a few fireworks set off from the top of the ship and a tune from the ship's musical whistle.

There were intermittent showers during the hour-long process as the ship was towed into the lagoon, but the sun did shine as the engine tests began. At the completion, Disney Fantasy was docked at the yard's finishing dock. The next major step in the process will come when the ship will make its conveyance down the Ems River later this month.

Photos from this morning's event:

Preparations began on time Sunday morning, but the weather and technical
issues delayed the actual towing until after noon. The actual towing process
took more than an hour for the Disney Fantasy to be towed into the lagoon.

Once in the lagoon, tugs turned the ship and technical tests were performed.

In a typically Disney touch, two bursts of fireworks were set off from the
ship's top deck, and the ship's musical whistle played.

Minnie Mouse was aboard for the event and waved to some of the hundreds of
local residents who came to the yard to see the ship's public debut.

Once the tests were completed, tugs nudged the ship toward the finishing
dock (at lower right in the photo) where it will remain until it leaves
the yard in approximately two weeks. Due to Meyer's unusual building process,
the ship is essentially completed at this point. (At other yards, float out
from the dry dock takes place much earlier in the process, and most of the
interior work would still remain to be completed.) In Disney Fantasy's case,
relatively little work remains inside, and only minor projects - such as
attaching the ship's mast - remain on the exterior.

The ship's "watercoaster" tube is seen by one of the twin funnels.

Photos courtesy of vid caps from NDR.de and Meyer Werft live video coverage.


Video from Saturday when the ship is prepared for Sunday's operation shows more of Disney Fantasy's detail:

This excellent video shows detail of today's towing operation:

And last, but not least, the Disney perspective on the day's activities:

Disney Fantasy Gets Its Elephant

A Disney tradition is that each of their ship’s has a larger-than-life character suspended over the stern that appears to be painting the ship’s name there. Back in September Disney revealed that the character given that singular honor on Disney Fantasy will be Dumbo.

The flying elephant was installed in his place of honor on the almost-complete Disney Fantasy on December 14 (2011) at Meyer's Papenburg yard as shown in the photos below. The video shows the creation of flying elephant and the attention to detail.

Update January 8: Disney Fantasy Float Out

Photos courtesy of Disney Cruise Line.

The complete story appeared in the December 29, 2011, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Muppets to Debut on Disney Fantasy

The Muppets will debut aboard aboard Disney Fantasy when the ship enters service in March 2012. The popular characters will appear in a new adventure game aboard the ship. In the fast-paced game, passengers will follow clues around the ship to solve a mystery involving the 20 Muppet characters.

Complete details appeared in an article in the November 29, 2011, edition of Cruise News Daily.

Video: Final Block of Disney Fantasy Being Placed

This short time lapse video shows the final block (the bow) of Disney Fantasy being put into place at the Meyer Werft yard in Papenburg, Germany on September 3, 2011.



Disney Fantasy is a sister to Disney Dream set to be delivered in March 2012.

Video: Construction of Disney Fantasy Moving at Fast Pace

Construction of Disney Fantasy is well underway at Meyer Werft in Papenburg (Germany). This time-lapse video shows the construction of the hull so far. Disney Fantasy is scheduled to enter service in March 2012.

Disney Sets Date for Expansion to Four Ships

Disney set the date today for Disney Fantasy's maiden voyage and released partial details of the 2012 fleet deployment.

Disney's second new ship of the two-ship order from Meyer Werft, Disney Fantasy, will enter service on April 7, 2012 with 7-day Caribbean cruises.


In this CND article, we also looked at the rest of the initial 2012 schedule and had some observations on the implications. The entire article appeared in the October 18, 2010, edition of Cruise News Daily.