McAlpin said the shift is designed to accommodate families clamoring for longer Caribbean cruises in the summer, when children are out of school. “People just want a little more time,” McAlpin said.

Disney’s return trip to Europe comes as it is having two 4,000-passenger cruise ships built in Germany. While the company has committed to basing the new vessels at Port Canaveral for the first few years after they arrive in 2011 and 2012, Disney has been silent about where it plans to send the existing ships.

Some analysts have speculated that California and Europe are the most likely destinations. And Disney’s scheduling so far — it has twice sent the Magic to California, for the summers of 2005 and 2008, and has now announced its second stint in Europe — suggests that both are strong possibilities.

McAlpin cautioned against drawing conclusions from the moves.

“I think you can read into it that we’re exploring new waters and testing the levels of demand,” he said. “But there are a lot more new frontiers.”

McAlpin said Disney expects to reveal its 2011 plans for the Magic and Wonder in the latter half of next year.

Disney’s 2010 schedule calls for the Magic to begin and end the season in the Mediterranean. Many of the ports Disney will visit remain the same from 2007 — including the gateways to Rome, Florence and Nice, France — but Disney has also added stops at the island nation of Malta; the French island of Corsica; and Tunis, the capital of Tunisia on the North African coast.

The Northern European sailings will be sandwiched in between, in June and July. Sailing out of England, each voyage will include stops in Oslo, Copenhagen, and the gateway port to Berlin, as well as either Helsinki, Finland, or Tallinn, Estonia. Each trip will also include an overnight stop in St. Petersburg, Russia, giving passengers an extended window to explore the storied city or plan a day trip to Moscow. McAlpin called the St. Petersburg stop “the gem of the itinerary.”

Disney will also offer a pair of 14-night, one-way “repositioning” cruises that will take the Magic from Port Canaveral to Barcelona and back. McAlpin said Disney is studying special themes for the transatlantic voyages in hopes of boosting their appeal.

Beyond catering to Americans looking to visit Europe, the new overseas sailings will offer Disney a chance to begin marketing its cruise line directly to European travelers. Earlier this year, Disney Cruise Line opened an office in London with about 20 employees, in part to help the company better tap into the European cruise market.

“We’re looking to explore marketing in Europe,” McAlpin said. “That’s not a primary focus. But it’s certainly an opportunity.”