One of our things to do every summer is rent one of the boats so we can cruise around The Magic Kingdom. We always rent one of the pontoon boats, so that we can move around and take pictures. Renting from any of the Magic Kingdom Resorts will allow you to cruise around in front of The Magic Kingdom. Dina took all these pictures while I drove the boat. Here is the Contemporary, on our way to the Magic kingdom. One of my favorite photos, that is the pool that we spend so much time at!(This is one of my photos I had enlarged) Cruising past the Wilderness Lodge while the geyser is going. In the canal between Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon The Magic Kingdom. We usually stop the boat and drift around for a couple of minutes. Cruising past the Poly and GF Other boaters having fun Back at the dock 30 minutes and $40.00 later!
that is definitely something that is on my must-do list one of these years... looks like a real blast.
That's an interesting idea. I like all those pictures especially the one of the Grand Floridian. I will have to try that some time.
I have never taken photo's on the trip, other than of the people with us. I have never gotten a pontoon boat though, always the mousesprits, I think is what they call them. They are a lot of fun, and you get some really great views of the area from the water. Not to mention it is always a lot of fun!
I love the boats ! Always have - since my first trip when I was 11. This is one of my absolute must-do's on every trip as well. We either go to the Polynesian at mid day on a Magic Kingdom day (where the ladies can hang at the poolside bar and drink pina coladas), or we rent in the morning from the Grand Floridian after the kids get back from the pirate cruise. Either way, it's a blast. Tim - take my advice and be sure to rent the speed boats with the little guy. He'll love it. I took my son out when he was 5, and he thought it was about the coolest thing in the world. I don't know that I'd risk the camera in the thing, but generally not too much water gets in the boat. You can definately get some very unique perspective shots of the ferries, the Contemporary, and the Kingdom. Myself and Max getting ready for another boat trip.
Great shots! I agree with renting the Water Mice. One word, though....your weight will affect the speed of the boat. Back in 1997, my wife was lapping me viciously. I retunred my boat and asked for a new one. The oh-so pretty castmeber was like...."Dude, you outweigh her by more than 50 pounds. Of course, she is going to beat you." So, I resigned myself to puttering along at my slow speed.
Not necessarily true - some of them are faster than others. Last time I rented I did it with four other couples, several of whom were easily as fat as me. I had the fast boat that day. Whippee ! They're all fun. Just be sure to bring extra suntan lotion ! Those rays reflect off the boat hull (as I learned the hard way).
I agree. Years ago, my Dad and I rented the boats (at the time they were called water sprites) and I had a boat that someone had driven very close to the edge of the lake and got a bunch of plants tangled in it. That greatly slowed the boat down. Renting those was a lot of fun though...
I remember a time when the Contemporary was renting the "jetski" boats. They were awesome. They were so fast it was great! I think though that they had to remove them from use because of their speed. Oh well, they were fun while they lasted.
i think they stopped renting the fast ones after the woman from long island ran into the side of the ferry with fatal results
I hadn't heard about the ferry incident. The also used to rent catamarans, but only if you had prior experience with them. My Dad wanted to rent them one time, but the cast member told him that he couldn't since he had no experience. So he asked if he should tell them that he had experience the next time he tried to rent them so they would allow him to, and she said yes! Then she caught herself and told him not to do that. Apparently the reason you had to have experience was that catamarans can move very fast and they told us that you could outrun their speed boats in the catamarans, so if you got in trouble, they couldn't do anything.
I hadn't heard about that ferry incident either. That would be a good reason to stop renting them, but I would like to see them come back and only allow people with Boater certificates to rent them.
Even the little mini speed boats are a lot of fun.. although I was having trouble with power mad people in speed boats. I don't know what you call them.. the Disney people who zip around enforcing the aquatic law. I know there's a no wake policy when you're close to land or going through the narrow passages, but I've had those guys blow past me while I was crawling through the no wake zones, and then later this one guy would come up and yell at me that I was going too fast. If I was going any slower I wouldn't have been getting anywhere at all. My thing to do was try to get in behind a ferry boat and play on their wakes. Either ride the edge of wake to see if I can pick up extra speed (I could never tell if it was helping, next time I do it I'll have my GPS with me so I can see if it makes a difference) or else jump the wakes for a little fun.
