Disney Cruise Line is in the midst of an exciting era of expansion. Between now and 2030, the fleet will grow to 13 vessels, tripling in size since this current period of growth began with the launch of the Disney Wish in 2022. Three ships will launch in 2029 alone, including the first-ever Disney ship to be home ported in Japan. It’s an exciting time to be a Disney Cruise Line fan.
The next ship in the lineup, the Disney Believe, launches in 2027. Never one to miss an opportunity for pomp and circumstance, Disney Cruise Line hosted a grand reveal of the Believe for invited members of the media, showcasing the ship’s entertainment and dining offerings along with the first glimpses of what passengers can expect once onboard.
As it was revealed, the Disney Believe brings similar and returning offerings seen on other Triton class ships, primarily the Disney Wish, along with new experiences. Rather than a “copy” of the Disney Wish, however, I see the Believe as a continuation of the storytelling prowess seen on the Disney Destiny. Let’s dive into the details of all things new coming to the Disney Believe, when she sets sail, and why I’m personally excited for this new ship.
Disney Believe maiden voyage and booking timeline
Let’s start by knowing where to mark your calendars. The Disney Believe will have its maiden voyage on December 18, 2027. She will sail out of Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on four- and five-night sailings to The Bahamas and Caribbean.
These itineraries will bring the Disney Believe to Disney’s two private island destinations: Castaway Cay and Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point.
Bookings for the Disney Believe’s inaugural season open soon:
- Pearl Castaway Club Members can begin booking on October 12, 2026
- Platinum Castaway Club Members can begin booking on October 13, 2026
- Gold Castaway Club Members can begin booking on October 14, 2026
- Silver Castaway Club Members can begin booking on October 15, 2026
- General public Castaway Club Members can begin booking on October 19, 2026
Overall theme and story of the Disney Believe
As has been the trend with the Triton class ships, the Disney Believe will lean into its name as a guiding light for what passengers will experience onboard. In Disney’s words, “Walt Disney’s legacy of curiosity and discovery will be front and center, bringing to life stories and characters who believe in themselves, in their dreams, and in the promise and possibility of a better tomorrow.”
The journey begins in the Grand Hall, previously announced at the D23 Ultimate Disney Fan Event to be themed after Moana. The statue in the Grand Hall will feature Moana, Pua, and Hei-Hei.
The Grand Hall itself will be inspired by the Pacific Islands with ocean-blue color schemes, constellations adoring the ceiling (hello, fiber optic lighting), and a central chandelier that is modeled after the ocean’s fluid movement and has the heart of Te Fiti hidden within. It sounds like the Grand Hall, much like the Disney Destiny, will be a technically dynamic space and is poised to offer some incredibly neat visual moments.
The Disney Believe will have numerous firsts, another of which being the first time Pixar characters have adored the ship’s stern. Our favorite Toy Story dynamic duo, Woody and Buzz, will be featured far bigger than toy size, helping to scribe the name of the ship in yellow crayon.
The front of the Disney Believe will feature Tinker Bell, flanked by the silhouettes of other characters from Peter Pan.
READ MORE: EVERYTHING THAT WAS ANNOUNCED AT THE DISNEY EXPERIENCES SHOWCASE AT THIS YEAR’S D23 ULTIMATE FAN EVENT
Oaken’s Table: A Frozen Family Feast
One of the unique features of Disney Cruise Line is the rotational dining that brings passengers to one of three restaurants each night throughout their sailing. One of the three Triton class restaurant slots, which is a dinner show-style venue, will be a new-yet-familiar offering. Oaken’s Table: A Frozen Family Feast brings us once again to the world of the mega-popular Frozen franchise. DCL passengers who have sailed on the Disney Wish will be familiar with Arendelle: A Frozen Dining Adventure.
Oaken’s Table brings a brand new show to the space, this time set deep within a forest with Oaken and his cousins in a Scandinavian Summerhaus courtyard. Frozen fans surely won’t be disappointed, as the show will feature reimagined renditions of the franchise’s songs along with appearances from favorite characters, including Anna and Kristoff.
I suspect no one here lives under a rock and knows that, 13 years after the first film’s release, Frozen is as popular as ever, with “Let It Go” serving as a kind of perennial ear worm in the Hall of Fame of Disney tunes. That is to say, having a second Frozen-themed dinner show on a Disney Cruise Line ship should come as no surprise.
I don’t pretend to know the inner workings of how these decisions are made, but Frozen clearly continues to drive bookings at both the Disney parks as well as Disney Cruise Line. The brand is constantly revisited, whether that’s updating Audio-Animatronics on Frozen Ever After in EPCOT or the second iteration of Worlds of Frozen earlier this year at Disneyland Paris, complete with the debut of a free-roaming Olaf Audio-Animatronic.
