The Wish's Keel Has Been Laid!

Earlier today, April 8th, Disney held a keel laying ceremony to celebrate the construction of the Disney Wish.  A keel is the bottom-most part of a ship, and today, the first block of the Wish was lowered into the dock where it will be built.  A special coin with a picture of the Wish, its hull number (705), and today's date on it was placed under that block.  You may be wondering why they did this now, because we've seen many videos of the Wish's construction progress already.  This ceremony wasn't celebrating the very beginning of the Wish's construction.  Rather, it was commemorating the start of the Wish's construction in the building dock.  Many of the sections of the ship, like a funnel, have already been built, so now, these sections have to be put together in the building dock.  Today's a very important day for the Wish, and I'm hoping that this commemoration is commemorated with a photo or two somewhere inside the ship, like this photo on the Fantasy.

In addition to the traditional keel laying celebrations, more information about the Wish was announced.  Captain Minnie Mouse was on one side of the coin, and it was announced that Minnie, not Mickey, will be on the Wish's bow, the front of the ship.  

Mickey is on the bow of the four existing DCL ships, like in this photo of the Wonder, but with the Wish, Disney is breaking tradition and putting Minnie there instead.  This change is part of DCL's work to inspire female leaders in the cruise industry.  I'm excited for this change, it'll be another thing to set the Wish apart from the older DCL ships.  I think the sixth and seventh ships will have Minnie on their bows to continue DCL's efforts.  It's funny, Minnie is on the bow, but she's not wearing a bow.  

Remember the Wish's website?  I signed up to get emails about Wish announcements, but I didn't get an email about this.  There could be one coming tomorrow or a few days from now, or maybe it'll only send emails when new features and itineraries are announced.  If you haven't done so already and are interested in the Wish, I recommend signing up for those announcements.

Speaking of announcements, the Disney Parks Blog post says that "big news is on the horizon".  Disney confirmed it, more information is coming sometime soon!  Could it be about the Wish's itineraries?  Not like we already figured those out or anything...  News about new features?  Whatever the "big news" is, I'm excited.  This should be coming pretty soon, so keep your eye out for it!