How Scottish Ports Won Over Disney
This year Disney Cruise Line (DCL) carried out their inaugural Round Britain and Ireland cruise.
For a number of years individual Cruise Europe ports, such as Invergordon, had been talking to DCL about doing just such a cruise. However about three years ago a number of Scottish ports and a ground handling agent got together to make a joint approach to Disney to persuade them to come to Scotland.
A lot of research went into the project which found that the Disney Magic class of ship either needed to dock, or go to, a port that had sufficient shore tenders to handle her 2,800-passenger capacity. Other findings were that DCL were looking for different port adventures and specifically those appealing to children which can account for one-third of the passengers on board.
It was identified that only three ports in Scotland at that time could dock Disney Magic: Greenock, Kirkwall and Invergordon so the presentation featured this but also that port adventures/shore excursions to Edinburgh could be run from Greenock which was important.
The presentation to DCL was created by Morrison Tours (European Cruise Service) and was based on the themes in the Disney/Pixar animated film ‘Brave’ which featured many Scottish actors and actresses.
DCL invited the four members from Cruise Scotland to make the presentation to senior cruiseline executives at the annual Cruise Shipping Miami trade show in March 2014.
“Within six months we were told that Disney Cruise Line would be doing a Round Britain and Ireland cruise in 2016, but we were told to keep it a secret for a further year as DCL had a specific timetable for the announcement,” explained Captain Iain Dunderdale.
“With great excitement this year Disney Magic called at Invergordon for the first time on June 8, with a further call on July 23,” he added. She is scheduled return on two calls next year.
Several other CE members also had Disney Magic calls this year including Greenock, Liverpool, Dublin, Le Havre, Dover, Copenhagen, Oslo, Kristiansand, Bergen and Akureyri.