And, having just dined again at Arendelle aboard the Wish, I was reminded of how well DCL executed that restaurant. Funky layout aside (something Disney is beholden to having ordered multiples of the same ship designs), Arendelle is a lively dinner show experience with a solid menu. It’s my personal favorite among the Disney Wish rotational dining options.
READ MORE: WHAT I WISH I KNEW BEFORE MY FIRST DISNEY CRUISE
Sea Notes
I fancy myself a creative cocktail, and the Triton class lounges deliver in spades. The Disney Believe will carry on that tradition with highly designed bars and lounges. There will be three brand-new bars and lounge spaces on board, the first of which is called Sea Notes.
The oceanic theming found in the Grand Hall makes for a natural segway into Sea notes, inspired by Ariel’s grotto from the 1989 animated classic, The Little Mermaid. A “pearlescent piano” will be the lounge’s focal point along with a menu of cocktails and non-alcoholic sips.
It feels as though Sea Notes could be more like Nightingales on the Disney Wish and less like De Vil’s on the Disney Destiny, where the iconic villain makes appearances periodically and creates a dynamic entertainment offering. If Disney can work their magic to have Ursula float in, however, Sea Notes could quickly become a fan favorite.
Wishing Well
Further down the hall on Deck 3 brings us to the Disney Believe’s midship lounge, Wishing Well. Inspired by the animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Wishing Well will evoke a gothic design inspired by the film’s iconic castle, complete with a stained-glass window and a canopy of white blossoms and red apples.
This mid-ship lounge spaces serves as a hub for various activities throughout the sailing, including trivia, drawing classes, and live music in the evenings, as well as a lounge that serves cocktails, beer, and wine.
Skygazers
The pub space located on deck 5 of the Disney Believe will be called Skygazers. This observatory-themed pub will bring passengers under an evening sky with nods to several Disney characters famous for wishing upon stars. Rather than just serving beverages, this space on the Triton class ships is also where you can order small bites while watching live sporting events on televisions situated throughout the pub.
I love the pub space on the Triton class ships, so Skygazers is near the top of my list for areas I’m looking forward to experiencing the most. My prediction for this space was more specifically focused on Fantasia as the theme, and I’m hopeful that the classic film (or at least Sorcerer’s Apprentice) will be represented in Skygazers.
Big Hero Sips and Café Kakamora
The two cafés located off of the Grand Hall mezzanines on Decks 4 and 5 will be themed to Big Hero Six (called Big Hero Sips, which wins my award for the best on-the-nose branding of the entire reveal) and Moana (called Café Kakamora). Looking for your morning pick-me-up famous for adorable character latte foam art? These are two locations onboard where you’ll find that.
Changes coming to Mickey and Friends Festival of Foods
Mickey and Friends Festival of Foods returns to the Disney Believe, but with a new addition. If you’re familiar with the layout of the pool deck food court, you’ll know that the back end located by the pool deck entrance is the barbecue section called Mickey’s Smokestack. Aboard the Disney Believe, half of Mickey’s Smokestack will now be Pluto’s Pita Platters, serving Mediterranean bites like kebabs, pitas, and the like.
This is a huge win for the Disney Believe. Mickey and Friends Festival of Foods already has a stellar lineup of offerings (Donald’s Cantina being one of my favorite places to grab a bite across the entire fleet), so I’m excited to see Mediterranean cuisine join the fold.
“Disney Encanto” live stage production
We knew Encanto would likely play a significant role on the Disney Believe based on previously released promotional materials, and our intuition was spot on.
The Disney Believe will also be the exclusive home of the first-ever live stage adaptation of the animated film Encanto.
We can also assume that Disney Cruise Line will knock it out of the park with this production. Work is underway at bringing Encanto to life onstage aboard the Disney Believe with the creative team and casting set to be a reflection of the film’s Colombian and Latin American roots.
READ MORE: MY INITIAL REACTION TO SAILING ABOARD THE DISNEY DESTINY
Gazelle entertainment hub
Much of the daily entertainment aboard the Disney Believe can be found in Gazelle, the multi-deck performance venue home to Bingo, trivia, and evening adult-exclusive entertainment. It is split between decks 4 and 5 and is where Luna is on the Wish, Sarabi on the Treasure, and Saga on the Destiny.
Gazelle will also be home to a first for Disney Cruise Line: a brand-new interactive show featuring Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde from Zootopia, where passengers are invited to help the dynamic duo solve their latest case.
Like I mentioned, the Disney Believe is likely to include entertainment elements similar to what we’ve seen on the Disney Destiny. I’m personally looking forward to the adult-exclusive entertainment, especially if something new is in the works. But passengers of all ages should anticipate unique entertainment found in Gazelle to be announced as we learn more about the Disney Believe.
