Magic Kingdom Ferryboats
| Magic Kingdom Ferryboats | |
|---|---|
| Park | Walt Disney World |
| Type | Ferry transportation across Seven Seas Lagoon |
| Opened | October 1, 1971
|
| Status | Operating |
Magic Kingdom Ferryboats are the three large double-ended ferries that carry guests across Seven Seas Lagoon between the Transportation and Ticket Center and Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida. The boats — General Joe Potter, Admiral Joe Fowler and Richard F. Irvine — are each able to carry about 600 guests, making the ferry the highest-capacity link between the main car parks and the park, and for many visitors the first and last ride of the day. Ferry service across the lagoon began with the resort's opening on October 1, 1971.
History
Walt Disney World was designed so that drivers would park a mile from Magic Kingdom and complete the journey as an experience in itself, by monorail or by water. On opening day the lagoon crossing was worked by two Osceola-class sidewheel steamboats, Ports-O-Call and Southern Seas, each carrying only around 200 to 250 passengers. The first holiday crowds overwhelmed them, and within a month Disney had plans in motion for much larger vessels.
The answer was a pair of diesel ferries modelled at about three-quarter scale on New York's Staten Island Ferry, with a pilot house and engines at both ends so they never need to turn around. Built at a Tampa Bay shipyard and weighing some 380,000 pounds each, Magic Kingdom I and Magic Kingdom II entered service on July 2, 1972. A third, slightly lighter boat, Kingdom Queen, followed on June 30, 1976.
In the late 1990s the three ferries were renamed for men central to building Walt Disney World. Magic Kingdom I became Admiral Joe Fowler, after the retired naval officer who had overseen construction of both Disneyland and Walt Disney World; Magic Kingdom II became Richard F. Irvine, after the leader of the design organisation that became Walt Disney Imagineering; and Kingdom Queen became General Joe Potter, after the former Army general who served as the Florida project's senior on-the-ground executive and the resort's first senior vice president. Each boat keeps its identity in colour: green panels for the Fowler, red for the Irvine and blue for the Potter.
Operation
The ferries run between the ferry dock at the Transportation and Ticket Center, beside the main Magic Kingdom car parks, and a dock directly in front of the park entrance. The crossing is about a mile and takes roughly five to seven minutes on the water, with loading and unloading at each end. Boats are about 120 feet long and 35 feet wide, draw little more than five feet — shallow enough to pass over the water bridge between Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake — and are powered by twin diesel engines.
Service begins before the park opens and continues after closing until the last guests have left. In the morning the boats share the arrival flow with the monorails on the other side of the ticket centre; at park closing, when thousands leave at once, the ferries' capacity — around 600 guests per sailing, noticeably more than a monorail train — often makes them the faster option despite the slower crossing. All three boats run at peak times, with sailings a few minutes apart, and one or two suffice off-season. Boarding is level and step-free, and the lower deck is fully accessible.
For repeat visitors the crossing has a ritual quality: Cinderella Castle grows on the horizon as the boat pulls away from the dock, and at night the ferries pass the Electrical Water Pageant and offer a distant view of the park's fireworks. The ferryboats are operated by Disney Transport and, like all scheduled transport at the resort, are free to ride.
See also
- Magic Kingdom
- Seven Seas Lagoon
- Walt Disney World Monorail System
- Friendship Boats
- Walt Disney World