It's safe to assume that most of the folks who frequent this blog likely know that the Disney Cruise Line is building two new ships: The Disney Dream and The Disney Fantasy. Both are being built by Meyer Werft Shipyards in Papenberg, Germany.
The Disney Dream will come online on January 2011. While I would love to go aboard, it is not in the cards at this time. We went on the Disney Magic for a 7-day cruise in 2001 and loved it, but I digress.
The Meyer Werft shipyard has two indoor construction docks, pictured above with the Celebrity Solstice leaving dock. Several years ago when I heard that Meyer Werft was building Disney's new ships, I checked them out. To my delight I found that they have webcams, updated weekly, that show what they are constructing.
However, to my dismay, Disney stated some time ago that their ships would not be constructed in front of the webcam. Or would they?
While checking out the weekly webcam update today, I ran across the picture above on the Meyer Werft press photo page. This is no webcam shot. This shows a much wider view of Building Dock II than the webcam, where they are currently constructing the Celebrity Eclipse, a sister ship to the Solstice. Something caught my eye. Another ship is taking shape in the same construction hall.
What ship could that be? Hmmmmmm? How about we study the photo a bit.
As stated on the Meyer Werft site, the Disney Dream will be take form through a block construction process in which pre-fabricated complete hull sections are joined together in block units and are then brought together to form the ship. The Disney Dream will be made up of 80 blocks, with the first block weighing in at approximately 380 tons.
This photo shows a number of blocks sitting waiting to be put in place. If you count the decks in these blocks, we are looking at Deck 4 of whatever ship is being constructed.
On the Disney Cruise Line site, they have a deck-by-deck breakdown of the Disney Dream. Deck 4 shows a starboard-facing theater with stadium seating. This is the Buena Vista Theatre which will show current Disney-company movies. If you notice, the Deck 4 diagram shows the promenade running along each side of the ship.
Now, take a look at the photo above. This is clearly a block with a starboard-facing stadium theater. A promenade deck is located on both the port and starboard sides of the ship. How do we know it is Deck 4? Look at the block behind it. Count the decks. This is the Buena Vista Theatre block waiting to be put in place.
Now, look at the block behind the Buena Vista Theatre. On Deck 4 of that block you can see forward-facing stadium seating that spans the entire width of the ship. What could this be? That is the Walt Disney Theatre, which will someday host live broadway-style stage shows. This too matches the Deck 4 diagram. On the diagram, there is no promenade on the port or starboard sides of the Walt Disney Theatre. The theatre goes the entire width of the ship.
One final piece to the puzzle: The Celebrity Eclipse is being constructed in Building Dock II, the larger of the two Meyer Werft buildings. See right-hand side building pictured above. Since the Disney Dream is the largest ship Meyer Werft has ever built, they would likely be using Building Dock II for the Dream as well.
The more I study this photo, the more I am convinced that it is the Disney Dream under construction.
The press photo in question here was released on October 13, 2009. It is now about a month out-of-date. The current webcam photo shows a different arrangement of ship blocks on the right side. However, on the left side there is now a ship taking shape in front of the Celebrity Eclipse.
If I am right, that is the Disney Dream. I wonder if Disney has noticed that Meyer Werft has released photos of its Top Secret under-construction ship?
