Disney about to get hands on Fantasy

Disney Cruise Line is about to officially grow its fleet to four ships on Thursday when it gets delivery of the new Disney Fantasy.

The Fantasy has been undergoing sea trials in the North Sea after nearly two years of construction at the Meyer-Werft shipyard at Papenberg, Germany.

It left the shipyard in January and has been testing and adjusting various operation systems ahead of the official handover to DCL in Bremerhaven, Germany. The Fantasy will depart Germany on Feb. 16 making several stops during is transatlantic crossing before arriving at Port Canaveral on March 6.

The christening for the Fantasy will be in New York City on March 1, the first time a Disney ship will be christened away from Central Florida. The ship's debut voyage will be on March 31 and then begin offering alternating seven-night cruises to the eastern and western Caribbean with stops at Castaway Cay, the line's private island in the Bahamas.

While the exterior of the ship is finished, a DCL spokesperson said the line will be putting finishing touches on the ship all the way up to its debut voyage. The Fantasy is a sister ship to the Disney Dream, which debuted in 2010. Both ships can carry more than 4,000 passengers and join the line's two older ships, the Disney Wonder and Disney Magic.

The Fantasy and the Dream will be based out of Port Canaveral sailing a variety of itineraries to the Bahamas and eastern and western Caribbean.

The Disney Wonder, which has been sailing out of the Port of Los Angeles, will head to Alaska this summer before repositioning to the Port of Miami at the end of the year for Caribbean sailings. The Disney Magic, which had been sharing Port Canaveral space with the Dream, next heads to New York for the summer before making its debut at the Port of Galveston this fall.