In 2024, Oriental Land Company announced that Disney Cruises would be coming to Japan. The company runs Tokyo Disney Resort and decided to expand their business. This week, OLC announced the establishment of the subsidiary Oriental Land Cruise Co. and Disney Cruise Line Japan. In this post, we’ll share the news and add our own commentary.

If you’re unfamiliar with how Tokyo Disney operates, it is owned by Oriental Land Company and then has a licensing agreement with Disney including the use of Imagineers. This deal has been fruitful for everyone as TDR has two of the best theme parks in the world and they still fall under the Disney banner. Disney Cruise Line Japan will have the same setup, with Oriental Land Company owning and operating the cruise ships while Disney has a licensing deal and likely some say in the creative and quality control aspects.

Here’s what Josh D’Amaro, current CEO and Disney Experiences chairman at the time, said when the deal was announced in 2024:

“Disney Cruise Line has ambitious plans to bring family vacations and Disney storytelling to more guests around the world than ever before. We are thrilled to continue the success of this expansion as we collaborate with Oriental Land Co. to introduce another distinctly Disney vacation experience to families and fans in Japan.”

The expansion of the business makes sense for Oriental Land Company. Tokyo Disney Resort is extremely popular and building off of that should be a hit. Sailing are expected to start in 2029.

OLC will operate a new Disney cruise ship to be registered and based in Japan year-round. The ship will be constructed at Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, with imaginative designs created by Walt Disney Imagineering. A sister ship to the popular Disney Wish, it will feature many guest-favorite venues and experiences from that ship with select modifications specially designed with Japanese guests in mind. It is expected to be approximately 140,000 gross tons and powered by liquefied natural gas, with about 1,250 staterooms.

That brings us to the news today that Oriental Land Company will establish Oriental Land Cruise Company, a wholly owned subsidiary to run cruise operations. OLCC will call Urayasu home, just like the rest of the company. Along with this, the company announced a number of leadership changes.

From the Oriental Land Company press release:

As upheld in the 2035 Long-term Management Strategy, the Company seeks to evolve its business structure to achieve sustainable growth. To this end, the Company is working to launchDisney cruise services in Japanese fiscal year 2028 as a pillar for further growth, while pursuing continued growth for Tokyo Disney Resort, its mainstay business. As part of this initiative, the Company has decided to establish a subsidiary to accelerate the commercialization of its cruise business and to manage and operate its future cruise ships in a specialized and agile manner.

Going forward, ORIENTAL LAND CRUISE CO., LTD. will operate Japan-based Disney cruise services under the name Disney Cruise Line Japan.

With regard to the Disney cruise ships that ORIENTAL LAND CRUISE CO., LTD. will operate, the Company is currently coordinating their detailed design, onboard content, and styling, among other elements, in collaboration with Disney Enterprises, Inc., based on Disney Wish, an existing Disney Cruise Line ship, to meet Japanese registry specifications. Construction will commence in the second half of Japanese fiscal year 2026.

The Company is launching Japan’s first Disney cruise ship. This will introduce a new type of experience, family entertainment cruises, to the Japanese cruise market. Please look forward to the launch of the services in Japanese fiscal year 2028.

There are a few things to glean from this update. The first is just the announcement in general – Oriental Land Company establishing a subsidiary. Financial reasons and establishing leadership on the project are the drivers here. Establishing subsidiaries is not my expertise, I understand the basics. In short, this move is to protect Oriental Land Company in case the cruise segment of the business is not successful.

Having the cruise line and theme park resort be separate entities is good news. I want to see OLC aggressively invest in their theme parks regardless of other businesses they have going. Naturally, there will be some bleed over as the cruise line gets going but I’d prefer that these be in 2 separate buckets.

The most basic takeaway from the announcement is that this project is still happening and is on the timeline that was originally announced. That’s good news! I’m interested in this project mostly because of what it could offer in terms of ports. Okinawa might be on the table as would other interesting Japanese cities that are a little harder to reach. Heck, Korea could even be in there.

That said, I prefer other forms of travel over cruises. Most of my curiosity over this comes in how it will expand Oriental Land Company and if it will be a big draw for Japanese people. Time will tell on that.

Finally, the last thing I gleaned from the press release is that ships (plural) were mentioned. When first announced there was only one ship in the cards. I’m sure that if there are multiple they won’t be coming in 2029 but maybe they’ll start working on the next one as soon as the first is ready to go? OLC doesn’t do anything small so I wouldn’t be surprised if they have another build already lined up. On the other hand, the press release could just be covering future decisions.

Establishing Oriental Land Cruise Company is the next step in bringing Disney Cruise Line to Japan. We’ll be following the progress of this project over the next few years and are excited for future updates.

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