Disney Cruise Lines christened its newest and biggest ship, the Disney Dream, Wednesday, January 19, in a spectacular port-side show for dignitaries and assemble media. As two giant video screens parted to reveal the ship, anchored off shore for the show, a cast of hundreds of dancers, singers, marching bands and Disney characters, led by Mickey Mouse, filled a 16-foot champagne bottle with wishes and dreams. Once filled, the bottle was lifted by helicopter and “broken” over the port-side bow in a splash of fireworks and sparklers.

Click the image above to see a video of some of the festivities. I took out most of the speeches by Disney honchos, but one of them had a good line. Disney Parks chief Tom Staggs called for the godmother, meaning Jennifer Hudson, the academy award winning actress and singer who started her career singing aboard the Disney Wonder in 2003. Instead of Hudson, Cinderella’s fairy godmother came to the stage. Staggs said, “Fairy godmother! I haven’t seen you since I got this job.” To which the fairy godmother replied, “And you’re welcome.”

I’ll have a video tour of the restaurants and an exclusive tour of the ship’s galley soon. In the meantime, I thought you might like to see some of the really impressive show that Disney put on to launch the ship.

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