Disney Cruise Line After successful Disney cruises licensed to other cruise operators, Disney decided to get into the cruise business itself. The first cruise ship, Disney Magic, set out on its maiden voyage July 30, 1998, from its home port, Port Canaveral, Florida. The second ship, Disney Wonder, had its maiden voyage on August 15, 1999. In February 1996, Disney announced the purchase of Gorda Cay, five months later renamed Disney’s Castaway Cay, a 1,000-acre uninhabited island in the Bahamas, which serves as a daylong stop for cruise passengers on the two ships. In 2007, Disney Cruise Line announced plans for the building of two new 130,000-ton cruise ships by the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany; the new ships, the Disney Dream embarked on its maiden voyage on January 26, 2011, and the Disney Fantasy on March 31, 2012.
