The ''Global'' class is a class of

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

s constructed by the German shipbuilder

MV Werften MV Werften was a Hong Kong–Germany, German shipbuilding company that operated three facilities in eastern Germany to construct cruise ships for parent company Genting Hong Kong. In January 2022, MV Werften filed for bankruptcy, and an admi ...

for

Genting Hong Kong Genting Hong Kong Limited ( zh, 雲頂香港有限公司) was a holding company that operated cruise and resort businesses. It was headquartered in (海洋中心), Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (). It was p ...

. With Genting's bankruptcy in 2022, the future of the ''Global'' class was in doubt. On November 16, 2022,

Disney Cruise Line Disney Cruise Line is a cruise line operation that is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. The company was incorporated in 1996 as Magical Cruise Company Limited, through its first vessel ''Disney Magic,'' and is domiciled in London, Englan ...

confirmed it acquired the unfinished ''Global Dream''. The second unfinished ship has been scrapped.

History

ordered two ships of the class in May 2016 from its subsidiary Lloyd Werft Group for service in the

Star Cruises StarCruises is a cruise line owned by the Malaysian company Resorts World Cruises. Previously it operated in the Asia-Pacific market and was owned by Genting Hong Kong. It was the 18th largest cruise line in the world after Carnival Corpora ...

fleet, with delivery of the first vessel planned for 2019. In July 2016, Genting Hong Kong reorganized Lloyd Werft Group, resulting in the formation of

as a builder of large cruise ships; accordingly, the Global class order was transferred to Dream Cruises. At the time they were ordered, the design of the ships had not been completed, and as a result construction did not begin until March 2018, when ceremonial steel cuttings for the first ship in the class were held at shipyards in

Wismar Wismar (; ), officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar () is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the fourth-largest city of Mecklenburg after Rostock, Schwerin and ...

and

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

. Major components of the ships were constructed at both shipyards, with assembly taking place in Wismar. Construction was scheduled to take just under three years, with the first ship to be delivered in late 2020 and the second in late 2021. In March 2018, Genting Hong Kong announced that the two planned ''Global''-class ships would be operated by

Dream Cruises Dream Cruises is a cruise line owned by the Malaysian company Resorts World Cruises. It was previously owned by Genting Hong Kong. Genting announced the introduction of Dream Cruises in November 2015 in Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese pos ...

upon delivery, sailing from Chinese ports during the summer season and further afield in Southeast Asia, Oceania and the west coast of the United States during the remainder of the year. The construction of the first ship, ''Global Dream'', started on 8 March 2018 at the facilities in Wismar and Rostock. The

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element of a watercraft, important for stability. On some sailboats, it may have a fluid dynamics, hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose as well. The keel laying, laying of the keel is often ...

was laid on 11 September 2018 in Rostock. A big part of the ship left the drydock in Rostock on 22 November 2019 and was towed to Wismar, were it entered the drydock on 23 November 2019. The construction of the second ship, unnamed but sometimes referred to as ''Global Dream II'', started on 10 September 2019 in Rostock. The keel was laid in Rostock on 9 December 2019. Due to the temporary closure of the shipyard in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the delivery of both ''Global''-class ships was expected to be delayed. The unfinished ''Global Dream II'' was cancelled in June 2022 after shipbuilder MV Werften filed for bankruptcy in January 2022, with the hull to be sold for scrap as the administrators could not find a buyer and the shipyard needs the space it occupies. On November 16, 2022,

purchased the ''Global Dream'' for €40 million, a discount from the original value of €1.8 billion. Disney plans to work with the shipbuilding company

Meyer Werft Meyer Werft (; ) is a German shipbuilding company, headquartered in Papenburg at the river Ems. It was founded in 1795, as a builder of small wooden vessels. It has been owned and managed by the Meyer family for seven generations. Since ...

to complete the unfinished ship as ''

Disney Adventure ''Disney Adventure'' is the upcoming eighth cruise ship owned and operated by Disney Cruise Line, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, due to enter service on December 15, 2025. ''Disney Adventure'' is the first and only ship of the , with ...

'' by 2025. working together with LTH-Baas from Estonia.

Design

''Global''-class ships were originally planned to measure , but were increased to 208,000 GT in the final design. They are in length, with a beam of and a draft of . They are powered by six

MAN Diesel & Turbo Everllence SE (Societas Europaea) is a German manufacturer of large diesel engines and turbomachinery for maritime and stationary applications headquartered in Augsburg. The company develops and manufactures Two-stroke diesel engine, two-stroke ...

48/60CR diesel engines, which make a total of and power three ABB

Azipod Azipod is a trademarked azimuth thruster pod design, a marine propulsion unit consisting of a fixed pitch propeller mounted on a steerable gondola ("pod") containing the electric motor driving the propeller, allowing ships to be more maneuverab ...

XO thrusters via ABB electrical generators. ABB also supplied major control components and software. The ships were planned to use

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

and robots for many customer-facing services, with extensive use of voice and face recognition. The pre-Disney design provided for 2,350 passenger cabins allowing for 9,000 passengers, 4,700 of those in lower berths. Her crew was to be 2,200. Disney's announcement of the acquisition stated her expected passenger capacity to be around 6,000 passengers, with a crew of approximately 2,300.

Ships

Notes

References

{{Disney Cruise Line Cruise ship classes Disney Cruise Line

History

Design

Ships

See also

Notes

References