The Disney Cruise Line has been shut down since the spring due to the coronavirus and Disney executives have previously said that it would most likely be the last part of its business to become operational.
But now, Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek said that with the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and the need to get certified for its first sailings, “we now do see some light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
The CDC’s framework to achieve a conditional sailing order consists of a phased approach for the safe and responsible resumption of passenger cruises. It is designed to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks on ships and prevent passengers and crew from seeding outbreaks at ports, according to the CDC.
The new guidelines from the CDC are quite thorough, Chapek said. “And they really entail some really high hurdles in terms of not only testing by the potential guests that we host on the ships, but also a process that has to happen in order to certify our first sailings,” he said during a fourth-quarter earnings call.
This will result in delays beyond what Disney had hoped in terms of getting ships back in service.
“I guess, the best news out of all of it is that, we now do see some light at the end of the tunnel. I think we have an opportunity to create sort of a Disney bubble, if you want – if you would on each one of our cruise ships,” he said.
Demand, Chapek said, is “very, very strong for our cruise ships. We’re seeing extremely strong demand in the back half of FY 2021, and all of 2022 in terms of – of bookings.”
That means Disney does see demand for the three new ships it has on order. Due to COVID-19, work on those ships has been delayed. Chapek said he is anticipating the delivery of the first new ship – the Disney Wish – in the summer of 2022. The next two ships will be delivered in 2024 and 2025.
“We hope and expect that the world will back to normal by then, and anticipate having a fine time trying to fill up the demand of those ships. And we think there’s going to be so much pent-up demand that, we don’t expect to have much issues given the love that our guests have for Disney Cruise Lines.”
