Disaster New Disney cruise ejects every passenger after boarding — leaving families stranded thousands of miles from home

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New Disney cruise ejects every passenger after boarding — leaving families stranded thousands of miles from home​

Guests on board Disney Cruise Line’s all-new Disney Adventure learned their four-night sailing embarking from Singapore was canceled — mere hours after they already boarded the ship.

On Thursday, May 7, after guests boarded, settled in and started their vacation, the captain of the ship announced that there were technical issues and guests were to wait for further information.

A Reddit user who was on the cruise said that they were told they “will set sail soon.”

“Midnight now. We’ve been waiting here since 2 p.m., and they have no update for us,” they wrote in an update in the comments. “What’s even worse is they’ve shut down all kitchens, coffee, etc. Why would they do that?”

About 26 hours later, approximately 2 p.m. Singapore time, it was announced that the cruise would be canceled due to mechanical issues that the engineering team couldn’t fix in time.

Guests were ultimately stranded in Singapore and left to figure out what to do next. At 6:30 p.m., they wrote that they were still waiting for a letter with hotel information before disembarking.

The Reddit user noted that when the cancellation was “really disappointing, especially if vacationing with kids.”

“Good thing is that we did get to experience some parts of the cruise, sad part the shops weren’t open so couldn’t get any Disney merchandise from the cruise,” they added.

With a cruise like this, guests likely planned and booked this trip far in advance, and many traveled internationally to reach the ship.

“The Disney Adventure remains in port in Singapore as our teams continue to address a mechanical issue,” a Disney Cruise Line spokesperson said in a statement, per WDW News Today. “As the issue has not been resolved in the timeframe required to start this voyage, this current sailing has been cancelled. We apologize to our guests and are working with them directly to provide support for their travel needs.”

Disney is providing guests who were on the ship with a full refund for the canceled sailing, as well as any booked amenities, a 50% discount on a future sailing and a complimentary hotel stay for the night.

However, the Reddit user noted that in the fine print, the 50% discount only applies to cruises booked before July 31, 2026, and they must sail before May 31, 2027.

Some reports noted that Disney is also providing $500 for incidental expenses such as flight changes, while other reports said they’re fully covering all flight changes.

According to Disney Cruise Line Blog, which obtained a copy of the letter, DCL provided a pre-arranged, complimentary hotel room at JW Marriott Singapore South Beach, as well as up to $500 per stateroom for other incidentals.

The specifics seem to vary by guest, and Disney seems to be working with guests directly on their specific travel needs, Inside the Magic reported.

Cruise cancellations affect a lot, such as flights, hotels, time off work, childcare arrangement and, in many cases, years of planning and saving.

Those in the comments of the Reddit post were appalled by the situation.

“Let’s wait a few months and see if the ship is truly cursed. I predict more issues and bad reviews,” one wrote.

“50% discount is a little ridiculous considering everyone’s potential travel time. Should be more. IMO,” another said.

“oh my, so you had to get off the ship??? how are that many people meant to find hotels so quickly??? that’s WILD!” a user commented.

“Im a disney checkin staff and ive always wondered why the cruise didn’t have scheduled maintenance days (its continuous boarding mon/thurs with no ‘off periods’vto fix the ship if needed),” someone wrote. “And now theres an engine failure, which is definitely not surprising.”

As of now, the next sailing on the Disney Adventure, scheduled to leave on Monday, May 11, is still expected to set sail.

The Disney Adventure is a brand-new ship that was launched in partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board and is meant to be Disney’s flagship presence in the Asia Pacific region.
 
Holy shit, they're already having cancellation-worthy mechanical issues with the Adventure?

Cruise sperg time. I don't give a fuck about your tired "cruise ships hurrr durrr poop something something supposedly fun thing I'll never" shut the fuck up. This is my special interest and I will sperg if I want to.

The Adventure is a boondoggle. It was originally being built at a cost of about $1B by an Asian cruise line that went out of business in 2022. Disney Cruise Line (DCL) picked it up for absolute fire sale, bargain basement pricing, like around 5% of its actual cost. They thought they were getting a bargain but it increasingly looks like they thought wrong.

