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I've been wondering about that Pirates & Princesses cruise... I saw video of a family meeting the princesses, and those princesses were in blatantly Disney-inspired costumes. Like, they were definitely copied from the Disney face characters. It's made me wonder how on earth they can get by with doing that. I mean, I realize it wasn't within the park, but the Branson Belle is an attraction within its own right. How has Disney not sent them a cease & desist?

Bit of a necro-post but this sort of "very close to violating copyright" happens a lot with Disney characters.  Check your local yellow pages and I guarantee you have a party princess company that will be more than happy to send over an "ice princess" that just happens to wear a blue dress and a comically improbable hairstyle.

There are a few things happening that are all semi-related.  All of Disney's popular princesses are based on public domain stories, which gives companies a bit of leeway with the characters to start.  Second, there's a bit of uncertainty as to whether Disney can actually pull off some of these defenses.  Due to pure cultural saturation (helped along by Disney, to be sure), "brunette in yellow ball gown" reads as Belle, but that is a comically broad description.  It's not out of the question the court would rule that unenforceable, which would put the Princess line in a very, very bad place. 

Meanwhile (and this is more on the speculative end), Disney probably doesn't mind their characters getting this free publicity as long as they can maintain their IP rights for use on the most egregious offenders.  In exchange for not putting the IP at risk in border/smaller cases, they further solidify these characters in the minds of children.  SDC has a meet with the "ice princess" but now the little anklebiters love the character just that much more.  They want Elsa and Anna merch, all licensed by Disney, and want to eat in Cinderella's Castle in Orlando (for a mere $75 a head...not including admission, of course).