Word: shipping
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Some media types gathered last week on a high deck of the M/S Disney Magic, impressed despite themselves at the grandeur of the 83,000-ton ship as it cut through the balmy Caribbean night on its final preinaugural cruise. "We're not moving, you know," one of the journalists joked. "It's just a big fan out there." Behind them, a sturdy voice piped up, "Well then, when you leave, would you turn it off?" The speaker was Michael Eisner, Disney's chairman and CEO, ever eager to make a joke about saving a buck...
...though there's no casino on board, it's also a floating crap game. The stakes are high: Disney will launch a second vessel, the Wonder, next June, and Eisner grandly hopes for a 10- or 12-ship fleet, sailing from Florida, California and the Mediterranean, within the next decade. He's betting that the cruise industry, which fills its cabins with discounted fares, can accommodate a competitor that charges 20% higher than the norm (starting at $860 for a three-day cruise, including airfare, compared with $648 on the Royal Caribbean line's Nordic Empress). The ship is heavily...
...would have been one of that group. He is not, he says, "a cruise guy." This type-A landlubber didn't see himself having fun trapped on a veritable retirement community at sea, where the most extreme sport was shuffleboard. So the Magic is not your grandma's cruise ship. Like Disney's parks and animated features, it is boldly designed to appeal to every demographic...
...were gently escorted out.) As for the grownups, they can dine in a no-kids restaurant--Palo, with decent Northern Italian cuisine--or visit an adults-only comedy club, Off Beat, where the humor is saucy but not blue. No Mickey Viagra gags; after all, this is a Disney ship...
...rats desert a sinking ship, mice teem over this one. There are mouse ears on the walls, lamps and smokestacks. A life-size Mickey strolls the decks, waving a cheery hi. Minnie is also aboard, flirting shamelessly; if she spoke, she would be saying, "Hello, sailor!" A huge Goofy adorns the stern. And when the Magic leaves port, the ship's horn blasts seven ominous notes: "When...you...wish...up...on...a...star...