Disney Cruise Line to Have Los Angeles Home Port in 2011!
 

However, they're giving us the Wonder, not the Magic. :(

All selfishness and personal preference aside, I think it's a poor choice, marketing-wise.

They could have seriously pitched it as, "Come sail the ship and visit the park that started it all!" Pairing the original ship with the original park seems to make so much more sense.

The two ships are identical in structure, but differ in decor and some theming.

Although, I'm happy that this will open up a realistic opportunity for a Swanking at Sea for us.

I am a plethora of mixed emotions right now.

Just for today, I shall not hate.

Sincerely,

The Bitter East Coaster.

Unfortunately, nothing about likely West Coast itineraries appeals to me.

Boat doesn't matter to me though, either way the marketing message is "Florida got new boats so you'll be wearing hand-me-downs and like it!"

The Wonder is like the red-headed step-child of DCL. It really is a smack at the west coast once again. I mean, I wouldn't mind one of the older ships, as long as we get the one that came first. Besides, she's already been here twice. It's familiar territory for her.

(Guess which side of the whole "California vs. Florida" debate I'm on? ;) )

I just hope this means I may FINALLY get on a cruise. Not having to fly to Florida brings down the cost considerably :) (Not that I could just cruise another line, but... why?)

Also, last-minute cruise deals make it a hell of a lot more affordable.

I've had dreams of just saying, "Aw, heck. Let's pack our bags and go sail next week.", and then doing it! ;)

Right, well, if I'm still with the mouse when this comes around, there's that too...

Or if I go back into the airlines (there's a whole travel industry discounting thing, like, crazy)

Our only Disney Cruise was on the Wonder - and we loved it. So as far as I'm concerned - it's a-ok!

Ken came home at lunch and made a good point:

They're probably keeping the Magic on the east coast so she can easily continue to do world-bound specialty cruises, since she's the flagship of the line, and now world-renown.

But, I'm still going to write a pleasant suggestion to DCL about the move of joint marketing the "original". Maybe they'll listen. Who knows?

Oh sure, once again - they stop having west coast summer cruises when I move down here, and they set up a home port for after I'll be gone. I see how they are! It's a conspiracy, I tells ya. Harumph!

:p

Gone???

Other than pairing the original ship to the original park (which, I must say seems pretty irrelevant) is there reason to prefer one over the other?

Nostalgia, I'm guessing

It's like preferring Disneyland's castle over WDW's. While they are both awesome, one tugs at the heartstrings a lot more.

I guess you never forget your "first" ;)

Yep. The Magic popped my cruise cherry. ;)

Ok, can't argue with that. Just wondered if there was something more to it.

And Florida's castle is way better. Maybe it would help if I had heartstrings, but years ago the Blue Fairy turned me into a real boy.

Then you may as well go full boat and love on the DLP castle... that one has an AA dragon in the basement, for crying out loud.

I liked the Paris castle as well. Different, but I liked it. And the AA dragon is better than anything in the Anaheim castle (or was until recently, I've never seen the walkthrough).

Any guesses regarding a Castaway Cay equivalent in the Pacific?

I've been on three cruises, none of them Disney. This does improve my chances.

I'm more excited about the on board Disney cruise experience than the destination, but mostly agree. My least favorite of my past cruises left from Long Beach and stopped at Catalina on the way to Ensenada. It was Norwegian and very meh.

Ooh, I hadn't even thought of that, good question.

Is there any truth to the rumor that Catalina was to be bought by Disney for exclusive use of cruise guests?

Oh, yeah: that was big news. Obviously, not well received by the residents. However, Disney offered all of them relocation bonuses and that soothed things over.

I know one of the things planned is to convert the Casino into a huge Princess Experience. I'll have to find the link about the rest of the plans.

God, could we get that rumor going, do you think? That could be really funny.

More likely candidates for Castaway Cay are Chaffee, White, or Grissom islands. Mojo to anyone (except Alex) who can name the location of the islands and the origin of the names (without google).

Chaffee and Grissom are astronauts who were killed in the line of duty, so I assume White was as well. I did not know there were islands named for them.

They are in Long beach Harbor. That was easy.

Visible JWBear mojo