It might have gone a lot differently if RCI (Royal Caribbean International) had bought the ship instead.

The biggest issue is that the original ship was designed as a floating casino. There are cruise lines serving the US where this is more the case, RCI among them, but DCL is not one of them. They make their money on family amenities and add-ons, not slot machines. This meant they had to retrofit huge parts of the ship, moving around structural steel on the interior to accommodate Disney venues.

The ship is bizarre compared to any other ships DCL has, with multiple significant discrepancies versus all her sister ships in the DCL fleet: there's no huge atrium, which is one of the signature aspects of both DCL's ships and many other cruise lines' American-centric ships, there's "neighborhood" style planning more in the vein of a Royal Caribbean ship, and a ton of escalators because of the issues the ship had with moving people effectively in their elevator setup. One of the worst aspects of the ship if you're actually on it is that the elevator banks don't cover the whole ship, and if you pick the wrong one you could end up on a very long journey to get to wherever you're going. There are also places where you'll end up having to go down a level and then up a level to get where you're going. Annoying and not well thought out.

Disney also made the bizarre choice not to put navigational cues into the carpeting and decor. Usually cruise ships have subtle indicators in the hallway carpets that indicate where the front of the ship is located (for instance, on Norwegian Cruise Line ships, little fishies swim toward the front of the ship in the carpeting, so you always know if you're headed forward or backward even when you're toasted and it's 3 AM.

All these add up to a ship that people simply don't enjoy sailing on as much as the others in their fleet. This is disastrous for DCL, because their cruises cost 2-3x equivalent itineraries from cruise lines with otherwise similar amenities but without the Disney branding. Their brand premium, in no small part, comes from a reputation for being a very easy cruise line to take kids on, with ships that impress with their attention to detail and theming. A retrofitted ship never intended as a DCL ship is very off-brand, even with the efforts made to Disney-fy it.

DCL has only eight ships in their entire fleet, so this one ship is 12%, and it's their newest and largest ship to date, with the highest passenger capacity in their fleet. If they are forced to cancel cruises and refund people (and likely pay out some other hefty payments to keep longtime customers sweet), it will very quickly eat into their margins. DCL has shockingly high profit margins (over 25%, compared to around 10% for Carnival), so one or two missed cruises won't totally destroy their profitability this year, but it's not going to help, either. Disney investors don't want to see Carnival-level profits on Disney ships.

It's going to be really fascinating to see how long DCL holds onto this ship before doing what they should have done in the first place and passing it on to RCI to use as a similar-to-Icon/Oasis class vessel, or maybe MSC or NCL will want it to try to compete in the megaship category with something more effective than their current offerings.
 
The Reddit user noted that when the cancellation was “really disappointing, especially if vacationing with kids.”

“Good thing is that we did get to experience some parts of the cruise, sad part the shops weren’t open so couldn’t get any Disney merchandise from the cruise,” they added.
Childless Disney adult confirmed
 
Cruise sperg time. I don't give a fuck about your tired "cruise ships hurrr durrr poop something something supposedly fun thing I'll never" shut the fuck up. This is my special interest and I will sperg if I want to
Thank you for your autism, this was both enjoyable and informative.
 
Sucks for the passengers, but better in port than them doing a patch job repair and then having it fail at sea.

One thing Cruise lines do suck at, quite badly, is maintenance down time. They have to turn the entire ship over in a day or two, meaning lots of small repairs but anything major has to be put off until a repositioning trip where they can kill a lot of major systems that aren't required for repairs and upgrades. Most cruise ships have backup systems in place that can use in an emergency, but when THEY go down all hell can break loose. I believe that's actually what caused the total plumbing failure on that one cruise line recently, they were relying on backup systems designed for minimal use on a full embarkation. And it, of course, wasn't up for the job and died.

That they killed all the food serving and a bunch of the stores tells me there were some serious power issues going on, so canceling the entire trip was 100% the right call. Again, sucks for the passengers but losing power at Sea is not something you want to go through.
 
