Disney to double spend on theme parks...

Disney Cruise Line will almost double worldwide capacity

The Walt Disney Company plans to almost double spend on accelerating the expansion of its theme parks and cruise line to US$60 billion over the next decade.

The huge investment projection was disclosed at an investor summit at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando.

The gathering of Wall Street analysts and investors focused on Disney’s parks business and its track record of investing “aggressively and intelligently” in experiences that leverage powerful Disney stories.

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Disney Parks has more than 1,000 acres of land for possible future development to expand theme park space across its existing sites – the equivalent of about seven new Disneyland sites.

Disney Cruise Line will nearly double its worldwide capacity, adding two ships in the 2025 financial year and another in 2026, delivering even further growth potential and introducing new markets to Disney experiences.

This includes Singapore as a new homeport from 2025 to expand the company’s reach further into the Asia-Pacific region.

The cruise arm is seen as a “powerful ambassador” for the brand in ports and markets around the globe beyond its theme parks, including Australia and New Zealand for the first time later this year.

Chief executive Bob Iger said: “We’re incredibly mindful of the financial underpinning of the company, the need to continue to grow in terms of bottom line, the need to invest wisely so that we’re increasing the returns on invested capital, and the need to maintain a balance sheet, for a variety of reasons. The company is able to absorb those costs and continue to grow the bottom line and look expansively at how we return value and capital to our shareholders.”

Disney parks, experiences and products chairman Josh D’Amaro added: “We have an ambitious growth story that is supported by a proven track record and a bold vision for the future of our parks business. We have a wealth of untapped stories to bring to life across our business. We stand alone when it comes to scale. And while our scale is impressive, we have no shortage of space or regions of the world in which to tell new stories.”