What will be the names of Disney's next cruise ships?
Let's look at the possible names for the next five ships in the Disney Cruise Line.
With the Disney Adventure sailing its maiden voyage next week, Disney has eight ships in its fleet: Disney Magic, Wonder, Fantasy, Dream, Wish, Treasure, Destiny, and Adventure. Clearly, Disney has established a convention for its cruise ship names. They are each one word, coming from Disney's established branding vocabulary.
Oh, and there's one more thing. When a member of family asked me to name Disney's ships, they arched an eyebrow and replied:
"Those are all stripper names."
And I could not disagree with that. So let's add that to the requirements, shall we?
First up, I think there's a likely Disney Cruise Line ship name from operations' favorite customer service catch-phrase, "surprise and delight." In fact, Disney Delight is my top choice for a future Disney cruise ship.
I suppose that Surprise might work, too, but - honestly, I don't think that it does because... it's a bad stripper name. Unless you are into a certain type of stripper, I suppose. Let's move on.
Taking a cue from the new Magic Kingdom parade, I think Disney Starlight also works a a cruise ship name. Disney has pulled double duty before with Disney Wish, which is both a movie and a ship. Reusing a name means one less copyright filing for the company, too.
Looking at former attraction names, I also like Disney Horizon as a ship name candidate. Disney has used Fantasy and Adventure for the fleet, so I suppose that Frontier also needs to be considered. But I can't see Tomorrow as a good cruise ship name. Again, the stripper name thing. The last thing someone in that job wants you thinking about is tomorrow.
My final choice for the five would be Disney Spectacular. "Nighttime spectacular" is a favorite Disney marketing term, so I could see Disney using that one for the cruise line, too.
My ranking:
1. Disney Delight
2. Disney Starlight
3. Disney Horizon
4. Disney Spectacular
5. Disney Frontier
What are your choices for good names for Disney's next cruise ships?
Based on the "reserved words" that Disney enjoys plucking out of its proverbial hat, I think these are in contention. Whether these would make for (good) stripper names is an exercise left to the reader.
First, Disney has recently cross-pollinated in its naming of different brands/entities (eg: "Wish" is a class of ship, a name of a ship, and a Disney film; "Adventure" is a name of a ship, embedded within the names of 2 theme parks, and Adventures by Disney is a travel division within the company). Whether this helps boost SEO or simply confuses the general public, I can't tell. But let's continue this trend with "Disney Legend." It's now an award, a title, and a cruise ship.
I'll also steal these other special words based their frequency in attraction names. I'm proposing "Disney Journey." Let's run the numbers: 1. Journey of Water 2. Journey into Imagination 3. Journey of the Little Mermaid 4. Journey to the Center of the Earth 5. Na'vi River Journey. Disney's on a Journey spree! I don't see them limiting Journey to attractions.
Along these line, "Disney Voyage" would offer similar naming logic: Submarine Voyage, Voyage to the Crystal Grotto, the defunct Voyage of The Little Mermaid. Plus, it's a cruise ship! Disney staking a claim to the term Voyage would do wonders for SEO/AI crawlers!
These last two are a grab bag: "Disney Expedition" gives similar vibes to Disney Adventure & would fit a cruise ship. "Disney Imagination" may be too on-the-nose, but sounds like something the marketing folks would do. All of their existing ships have been nouns (though some can function as both nouns & verbs), but bucking this trend with "Disney Imagine" (or "Disney Imagine!" since the naming department loves using excessive punctuation) feels cleaner and more evocative.
Here's my ranking on how likely these names will be in the future:
1. Disney Journey
2. Disney Voyage
3. Disney Imagination/Imagine(!)
4. Disney Legend
5. Disney Expedition
Anybody wanna open a Polymarket and start taking bets?