Disney Wish Returns to NYC in 2027, Sailing In After Iceland and Newfoundland Stop

Disney Cruise Line is bringing one of its biggest ships back to New York City for the first time in four years, and it's arriving with quite an entrance. The Disney Wish will homeport out of the Manhattan Cruise Terminal starting in September 2027, but only after completing a 12-night transatlantic voyage from Southampton, England, that includes an overnight stay in Reykjavík, Iceland, and a stop in St. John's, Newfoundland.

The sailing departs Southampton on September 17, 2027, with a stop in Greenock, Scotland, before the ship crosses the Atlantic and docks in New York on September 29, 2027, according to The Independent. It marks Disney's first call in Iceland since 2024 and its first transatlantic Canadian stop since 2019, according to Riding the Magic. New Yorkers haven't had a Disney ship calling the city home since the Disney Dream sailed from New York in 2023, per the seed reporting.

A Short But Packed Autumn Season on the Hudson

Once docked, the Disney Wish won't be sticking around for long — but it will be busy. Between September 29 and October 31, 2027, the ship will run seven sailings from New York, including five Bermuda cruises, three of which feature extended overnight stays, according to Gabe Travels. The seventh sailing is a seven-night run to Atlantic Canada and New England, with stops in Boston, Massachusetts; St. John, New Brunswick; and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Six of the seven New York sailings will carry Disney's seasonal Halloween on the High Seas programming, the same outlet notes.

The Disney Wish debuted in July 2022 as Disney Cruise Line's fifth vessel and the lead ship of its Wish class, according to background compiled on Wikipedia. At 144,000 gross tons, it carries up to 4,000 passengers across 1,254 staterooms and was the fleet's first ship powered by liquefied natural gas. Wish-class ships are roughly 40% larger by gross tonnage than Disney's original Magic-class vessels, making the Wish one of the largest ships in the company's fleet.

Why the Ship Is Only Now Coming Back

Disney's four-year absence from New York wasn't about a lack of local interest — it came down to where the company's limited fleet needed to be deployed. Disney Cruise Line is in the middle of an aggressive expansion, growing from five active ships in early 2024 to a planned 13 vessels operating globally by late 2030, having recently launched the Disney Treasure, Disney Destiny, and Disney Adventure, according to the Maritime Executive. That growth includes the Disney Believe arriving in late 2027, a Japan-based ship in 2029, and three planned 100,000-gross-ton vessels. The added capacity is what frees up a ship like the Wish to spend a season on a seasonal, regional homeport rather than staying anchored in Florida year-round.

Tracy Wilson, senior vice president and general manager of Disney Cruise Line operations, framed the New York return alongside other new milestones. “Disney Cruise Line is delighted to return to New York and introduce maiden calls in Panama,” Wilson said, according to the seed reporting. Wilson added that the company is “proud to be a leader in family cruising.”

Sister Ships Get Their Own New Territory

The Wish isn't the only Disney ship breaking new ground in the Fall 2027 and Spring 2028 schedule. The Disney Magic will run two 14-night Panama Canal repositioning cruises between San Diego and Galveston, making a maiden call at Fuerte Amador, Panama, in November 2027 on its eastbound run, then a maiden call at Colón, Panama, the following March on its westbound return to San Diego, according to PR Newswire. Disney's Florida-based Caribbean cruises will continue stopping at Castaway Cay and Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point, while the Disney Wish itself will spend the following summer sailing European and UK itineraries before returning to Florida homeport duty in November 2027.

Disney is also deepening its footprint in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the Wish and Disney Fantasy will both offer five- to seven-night Southern and Eastern Caribbean itineraries in Fall 2027, according to Laughing Place. Homeporting in San Juan lets the line reach deep Southern Caribbean islands without the long transit days required from Florida ports, the outlet notes. The Disney Fantasy will offer those Caribbean cruises from San Juan across both autumn 2027 and spring 2028.

Booking Windows and a Wider Fleet Shuffle

For travelers eyeing a spot on the transatlantic crossing or the New York season, booking opens to the general public on September 8, 2026, following early access for Castaway Club loyalty members that begins August 31, 2026, for the top Pearl tier, per PR Newswire's reporting. The Castaway Club's four tiers — Pearl, Platinum, Gold, and Silver — grant staggered advance booking privileges before the wider public sale.

Disney's push into new ports comes as the broader cruise industry keeps climbing. New York City's Manhattan and Brooklyn cruise terminals together welcomed roughly 1.5 million cruise passengers in 2024, generating $500 million in local economic impact and supporting nearly 3,000 local jobs, according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation. More than 2,000 of those jobs sit in tourism-dependent sectors like hotels, restaurants, retail, and ground transport.

That growth is prompting the city to modernize the very piers the Wish will use. In November 2025, NYCEDC unveiled a Master Plan to redevelop the Manhattan Cruise Terminal's 90-year-old piers, adding shore power electrical infrastructure and berthing capacity for up to two 8,000-passenger ships and one 6,000-passenger ship simultaneously. Shore power lets docked ships shut down diesel engines and plug into the city's power grid, lowering localized emissions along the West Side waterfront.

Global cruising demand has been climbing too. Worldwide passenger volume reached 31.7 million in 2023, exceeding pre-pandemic 2019 levels by 7%, while average ticket prices rose more than 40% compared with 2019 baselines, Hoodline previously reported. Industry group CLIA projects global passenger volume will approach 40 million by 2027, a backdrop that helps explain why Disney is spreading its expanding fleet across more homeports rather than concentrating it in Florida alone. Elsewhere in the 2027-2028 schedule, the Disney Adventure will offer new three- and four-night itineraries from September through December 2027 while continuing to sail out of Singapore.