Disney Believe stateroom types and themes
We also have a sneak peek at the stateroom types on the Disney Believe. The following images are a first look at one of the stateroom themes, which will be inspired by Moana. Here’s a look at the Interior staterooms…
…Oceanview…
…and Verandah.
Depending on the deck your stateroom is located, you will have one of several different themes wit coordinating artwork. Stateroom themes will include Moana, Coco, Inside Out, Lion King, Toy Story, or Zootopia. Staterooms on decks 12 and 13 will be themed to Peter Pan. This is also where you’ll find Concierge staterooms.
The Disney Believe will feature two royal suites. The first is the Royal Reef Suite themed after The Little Mermaid.
The other royal suite is the Royal Rose Suite themed after Beauty an the Beast.
The always anticipated tower suite will be themed to Magic Kingdom, aptly called the Believe Tower Suite.
The suite will be filled with nods to Walt Disney World’s castle park, like a chandelier modeled after balloons and fireworks, along with rooms themed after the park’s lands including Frontierland and Adventureland.
What existing venues are returning on the Disney Believe?
The Disney Believe will also be home to an array of other returning spaces popular among the other Triton class ships. If you’ve sailed on Triton-class ships before, you are likely familiar with the following:
- 1923
- Worlds of Marvel (Mavel Celebration of Heroes: Groot Remix)
- Haunted Mansion Parlor
- Palo Steakhouse (adult-exclusive)
- Enchanté (adult-exclusive)
- The Rose (adult-exclusive)
- Cove Bar & Cove Cafe (adult-exclusive)
- Inside Out: Joyful Sweets
- Oceaneer’s Club (with a new entryway inspired by Monsters Inc.)
- It’s A Small World Nursery
- Edge
- Vibe
- The Hideaway
- Untangled Salon
- Hook’s Barbery
- Senses Spa and Senses Fitness
- Aquamouse
- Toy Story splash area
- Wonderland and Neverland Cinemas
- Disney Seas the Adventure
- Tangled: The Musical (with new sets and updated effects)
Why I’m excited for the Disney Believe
Looking at the lineup of returning venues I included above, it can feel like a laundry list of things being “copied” over to the Disney Believe. My initial thoughts on this:
First, with the Disney Believe being the fourth Triton class ship, I wasn’t surprised to see several of these venues reappear. On the other hand, we have watched a pattern emerge where the Treasure was a very unique as the follow-up to the Wish, and the Destiny was a unique follow-up to the Treasure. That led many of us (myself included) to think there would have been more “new-ness” when it came to the Believe.
That said, I wouldn’t be so quick to write off the Believe as a “Wish 2.0” or a “copy-and-paste” ship.
First, not everything has been announced yet. There are several onboard offerings, particularly character interactions and non-Walt Disney Theatre programming, that we don’t know about at this time. Looking back to the Disney Destiny, the standout feature was the entertainment and character “meet-and-plays.”
Close-up interactions on the Disney Destiny with characters like Dr. Facilier, Cruella de Vil, and Loki transformed an already detailed cruise into a one-of-a-kind Disney story with you as the main character. I’m fairly confident the Disney Believe will expand on this.
For example, it was hinted at during the Disney Believe’s reveal that the Magic Mirror from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs could make an appearance on the ship. Whether he appears at Wishing Well has yet to be confirmed, but I’m hoping we see a more interactive experience with him a la Dr. Facilier on the Destiny.
That’s just one instance of what could be onboard, but we’ll have to wait a little longer before those magical details of the Disney Believe are revealed. Until then, I still think the Disney Believe could very well be a “best of” among the Triton class ships rather than the most unique.
That said, I absolutely see the argument being made and comparisons being drawn between the Believe and the other Triton class ships, especially the Wish. As long as both of those ships are home ported in Florida, those similarities will be even more striking. As the Disney Cruise Line fleet continues to expand, however, it’ll be to Disney’s benefit to have multiple options sailing around the globe where you can dine with Elsa and Anna or sip on a cocktail in Haunted Mansion Parlor.
Keep in mind that ahead of the Believe’s launch next December, the Disney Wish is spending summer 2027 cruising around Europe followed by a brief fall stint in New York City, making it the first time a Triton-class ship is home ported outside of Florida. It could be as simple as playing cruise ship musical chairs and Disney wanting those popular offerings (a Frozen-themed restaurant, a Tangled stage show, etc.), to be available in the Sunshine State.
Also remember that Disney Cruise Line is about to move onto an entirely new class of ships that will be more of a “blank canvas” moment for Disney to do some mold-breaking. So for now, I’m choosing to look forward to what by all accounts seems to be a grab bag of the best of what the Triton class has offered since the Wish launched just a few years ago. As I said at the beginning, it’s an exciting time to be a Disney Cruise Line fan, and I’m betting on the Disney Believe being the exact ship we need to remind us why.
