Disney Cruise Line Reveals New Ship Class Coming in 2029

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Disney Cruise Line gave fans a first look at an entirely new class of ships during the Disney Experiences Showcase at D23, confirming three new vessels debuting in 2029 — plus fresh details on Disney Believe, which sails in late 2027.

Quick Summary

• Three new ships in a brand-new class arrive in 2029
• The class sits between the classic and newer ships in size
• Bigger than Disney Wonder, smaller than Disney Wish
• The size could open up ports the larger ships can’t reach
• Disney Believe joins the Wish class in late 2027
• Believe’s Grand Hall is themed to Moana
• Woody and Buzz appear on the stern, Tinker Bell on the bow

The New Ship Class

Disney first announced the fleet expansion at D23 in 2024. That plan brings the total fleet to 13 ships.

Claire Weiss, Portfolio Executive Creative Director, shared the new information alongside host Neil Patrick Harris.

She said the new class sits between the classic ships and the newer vessels in size. In practical terms: bigger than Disney Wonder, but smaller than Disney Wish.

“That gives us some amazing opportunities to visit new places and reach brand new audiences we haven’t before,” Weiss told the audience.

Disney hasn’t shared many other details. But the size places these ships in a spot that could open up new ports and itineraries not currently possible with the larger newer ships.

Why Going Smaller Is the Interesting Move

Every cruise line’s default instinct for the last two decades has been bigger. Disney going the other way is worth examining.

Large ships are locked out of a lot of the world. Disney Wish is roughly 144,000 gross tons. Ships that size need deep-water berths and substantial port infrastructure, which rules out much of the Mediterranean’s smaller ports, most of Northern Europe’s historic harbours, large parts of Alaska’s inside passage, and a good deal of the South Pacific.

Disney Wonder, at around 83,000 tons, can go places Wish cannot. But the classic ships are old — Wonder launched in 1999 — and lack the modern amenities families now expect.

A new class in between is the obvious gap to fill: modern ships that can still enter the ports the fleet’s oldest vessels currently serve. Weiss’s “new places and brand new audiences” line is doing exactly that work.

The commercial logic is sound. Whether Disney can hit a price point that works on a smaller ship — fewer cabins means fewer people covering the same fixed costs — is the open question, and cruise economics reward scale for a reason.

Disney Believe

Disney Believe sets sail in late 2027 as the fourth ship in the Wish class.

Its entertainment and venues draw from some of Disney’s most popular stories:

• Encanto
• Frozen
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
• Moana
• The Little Mermaid

The Grand Hall: Themed to Moana

Like the Grand Halls on Disney Wish, Disney Treasure, and Disney Destiny, the Believe’s Grand Hall serves as the central gathering space.

This one draws its theme from Disney Animation’s Moana films.

A bronze statue of Moana, along with Pua and Heihei, sits at the center of the space. The design pulls from the film’s South Pacific setting, with Polynesian finishes that reflect the region’s cultural traditions.

The Grand Hall statue is the fleet’s signature gesture — Wish has Cinderella, Treasure has Aladdin’s Carpet, Destiny has a Hercules theme. Moana continues the pattern of choosing a character with strong visual identity and a distinct cultural design vocabulary to build the room around.

Exterior Artwork

Each new Disney Cruise Line ship gets its own character artwork on the hull, and Believe continues the tradition.

Stern: Sculptures of Woody and Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story, shown etching the ship’s name into the back of the vessel with oversized yellow crayons. The lettering uses a playful, block-style font instead of the looped calligraphy seen on other ships in the fleet.

Bow: A hand-painted design featuring Tinker Bell from 1953’s Peter Pan, surrounded by the silhouettes of Peter, Wendy, Captain Hook, and other characters from the film.

The Crayon Detail Is a Real Design Risk

The stern artwork is the boldest thing about this ship, and it’s worth being honest that it might not land for everyone.

Breaking the fleet’s script typeface is a big deal. Every Disney ship since Magic in 1998 has used the same looped calligraphy on the stern. It’s part of what makes a Disney ship recognisable from a distance.

Replacing it with crayon block lettering because two characters are shown drawing it is a genuinely clever visual gag — the font exists because Woody and Buzz made it, which is the kind of in-world logic Disney does well.

It also makes Believe the odd one out in a fleet that prizes consistency, and “playful crayon lettering” is a long way from the ocean liner elegance the brand has traded on. Whether that reads as charming or as a children’s ship depends entirely on execution, and we’ve only seen concept art.

“This ship celebrates belief in magic, family, the power of nature, and belief in yourself,” Weiss said. “And all the stories we tell onboard will be tied together by the core Disney notion of believing in something fantastical.”

Disney also gave a look behind the scenes at the Meyer Werft Shipyard, where Believe is under construction, along with early concept art and rehearsal footage for the ship’s stage shows.

The Current Fleet

Disney Cruise Line currently sails eight ships. Here’s the breakdown by class.

Disney Magic and Disney Wonder

The original ships. Smaller and more intimate than the newer vessels, with classic ocean liner styling.

Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy

Larger ships with expanded dining options and themed spaces built around Disney stories.

Disney Wish, Disney Treasure, Disney Destiny, and Disney Believe

The newest class, themed around Disney characters and storytelling, with the largest dining and entertainment spaces in the fleet. Believe joins in 2027.

Disney Adventure

The newest ship, sailing from Singapore. Focuses on Southeast Asia and includes theming from Disney, Pixar, and Marvel stories.

What This Means for the Fleet

Doing the arithmetic: eight ships now, Believe in late 2027, three new-class ships in 2029, reaching 13 total.

That’s a fleet that has grown from four ships to thirteen in under a decade — one of the most aggressive expansions in the premium cruise market.

The strategic read is that Disney sees cruising as its most reliable growth channel. Parks require land, permits, and construction cycles measured in years. Ships are ordered from a shipyard and delivered on a schedule.

The risk is filling them. Thirteen ships need far more passengers than eight, at Disney’s premium pricing, in a market where mainstream lines undercut them substantially. The new class reaching new ports and “brand new audiences” is partly a growth story and partly an answer to that problem.

The Bottom Line

Disney Cruise Line revealed a new class of three ships debuting in 2029, sized between Disney Wonder and Disney Wish to reach ports the larger vessels can’t.

Disney Believe sails late 2027 with a Moana-themed Grand Hall, Woody and Buzz etching the ship’s name in crayon on the stern, and hand-painted Tinker Bell artwork on the bow.

The fleet reaches 13 ships by 2029.

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