Caution: Slow Moving Boats

During my last trip to Disney World, I made the mistake of wanting to go from Disney's Hollywood Studios (MGM) to EPCOT.  This can be accomplished in a variety of ways - taking a bus, (I believe there is a direct bus from the Studios to Epcot) take a bus to the Transportation and Ticket Center and then the Monorail to Epcot, or there is the option of taking a boat. (Actually, there are only two ways to get from Hollywood Studios to Epcot- taking the boat or walking on the path along the canal. There are no buses. The only other option would be to go to a resort and transfer. -Nick)



Now a boat would seem to be the best choice in this situation, there's no traffic on the water, no stop signs, or stop lights, however the boat option has got to be one of the absolute worst choices.  Not only are there stops along the way, one for the Swan and Dolphin, one for the Boardwalk, and one for the Yacht and Beach Club.  Each stop requires the boat to dock, let passengers on and off, turn around, and continue on until reaching the final stop, EPCOT.  The total trip time, from MGM to Epcot was in excess of 25 minutes.

Overview of the Boat ride from Hollywood Studios to Epcot, large red squares are boat stop/docks

Obviously the multitude of stops along the way add to the long ride time, however the worst offender of all is the completely under-powered boats.  I realize that safety is a large component to the speed but I really feel like I could have swum faster than the boat was traveling.  When sitting on the boats it feels like the captain is maybe putting the throttle to about 50% power, that is until you look at the helm, and realize that the throttle is practically wide open, and it seems obvious to me that with only a single motor, these large boats carrying in excess of 100 people lack the power to go any faster (And just think what their like at park closing, when they're packed to the gills with guests wanting to get back to their resorts. -Nick).

If I was an Imagineer, and safety concerns did not allow the boats to travel any faster I would do one thing;  I would change the route from the current three hotel stops, to one central stop for all the hotels and boardwalk fun.

I would create a single pier in between the Boardwalk and the Yacht and Beach Club hotels.  This configuration would do two things, create a faster boat ride with less stops, and allow the boats to dock without doing a pirouette to turn and face the next dock.

The numbers in the current format are as follows: it is currently about 400 ft. to travel from the entrance of the Swan to the current dock, and about 300 ft. from the Dolphin to its current dock.  It is about 500 ft. from the Yacht and Beach Club back entrance to its dock, and the Boardwalk's closest entrance being a mere 200 ft. and the farthest villas being about 400 -500 ft. away from its dock.

Docks and route close-up, Swan and Dolphin at left, Epcot at upper right

With my proposed, single dock configuration, the walks from the docks to each respective hotel does get a bit larger, however with the amount of time that could be saved, most people probably would not mind a few extra feet (you've already walked around the parks all day, what's another 200ft?).  The single dock configuration would make the walk from the new dock to the Swan about 700 ft., the Dolphin about 500 ft. the Yacht and Beach Club about 600 ft. and the Boardwalk would still be anywhere from 200 ft to 700 ft.

Let's put it into real numbers though and surmise the amount of time that could be saved.  I think that the docking, unloading of passengers, loading of new passengers (and inevitably waiting for a family {kids of the family} to run up to the dock just before you are about to pull away and have the boat wait for everyone to catch up) takes anywhere from 3 minutes at its quickest to as long as 10 minutes if there are handicap passengers needing extra time and assistance (so let's average that to about 6 minutes).  If each stop currently takes 6 minutes then with the three stops you are averaging 18 minutes spent at the three docks, then factor in a two minute ride from the Swan and Dolphin to the Boardwalk, a one minute ride from the Boardwalk to the Yacht and Beach, and another two minute ride from Yacht and Beach to Epcot, and don't forget about that five minute ride from Hollywood Studios to the Swan and Dolphin to begin with.  Add all of that up and you are averaging about 28 minutes to get from Hollywood Studios to Epcot, too long and too slow.

Proposed single dock and new boat route, red squares represent old docking points.

With my single dock proposal, I believe that the average docking time may go up slightly, because there will be a greater number of passengers loading and unloading.  Even if that average rose to as much as 9 minutes with the 5 minute ride from Hollywood Studios to the dock and another 2 minutes to go from the dock to Epcot, the average time from Hollywood Studios to Epcot would be 16 minutes - a 42% decrease in the travel time (I still think we should let some guests swim with the gators. -Nick)!