Is the water level o.k. for boarding the boats with ecvs next week?

[freemore]

Hi, I keep reading where you can board evc's at WL and MK only if the water level is right. How can I find out if the water level will be right for next week or do I just have to wait. Has anyone boarded with ecvs recently there?

Thanks Lene

 

[JudithM]

I didn't board at MK or WL, but I did board at DTD & got off at OKW last week. I had a rented ECV & had no problem getting on or off. My observation is FL has higher water levels now than the years when it was difficult to load ECVs on some boats.

 

[SueM in MN]

The only boats that have problems with the waater levels are the WL/FW boats and the resoprt boats that go to MK.
They can have problems with either high or low water. I did see a post from Chip N Dale Express (a WDW bus driver) who indicated that recently the water levels were OK for all the boats.

 

[cruiseonmagic]

Hi freemore,
I'm one of the "pilots" for the MK area boats. You'll be fine with an ecv. Water level is not a problem with the boats that can accommodate the ecvs at MK resorts. The cruisers (the large white boats with the green flags) dock at floating docks at MK, WL, and FW. The docks rise and fall with the water level, so they stay even with the boat doors.
The launches(the ones that look like small steamboats) dock at the hard docks that stay at the same level. There have been times where there might be a 12' step up to the dock, but those boats do not accommodate ecvs.
See ya real soon!
Bill

 

[freemore]

Hi freemore,
I'm one of the "pilots" for the MK area boats. You'll be fine with an ecv. Water level is not a problem with the boats that can accommodate the ecvs at MK resorts. The cruisers (the large white boats with the green flags) dock at floating docks at MK, WL, and FW. The docks rise and fall with the water level, so they stay even with the boat doors.
The launches(the ones that look like small steamboats) dock at the hard docks that stay at the same level. There have been times where there might be a 12' step up to the dock, but those boats do not accommodate ecvs.
See ya real soon!
Bill

Thanks Bill, we got back last week and rode one of the big white boats and really enjoyed it. As it turned out we used teh buses for the ecvs though. I wish we woiuld have had more time to ride the boats, it is really neat that Disney has so many places to ride the boats, next time we go we will spend more time doing that! Thanks for your note, Lene

 

[SueM in MN]

Hi freemore,
I'm one of the "pilots" for the MK area boats. You'll be fine with an ecv. Water level is not a problem with the boats that can accommodate the ecvs at MK resorts. The cruisers (the large white boats with the green flags) dock at floating docks at MK, WL, and FW. The docks rise and fall with the water level, so they stay even with the boat doors.
The launches(the ones that look like small steamboats) dock at the hard docks that stay at the same level. There have been times where there might be a 12' step up to the dock, but those boats do not accommodate ecvs.
See ya real soon!
Bill

Have they changed the dock at WL?
The last time we stayed there was 2 years ago and the docks had signs that said they were not "currently accessible to wheelchairs due to changing water levels". The closest they could get the cruiser (the large boat) to the height of the dock still meant we had to lift DD's wheelchair about 3 inches to get onto the boat. We were told if we could not lift the wheelchair on, we would need to use the buses. It appeared the floating dock did not have enough "play" to float to exactly meet the boat if the water very very high or very low.
People since then have written they encountered the same problem. Has the dock been changed recently? (It was only the WL dock that was a problem as far as I know).
Also, how often do the cruisers run (as opposed to the smaller launches)? DH and I took a launch from MK to GF in July (we didn't have DD and her wheelchair with us) and then we rented a small boat to drive around the lake. The only large cruisers we noticed were the ones between TTC and MK. The rest were small boats.

Thanks.

 

[cruiseonmagic]

Hi Sue,
Even after the hurricanes, the rise in the water level was not enough to affect using ecvs. I heard that they started letting water into the canal system as the lake level rose to keep it from getting too high. The water was a couple of feet low this summer, and the cruisers weren't affected. Two years ago was a pretty unusual situation. There was no rain forever. The water level was so low that the ferryboats couldn't even go through the water bridge by CR.

How many people and where they are in the boat has more of an impact when using ecvs or wheelchairs. We do have a lot of relatively new drivers who might not know all of the "tricks of the trade" yet. One of the easiest things to do to adjust the way the boat is sitting at the dock (depending on the number of people) is to have everybody move from one side to the other. Everyone always gets a kick out of seeing the door rise or lower 3 or 4 inches just by shifting the weight

We have 3 cruisers (green flags in front) that go FW/WL/MK starting 30 min before park opening. They normally run every 10-15 min. On the return they go MK/FW/WL before 3pm, and MK/WL/FW after 3pm and continue running until 45 min past park closing. Usually the launches wouldn't be on that route unless a cruiser is down for maintainance, we have exceptionally large crowds or at park closing.

There are normally 2 blue flag launches that go between FW, WL, and CR. One clockwise, one counter clockwise. They start at 645am and run until 10pm. There are 2 gold flag launches that go MK/GF/Poly, that start at 830am and run until 45 min past park close. ECVs can not go on the launches, but manual wheelchairs can--providing the guest can transfer to a seat.

The boats that go from MK to TTC are the 600 passenger ferryboats. They run from 830 am until 45min past park close. If you saw a cruiser at TTC, it was just there for training.

 

[SueM in MN]

Thanks.

 

[clkelley]

I have also seen a Ferryboat docked at the Wilderness Lodge Dock. It was there for training, according to a boat captain later that day. I took the boats many times last week from Ft. Wilderness and the dock levels looked fine for ECVs. The only time that was weird is when we docked at Wilderness Lodge one time, and it looks like they added steps to one side of the WL dock, for perhaps times that the water is lower, so that folks won't have to step up so high.

"Cruisonmagic" - What happened with the Contemporary/WL/FtW launch that took on water Monday night???!!!!! We had a friend on that launch and when she finally got to Ft. Wilderness, had water to her knees!!!!

Carol

 

[cruiseonmagic]

The ferryboats will dock at all of the docks including discovery island when training. We also use them on certain nights (for grad night, or mnsshp)to pick up guests at FW. A launch taking on water? I don't work again until Saturday, but I'll definitely ask about it.