Disney Cruise Line announces North Pole itinerary

Cruise line guests will get to visit the workshop, see the elves and penguins, and meet St. Nick in person!

CELEBRATION, FL — It’s a cruise itinerary that has been in the works for decades. “Ever since Disney Cruise Line was founded in the late 1960’s, we’ve been trying to score a North Pole itinerary at Christmastime,” DCL president Anthony Connelly tells Uncle Walt’s Insider.

“The logistics of it, and the permissions required, are a nightmare,” Connelly continues. “Besides the multi-national jurisdictions the cruise covers, and the environmental concerns, Santa is also very reluctant to allow visitors to his workshop in December, or even January. They don’t want visitors interrupting their work before Christmas, or their ‘play time’ afterwards. But they’re making an exception for Disney!”

Shore excursions

The North Pole will still be off-limits in the days leading up to the Big Day, but will visit the workshop on December 27, giving Santa a full day to rest up. Cruisers will board the Disney Fantasy at DCL’s spacious new cruise terminal at Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska, and will then enjoy several days at sea before stopping at Santa’s Workshop.

Not all of the details have been worked out, but possible shore excursions may include:

• Reindeer aerial tours
• Penguins in their natural environment
• Toymaking then and now: from wooden horsies to PlayStations
• Taste the Reindeer: a North Pole culinary journey
• Elf-guided tours of the workshop
  .

Come see us!

After leaving the North Pole, the Fantasy will stop at Longyearbyen, Svalbard, then onto Reykjavik, Iceland and Nuuk, Greenland, before returning to Alaska.

Svalbard is, of course, the current headquarters of Uncle Walt’s Insider, for legal reasons we’d rather not discuss publicly. So come see us when you’re here! We’ll give you a tour of the desk, if Marty isn’t sleeping on it.

Will you be cruising to visit Santa? Let us know in the comments below!

Need more Uncle Walt’s in your life? Be sure to LIKE us on Facebook, FOLLOW us on Twitter, and tell everyone you know (plus a few strangers) how wonderful (and humble) we are!

Cover photo: The Disney Fantasy at the North Pole; public domain [CC0], courtesy Pixabay & Tvabutzku1234 at Wikimedia Commons.