For many years, people have enjoyed Disney magic, and starting on this day in 1999, the public could see Disney wonder as well, the Disney Wonder cruise ship, that is. Like its sister ship, Disney Magic, the 964- foot Disney Wonder blends classic beauty and grace with all the modern luxuries, technology, and comforts that make cruising a pleasure. Construction of the wondrous vessel took place in the celebrated Fincantieri shipyards in Italy, known for excellent engineering, craftsmanship, and ingenuity. Walt Disney Imagineering was heavily involved in the design of the ships. Disney Legend and Imagineer Orlando Ferrante, whose career with Disney goes back as early as coordinating the relocation of Disney’s 1964 World’s Fair attractions to Disneyland, recalled, “One of the most fun things I ever did was when they were building two Disney cruise ships in Italy. I was asked to go over there and help finish the first one and make sure the second one [the Disney Wonder] got off on time. I spent a year in Venice. The shipyard was in Venice, but we lived in a little town called Treviso which was about 20 kilometers north of Venice—a small little rural community. That was really fun! We only had a small group of people, WDI people, about 20 of us… from Entertainment, from Foods, from Special Effects, and we had some coordinators and technical people and a crew of inspectors. The inspectors that we hired ourselves became a maintenance crew aboard the ship. It was the same philosophy as when you’re building a show or a ride. I was on loan from the Tokyo DisneySea project. After we finished the ships and they sailed away, we came back here and then went back up and finished Tokyo DisneySea, but it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”
