Disney cruise line not for San Diego

Walt Disney Co. the company behind one of the popular family cruises, Disney Cruise has passed on San Diego, as its base of West Coast cruise operations. The company has instead chosen Los Angeles as its new home port. The port will be used for the ship Disney Wonder.

The San Diego Unified Port District was in close competition with San Pedro Port in L.A. to become the operations base for the ship.

This decision is a part of the company’s long in development plan, of adding two ships to its fleet of ships. The ship will relocate from Port Canaveral, Florida to Los Angeles in 2011.

The announcement was made in the form of a statement issued by the office of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa regarding the company’s decision. The Mayor office welcomed this announcement, as an opportunity to generate 2,600 direct and indirect jobs.

Meanwhile, the San Diego port district officials have made it clear, that they will build a state-of-the-art terminal. This terminal is also available at the San Pedro port.

San Diego authorities have authorized this move as they have a different mindset. They are taking it like a “short term loss”. The cruise program director, Rita Vandergaw said that they are “focusing on the long term.”