Earlier today, Walt Disney World filed plans for an expansion of the Magic Kingdom ferryboat dock area along the shore of the Seven Seas Lagoon. The permit calls for “minor hardscape improvements, dock expansion at the Seven Seas Lagoon and a floodplain compensation area”. Here are the details of the project, and a look at what plans call for.
Magic Kingdom Ferryboat Dock Expansion Project
In the composite image above, we can see that the area of construction includes the dock at the Magic Kingdom side of the Seven Seas Lagoon. As you may know, the Seven Seas Lagoon separates the Magic Kingdom parking lot and the theme park proper. Guests park at the Transportation & Ticket Center before taking either a monorail or ferryboat over to Magic Kingdom. There is also a winding walking path, but it’s roughly a 45-minute walk through the Polynesian and Grand Floridian resort grounds.
From what we can tell, Disney is looking to provide a modest expansion of the Magic Kingdom ferryboat dock area. In our review, it looks like there are plans to create a new boat dock, approximately 6 feet wide.
If we had to guess, this would allow for either less intrusive management of boats docked in this area or possibly even a new guest loading area. Let me explain.
In lieu of archive photos of a boat docked, I’ll turn to Google Earth archival imagery to illustrate what I think is happening. As you can see in the 2021 image below, there is a watercraft that is docked alongside the main walkway from the Magic Kingdom ferryboat dock (lower right) to the theme park (out of view, upper left). I think Disney docks boats here for later use during busier times.
Right now, Cast Members can dock boats up against the seawall, using swinging gates within the railing to access the boat. If I’m reading the permits correctly, it looks like Disney will be creating a 6-foot-wide wooden dock that runs from the upper left of the satellite image below, down to roughly where the boat is docked. This would allow for easier management of docked boats without impacting the guest walkway.
I don’t see any substantial changes to the existing guest-accessible queue area. The only exception is new hardscape that will be in the upper right of the project site, allowing Cast Members to access the new wooden dock and boat docking area. It’s possible, although highly unlikely, that this would see any guest use.
It looks like another aspect of this project could be expanding the queue for the ferryboat itself. In the plans screenshot below, it looks like a portion of the Magic Kingdom bus security area could be sacrificed to create more queue space for the ferryboat. This part of the project appears to be a little less well defined than the new dock, but it does look like a queue expansion could be coming as well.
To offset the minimal impact to the water area for the project, Disney will also create a wetlands offset area along the shoreline nearby, as depicted in the plans screenshot below.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
