| From DCL news:
DISNEY DREAM BEGINS: In a ceremony held in Papenburg, Germany on Aug. 26, 2009, Captain Tom Forberg and Donald Duck did the honors of placing a special Disney Cruise Line coin under the keel of the Disney Dream, Disney’s newest cruise ship, currently under construction at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg.
The keel laying ceremony is the first time the Disney Dream will begin to take shape after many years of design work. In the maritime industry, the ceremony marks a momentous occasion when the first block – or section – of the ship is lowered into the building dock and a coin is placed under the keel for good fortune.
Doing the honors of placing the coin was Captain Tom Forberg. With a distinguished maritime career aboard Disney Cruise Line, Forberg was the first crew member hired and the captain who launched the Disney Magic and the Disney Wonder. Recently, Forberg was named as the future Master of the Disney Dream.
The ship will continue to take its 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.
Both of Disney’s new ships, the Disney Dream and the Disney Fantasy, scheduled to debut in 2011 and 2012, respectively, are destined to expand family cruise options to more people in more places around the world. Each ship will have 1,250 staterooms and be 128,000 tons. |