Disney Cruises to Launch in Japan in FY 2028

Urayasu, Chiba Pref., July 9 (Jiji Press)--Tokyo Disney Resort operator Oriental Land Co. said Tuesday that it will launch Disney cruises in Japan in fiscal 2028.

For the cruise service, a 140,000-ton ship with a capacity of about 4,000 passengers will be newly built from fiscal 2025, based on the largest of the five ships currently in service for Disney cruises in the United States, which began in 1998.

The new ship will house a wide range of facilities, including a musical theater, swimming pool, water slide, bar and spa, as well as a restaurant where passengers can enjoy shows featuring Disney characters while dining. It will be one of the largest Japanese-registered cruise ships.

Oriental Land will invest a total of around 330 billion yen in the cruise business. It expects the annual number of passengers to reach about 400,000 in a few years, while projecting sales of around 100 billion yen.

Initially, the new cruise ship will spend two to four nights sailing from and back to ports in the Tokyo metropolitan area. In the future, Oriental Land will consider a route that includes overseas ports.

There will be about 1,250 guest rooms of various classes on the ship, with standard rooms expected to cost 100,000-300,000 yen per person.

Disney cruises will allow guests to have "extraordinary experiences at sea that are different from those at theme parks," Oriental Land President Kenji Yoshida said at a press conference.

The cruise experiences will be "seamless" thanks to the elimination of travel and waiting time, he noted.

"We have been thinking for a long time about offering services outside the Maihama area" in the city of Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, where the Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea theme parks are located, Yoshida said.

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