Walt Disney World to add fourth Magic Kingdom ferry boat
Walt Disney World is adding another ferry boat to its Seven Seas Lagoon fleet.
The fourth ferry boat will enter service next year, carrying guests to and from the Transportation and Ticket Center and the Magic Kingdom. (Side note: Is it time to rename the TTC, since basically no one buys tickets there anymore?)
Disney will name the new ferry boat the Meg Gilbert Crofton, after the former president of the Walt Disney World Resort, who held that job from 2006-2013.
"I was humbled to learn that my name would be on this new ferryboat," Crofton said. "It means so much to be recognized by the cast members I had the privilege of working with for so many years."
Now I suspect that many readers might be asking whether this new boat will just be a rename for the former Liberty Belle riverboat, now that Walt Disney World has closed its Rivers of America. But if you know the Magic Kingdom and think about it for a moment, you would see that's not possible, given the design of the Liberty Belle and the dock configuration on the Seven Seas Lagoon.
Now, could Disney use part of the old riverboat in building the new ferry boat? Maybe. I don't know. I reached out to Disney for comment but have not heard back yet. But Disney did say that the new boat will be shipped in pieces to the resort over the next few weeks, so maybe if anything is coming over from the Liberty Belle, it might be installed after that.
I think the bigger consideration might be the fact that Disney's watercraft team has one fewer big boat to maintain with the decommissioning of the Liberty Belle, creating space for a new big boat in the Magic Kingdom area fleet.
And that offers the hope that maybe Disney could run a full rotation of ferry boats more often, making it an even better choice for getting between the TTC and the park.
Yeah, I said "even better." Take that, monorail fans.
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Replies (10)
Congrats to Crofton for the honor!
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This is a back-seat Imagineering take: What if the Liberty Belle became permanently moored and made into a flex-space?
At default it's dining seating with a quick-serve very close to the entrance (rather than *inside* the boat). Rentable for events like wedding receptions or a host of other reasons you want to rent space on resort.
That way you get the ability for guests to visit and utilize the Liberty Belle without the upkeep of a moving boat. Don't have a specific prescription on where; there's a few resort hotels close to water that can make that work.
Like I said, this is a back-seat driving suggestion and there's certainly other logistics I'm unaware of here. But if there's no will/desire to make the boat be transport again, this at least keeps the boat accessible to guests.
Heck no ... there's always a long line at the booths to buy tickets.
Just today, there must have been 40+ people buying tickets at the 2 open booths.
So, TTC it still is :)
I'm glad they are getting a much needed new ferry, however I will say as someone that worked for Disney when Meg Crofton was president of WDW, she had basically no accomplishments and her lack of leadership was a major reason Disney was caught flat footed when Universal hit a home run with Harry Potter and Disney spent the next decade trying to replicate that success. There were basically no e-ticket attractions built for the entire 7 years she was running the resort (unless you count Seven Dwarfs and Little Mermaid at the end, which I don't). She also didn't really care much for keeping the maintenance, upkeep, and entertainment standards WDW was known for. It wasn't until Potter opened that WDW seemed to start caring about anything again. When George Kalogridis took that role there was a noticeable and immediate push to try and make things better.
@the_man:
While I wouldn’t consider Snow White an
“E-ticket” attraction per se, I WOULD consider it an “e-ticket FAMILY attraction”. Sorry for the caps, I’m not yelling I promise, just trying to add emphasis. Anyhow, I don’t know how much sway a Resort Manager has in terms of adding new attractions or experiences to their designated domain, but I’d hazard a guess that those decisions come from on high. So I wouldn’t necessarily judge this individual’s “ferry nameability cred” on their contributions to the Magic Kingdom’s lineup of attractions.
It was literally her job to tell Jay Rasulo/Tom Staggs where and what she thought the capital allocations should be at WDW. Of course they don't have to listen to her but if she were paying attention WDW would have gotten more investment in the lead up to Potter instead of just hastily throwing together New Fantasyland when Potter was already finished.
Liberty Bell should be dry docked next to Port Orleans Riverside lobby/dining hall and made into outdoor seating for dining hall.
I'll go with that, MightyIrish.
great, now order 4 more of them and throw in a skyliner while you're at it. exiting MK after fireworks is absolute hell and so unnecessary.
So having read books on the early days of universal and Disney, one thing that seems to unite being able to judge management of both is the trash question.
So was Meg as trash scooper, or did she just ignore it?
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Shots fired there from Robert…