VIDEO - Friendship Boats return today serving the EPCOT area and Disney's Hollywood Studios

Nov 01, 2020 in "Friendship Cruisers"

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Friendship Boats return to service November 2020

Posted: Sunday November 1, 2020 7:41am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Friendship Boats return today at the EPCOT area resorts hotels and Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Friendship Boats return to service November 2020

Plastic screens are installed between seating rows, similar to that found on the Kilimanjaro Safaris vehicles.

Service is available from the EPCOT area resort hotels to both EPCOT and Disney's Hollywood Studios. Hotels included in the service are Disney's Yacht and Beach Club, Disney's Boardwalk, and Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin.

Operations begin 1 hour before park opening for Disney's Hollywood Studios, and 30 minutes prior to opening for EPCOT. At the end of the day the boats will run until 1 hour after regular park close.

Friendship Boats return to service November 2020

This will come as welcome news for guests staying at those hotels, with the boat service being a popular perk of staying at the EPCOT area hotels. Boat service at those hotels has been unavailable since the phased reopening of Walt Disney World that began in July 2020.

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monothingieNov 06, 2020

Just an FYI the original resort watercraft are running again to the Poly and GF. Yesterday they were running the DAK Discovery River boats. Today they’re running the original type.

wdwmagicNov 02, 2020

Yes still Mears.

TrainsOfDisneyNov 01, 2020

Great news! Boats are operating to swan & dolphin. Anyone there to confirm that Mears is still running the bus service to MK, DAK, and Springs? Just curious if they were connected to the boat service or not.

wdwmagicNov 01, 2020

VIDEO - Friendship Boats return today serving the EPCOT area and Disney's Hollywood Studios https://www.wdwmagic.com/transportation/friendship-cruisers/news/01nov2020-video---friendship-boats-return-today-serving-the-epcot-area-and-disneys-hollywood-studios.htm

LastoneOnOct 31, 2020

Ah, ok so Disney's lack of effort is GOOD in this case. got it. Edited to ad: And since this isn't Normal Times, doesn't that make it even MORE imperative that Disney work HARDER keeping its limited guests up to speed?? And if they can publish all this stuff on their various web sites, can't they just send an email??? Can't all those imported low paid IT workers set up and manage an email listserve? America IT workers can.

DisneyTransportOct 30, 2020

I agree. there is a lot of information that needs to be handed out, but since there's so much, most of it is likely to get lost/not read. heck, when I was trying to make a reservation for the first time, all I got was information about COVID measures (which is really the most important thing, I guess?)

nickysOct 30, 2020

Fair enough in normal times. However things have been changing so much since re-opening, if they’d sent an email listing everything that’s on the website (park reservations, park hours, ADR procedures, mobile ordering, Covid screening etc), any info would have been lost. There are several different pages on the website relating to all the changes. A phased re-opening is always going to be a problem. If they sent an email every time something changed, people would be getting them almost every day.

LastoneOnOct 30, 2020

But you know with all this email, notification, app, technology why can't a company just communicate directly to the people who've made the reservations?

nickysOct 30, 2020

True. However that information was on the WDW website, which the DVC site had a link to from the home page. Every DVC resort had a page showing everything that was available, including transportation, restaurants, shops etc.

LastoneOnOct 30, 2020

Totally agree. Especially your last line. You shouldn't have to look to third parties.

ImperfectPixieOct 29, 2020

This has long been one of my complaints about the company. A person shouldn't have to scour the internet to learn how to plan a trip.

willidcOct 29, 2020

As far as what resort guests were told, with us it was absolutely nothing. We had our reservations at Boardwalk for 11 months. We are DVC at Boardwalk for many years and Passholders for just as long. They had ample opportunity to contact us. In years past we would get a letter (USPS) informing us of small inconveniences like a quiet pool closed, some minor maintenance, etc. with a rather unneeded apology. Arriving with no boats was a surprise. The weather since 10/19 has been grueling with near record high temps and feels like temps well into 90s for our entire stay. While walking to Epcot in that weather is doable, it is far from enjoyable. The walk to Studios was uncomfortable enough with the added masks that we canceled all of our remaining Studios park reservations. We are in good shape for our 70s, but certainly should have been told that there were no boats. Had we been told, we would have planned differently. I should have looked on this board. But why should I have to?

RandOperaOct 28, 2020

Date may have come up elsewhere, but November 1st is the official start day ... still running training exercises now. SwanDolphin will be included and Disney crew are practicing docking there now as well as some general maintenance to dock area taking place.