One thing Cruise lines do suck at, quite badly, is maintenance down time. They have to turn the entire ship over in a day or two, meaning lots of small repairs but anything major has to be put off until a repositioning trip where they can kill a lot of major systems that aren't required for repairs and upgrades. Most cruise ships have backup systems in place that can use in an emergency, but when THEY go down all hell can break loose. I believe that's actually what caused the total plumbing failure on that one cruise line recently, they were relying on backup systems designed for minimal use on a full embarkation. And it, of course, wasn't up for the job and died.
Sounds like a cruise ship would be a fun venue for the next Jurassic World installment.
 
I've gone on exactly one cruise. Had the fortune to go for my in-law's 60th anniversary (sadly my father-in-law passed away a few months before, but we still went because he wanted us to) on a Celebrity Cruise Line ship from LA, to Cabo San Lucas, back to San Diego, and ending up back in LA. It was a good time, got to see some very beautiful views and have some unique experiences, enjoyed seeing the USS Midway in San Diego which was berthed walking distance from where our ship was, got to go to the San Diego Zoo. However, we did have an engine go down on our way South to Mexico and we lost a day in Cabo. This was an especially big letdown for Mrs. Dude as she had booked a swim with the dolphins experience that was going to be the highlight of her trip.

I don't know that I'll ever go on another cruise unless it's paid for like my first one was. It was a great experience, but if I'm having to pay for it I think there are other things I'd rather put my money towards. And with how big and corporate the cruise industry has become, they are clearly willing to look past important issues like regular maintenance/shakedown periods in order to get the ships into service faster or keep them in service longer to keep those dollars rolling in.
 
I suppose they should be thankful that they were stranded in Singapore and not some Caribbean shithole.
 
Cruise sperg time.
Now I get to give the child's perspective as I went on many as a child:

Cruises are NOT meant for children so having even attempted to retrofit The Adventure was a fools errand to begin with: part of Carnival's profits stem from the literal babysitting services they provide onboard via a large group of kids they chaperone. Even then; they still spend most of their time as a group in the arcade and theater/some random board room doing activities all day/swimming

Even if you have agency to roam, like me and my siblings did, after day two you are ungodly bored as a kid and start throwing shit off of the boat. Its the fucking ocean and the ship is only soo big. plus once you're onboard you realize how tiny it actually is bc its effectively a floating hotel. Its ironically the only liminal space I know of you can actually pay to get trapped in; if you arent in the areas meant for you to purchase things or be "entertained by thing" on schedule you're just kinda in limbo. The port calls are completely whatever to children by the time you arrive youre like "great we get to go back on the boat afterwards" lol.

Finally: This entire process of the cruise is meant to make ADULTS relax. A Disney Family Cruise should be called what it really is: A Poor Choice for a Family's Vacation Electric Boogaloo: Only EVERYTHING COULD GO WRONG AND NOW YOURE ON A BOAT FOR TWO WEEKS DEALING WITH IT.

I want families to get to have a great vacation but I think that The Adventure is more just amplifying why a cruise is a incredibly poor vacation idea for a family and especially one with small children (vs just being an all around bad investment). Disney really does need to just bite the bullet and sell the damned thing before it forces them to admit that cruises+kids just suck
 
The ship is bizarre compared to any other ships DCL has, with multiple significant discrepancies versus all her sister ships in the DCL fleet: there's no huge atrium, which is one of the signature aspects of both DCL's ships and many other cruise lines' American-centric ships, there's "neighborhood" style planning more in the vein of a Royal Caribbean ship, and a ton of escalators because of the issues the ship had with moving people effectively in their elevator setup. One of the worst aspects of the ship if you're actually on it is that the elevator banks don't cover the whole ship, and if you pick the wrong one you could end up on a very long journey to get to wherever you're going. There are also places where you'll end up having to go down a level and then up a level to get where you're going. Annoying and not well thought out.
You've basically already said as much in the rest of this post, but this is exactly what I remember of the Oasis-class ships down to navigating by foot taking forever if you make a wrong turn and I've been on three of them. Combined with the floating casino aspect (which, if it's anything like RIC's, may very well be taking up at least a deck and a half of the lower portion of the ship), why wasn't this just pawned off on them? Fuck it, call it the Odyssey or something.
 
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