Why Disney Loves Cruises
The other day, I discussed Disney’s renewed commitment to cruises.
Since then, I’ve learned some of the math behind Disney’s decision.
Let’s discuss why Disney loves cruises.
Disney Parks Make All the Money
Disney just reported its earnings for fiscal 2025.
Let’s just say that Disney theme parks are driving the bus, which we already knew, but now we have data confirmation.
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During Disney’s 2025, the company earned $94.4 billion in revenue.
Disney Experiences soared to $36.2 billion of it, or 38 percent.
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That’s not the most impressive thought, though.
As a company, Disney gained operating income of almost $17.6 billion.
Disney is a large company with myriad revenue streams, yet most of their profit came from the Experiences division.
Theme parks, cruise ships, and so forth netted Disney almost exactly $10 billion.
Photo: Getty
Remarkably, this segment gained $723 million from the previous year.
That’s an 8 percent gain on Disney’s most profitable division.
Walt Disney Company
You may recall that Disney promised a $60 billion investment in the experiences division over the next decade.
The $10 billion net income in fiscal 2025 explains the decision, at least partially.
The Walt Disney Company
But there’s more to it than that. Disney projects growth in its Experiences revenue each time it expands.
At the theme parks, CFO Hugh Johnston just explained how each time Disney adds a new themed land or experience, attendance surges.
Photo: Disney
However, we know based on the past three years of data that Disney’s theme park attendance numbers have largely plateaued.
As strange as it may sound, Disney doesn’t want more guests at the park, as larger crowds reduce customer satisfaction.
Instead, the company targets the same number of guests to pay the same amount of money.
That 8 percent growth in Disney experiences may seem like the strategy is working, but that’s only part of the story.
Photo: Disney via Nikkei Asia
Disney cruise ships represent the X-factor in the equation.
Treasure at Sea
Disney Cruise Line reached an unplanned inflection point in 2020.
Disney had committed billions of dollars toward the creation of three new cruise ships.
Photo: Disney
These Wish-class ships would have dramatically expanded the amount of inventory capacity from 13,400 tourists to 25,400, basically doubling revenue in the process.
The pandemic wrecked those plans, with the Disney Wish roughly half complete and its shipbuilder, Meyer Werft, heading toward bankruptcy.
The shipbuilder struggled to complete the Wish while honoring social distancing guidelines, which forced a delay in the creation of all three Wish-class vessels.
The weird thing about inflection points is that sometimes you look back and think, “Huh, everything worked out better than I would have ever thought possible.”
(Kent Phillips, photographer)
That’s the perspective of the people in charge of Disney Cruise Line at the end of 2025.
With extra time to plan the Disney Treasure and the Disney Destiny, these ships turned into masterpieces.
Meanwhile, a different Meyer Werft customer, Genting Hong Kong, did go bankrupt, while Germany itself bailed out Meyer Werft.
Unexpectedly, the pandemic provided Disney with an opportunity to purchase the Disney Adventure for only two percent of the price it should have required. Yes, I said two percent!
Photo: inselvideo
That vessel will be Disney’s largest ever, hosting up to 6,000 guests per sailing.
In total, after a shaky start to the 2020s, Disney will have increased its total cruise inventory from 14,400 to 31,400 in less than four years.
Disney
Disney’s not stopping there, either. The company has confirmed that six more cruise ships will set sail by the end of 2031.
Basically, Disney Cruise Line’s capacity will double again over the next six years.
Why Disney Loves Cruises
Walt Disney
Barron’s, a financial publication and classier sibling to the Wall Street Journal, recently examined Disney’s unexpected recommitment to the cruise industry.
They used the work of Seaport Research’s David Joyce in evaluating The Walt Disney Company’s growth potential, focusing exclusively on the cruise business.
Photo: Disney
According to Joyce, the Disney Treasure, the Disney Destiny, and the Disney Adventure “could add over $2.8 billion of revenue and over $500 million of operating income for Disney next year.
That’s a respected analyst stating that the three newest DCL ships will increase the bottom line of the Experiences division by half a billion.
Photo: Disney
We’re talking about 3 percent total growth for Disney as a business and a 5 percent boost to Disney Experiences just from these three ships.
Now, let’s go ahead and extrapolate that data to factor in six more ships arriving by 2031.
Photo: Disney
The math gets a little fuzzy because Disney has confirmed smaller ships capable of more agility, which should lead to reduced capacity.
To a larger point, nothing Disney will add over the next decade will be on the scale of the Adventure.
Photo: Disney
Still, if three more ships add $2.8 billion in revenue and $500 million in operating income, we have a good guess about the value of the next portion of the fleet.
They should add another $5 billion in revenue for Disney, and nearly $1 billion in operating income.
Photo: Disney Cruise Line
Factoring in inflation, I suspect it will be $1 billion by the end of 2031.
Disney’s Big Bet Pays Dividends
Photo: Disney
So, Disney’s renewed commitment to the cruise industry should add nearly $8 billion in revenue and $1.5 billion in operating income starting next year.
You may wonder whether Disney can sustain this kind of momentum or if it risks saturation with its cruise ships.
Disney Treasure Deck Tour
Based on what we know, DCL remains the highest performer on customer satisfaction surveys, and I don’t anticipate that changing anytime soon.
While everyone else is focusing on theme park expansion to pack more guests into the parks, the reality is that the cruise expansion should prove much more lucrative to Disney.
Photo: MickeyBlog
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