Fans booking Disney Adventure cruise on opening day face difficulties due to overwhelming demand
Sarah Stanley
The Straits Times
Dec 10, 2024
Bookings for Disney Adventure - Asia's first Disney Cruise which will be homeporting in Singapore for at least five years - opened on Dec 10 to overwhelming demand, with its inaugural sailing selling out within the day.
Disney Cruise Line (DCL) released Disney Adventure sailings for dates between December 2025 and March 2026, with its maiden voyage taking place on Dec 15, 2025.
While passengers who book a Disney Cruise typically have 72 hours to put down a 20 per cent deposit to confirm their booking, those who have snagged a room on Disney Adventure's maiden voyage have 24 hours to do so instead. If the deposit is not put down within the time limit, the booking will be released to the public.
Those booking via DCL's website took to social media to air their grievances about difficulties in loading the booking system and the hours-long delays they faced while trying to secure a room. Some also mentioned that they were unable to make payment for their bookings.
DCL has included a banner on its website apologising for the inconvenience as it is experiencing higher traffic than usual, and pre-empted users about possible delays.
Travel operators also found it difficult to log into the booking system.
In an interview with Lianhe Zaobao, Mr Ong Han Jie, director at tour agency EU Holidays, said that around 100 customers had previously booked voyages on Disney Adventure via the company.
On Dec 10 at 3pm, just over 20 bookings had been completed by EU Holidays due to overwhelming demand affecting the booking system.
In response to a query from The Straits Times, a DCL spokesperson says it received warm response from both domestic and overseas markets since it launched ticket sales and that all sailing dates were in high demand.
The spokesperson adds that key markets are likely to be India, China and Indonesia, based on Singapore's tourism arrivals and dominant market sources.
Travel booking platform Trip.com reported that its first Disney Adventure booking was made within 55 seconds of the booking system opening on Dec 10 at 8am, and more than 500 bookings were made within the first 10 minutes.
Mr Edmund Ong, general manager of Trip.com Singapore, says: "Singaporeans are at the forefront of bookings, with significant demand also coming from other South-east Asian markets. Malaysia, Hong Kong and Thailand are the top three international markets."
Checks by ST on Dec 10 at around 5pm found that bookings could not be made via online travel agency Klook, while limited slots remained on travel booking websites KKDay and Traveloka.
A Traveloka spokesperson says: "We observed a surge of traffic when the tickets became available earlier today (Dec 10), and have been seeing bookings come in steadily from customers in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. Searches for the Disney cruises on our app have also stayed high throughout the day since bookings opened."
Its spokesperson adds that the maiden voyage and sailing dates during the Christmas and New Year periods are currently the most popular.
Disney Adventure, which features seven themed areas and a roller coaster on its upper decks, will not have any ports of call.
Three- and four-night voyages from January 2026 to March 2026 are still available. Three-night cruises start at $1,413, while four-night cruises start at $1,864.
