Disney Cruise Line - Final Grade: "A-"
Disney Cruise Line, was founded by the Walt Disney Company in 1995. Headquartered in Celebration, Florida, Disney’s current cruise ship fleet consists of four large ships built in 1998, 1999, 2010 and 2011. The original two ships, the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder have carrying capacities of approximately 3,400 passengers and crew. The two new ships have much larger carrying capacities of approximately 5,500 passengers and crew.
Disney’s four ships have installed advanced sewage treatment systems, resulting in a grade of A for the company’s 100 percent sewage treatment score. In determining the air pollution reduction grade for each cruise line, only ships that dock at a port that currently has shoreside power (thereby avoiding burning dirty fuel in port) were considered. In total, 73 percent of Disney’s ships that dock at a port with shoreside power are plug-in capable, giving the company a B- in this category (two of the ships Disney has equipped with shoreside power hookups, the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy, are currently not being sent to ports where shoreside power is offered, so for purposes of determining Disney’s air pollution reduction grade, these ships were only given half credit). None of Disney’s ships traveled to Alaska in 2010, but the Disney Wonder is headed to Alaska in 2013.
Disney Cruise Line - Cruise Ship Fleet
| Ship Name | Total Persons on Board | Destinations | Sewage Treatment | Air Pollution Reduction | Water Quality Compliance | Final Ship Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disney Magic | 3345 | Caribbean, Europe, Mediterranean, U.S. East Coast, Canada, New England | A | F | N/A | C- |
| Disney Wonder | 3345 | Alaska, Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, U.S. West Coast, Hawaii | A | A | N/A | A |
| Disney Dream | 5458 | Caribbean | A | C | N/A | B+ |
| Disney Fantasy | 5450 | Caribbean | A | C | N/A | B+ |
Grading methodology for the 2012 Cruise Ship Report Card
Friends of the Earth’s Cruise Ship Report Card ranks 15 major cruise lines and 148 cruise ships -- Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Costa Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Cunard Cruise Line, Disney Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Oceania Cruises, P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Royal Caribbean Int’l, Seabourn Cruise Line and Silversea Cruises -- according to three environmental criteria: Sewage Treatment, Air Pollution Reduction, and Water Quality Compliance.
- To determine a cruise line’s Sewage Treatment grade, we compared the number of cruise ships in the cruise line that have installed advanced sewage treatment systems against the total number of ships in the cruise line.
- To determine the Air Pollution Reduction grade for each ship in a cruise line, only ships that dock at a port and plug in to available shoreside power hookups were graded.
- To determine the Water Quality Compliance grade for ships operating in Alaska, we used 2010 notices of violation issued for individual cruise ships to each cruise line by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation. Ships were given an ‘N/A’ if they traveled to Alaska but avoided Alaska’s strong water quality standards by discharging outside of those protected waters.
- The grades for each of the criteria were averaged to calculate the Final Grade for each cruise line.