News Pontoon Boat rentals returning to some Walt Disney World Resort hotels

D

DVCakaCarlF

Well-Known Member
Surprised they waited so long to release these, especially considering that the capacity restrictions were in place for the parks.

Hopefully, you don’t have to wear a mask on these boats.
 
J

jnoel

New Member
This is good news. We were wanting to do just this a couple weeks ago when we were there. We love taking a lazy afternoon lunch on these boats, although they are incredibly SLOW
 
bpiper

bpiper

Well-Known Member
Pontoon boat rentals were removed way before Covid-19 started.

I always suspected that they drove away demand with too high prices.
As the prices went up, I noticed that there were less and less rentals.
We're DVC at OKW and with the marina right along side the bridge, it was easy to see that the amount of rentals went down as the price went up. I think it reached a tipping point.
There are other costs associated with these rentals. There is the cost of the lifeguard boats that patrol the rental boating areas keeping an eye on drivers in case they break down or do something stupid.

Anyone know if Disney operated them before or it was a 3rd party and who is operating them now?
 
ImperfectPixie

ImperfectPixie

Well-Known Member
bpiper said:
Pontoon boat rentals were removed way before Covid-19 started.

I always suspected that they drove away demand with too high prices.
As the prices went up, I noticed that there were less and less rentals.
We're DVC at OKW and with the marina right along side the bridge, it was easy to see that the amount of rentals went down as the price went up. I think it reached a tipping point.
There are other costs associated with these rentals. There is the cost of the lifeguard boats that patrol the rental boating areas keeping an eye on drivers in case they break down or do something stupid.

Anyone know if Disney operated them before or it was a 3rd party and who is operating them now?
Click to expand...
It was a 3rd party, I believe, but I can't remember the name.
 
bpiper

bpiper

Well-Known Member
ImperfectPixie said:
THAT'S THEM. We never did the pontoon boats, but we rented the Sea Raycers a few times - so much fun!
Click to expand...
We rented the pontoon boat several times out of the OKW marina. It was fun going under the golf cart bridges over the water, only about 1 foot clearance on either side. Also the bridges were on an angle to the waterway, so you had to make a sudden turn right before going under. Got yelled at by a life guard boat once for letting my 10 year old son drive.... but not under the bridge.

He and I rented the Sea Raycers several times at the poly... Those were fun out on the Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake. The ferry boat passengers would wave at us. It was fun skipping over the other boat wakes.
 
ImperfectPixie

ImperfectPixie

Well-Known Member
bpiper said:
We rented the pontoon boat several times out of the OKW marina. It was fun going under the golf cart bridges over the water, only about 1 foot clearance on either side. Also the bridges were on an angle to the waterway, so you had to make a sudden turn right before going under. Got yelled at by a life guard boat once for letting my 10 year old son drive.... but not under the bridge.

He and I rented the Sea Raycers several times at the poly... Those were fun out on the Seven Seas Lagoon and Bay Lake. The ferry boat passengers would wave at us. It was fun skipping over the other boat wakes.
Click to expand...
Absolutely! Hubby and I got "yelled" at for splashing each other, lol. (There was literally no one in the area we were in but us at the time.)
 
montyz81

montyz81

Well-Known Member
bpiper said:
Pontoon boat rentals were removed way before Covid-19 started.

I always suspected that they drove away demand with too high prices.
As the prices went up, I noticed that there were less and less rentals.
We're DVC at OKW and with the marina right along side the bridge, it was easy to see that the amount of rentals went down as the price went up. I think it reached a tipping point.
There are other costs associated with these rentals. There is the cost of the lifeguard boats that patrol the rental boating areas keeping an eye on drivers in case they break down or do something stupid.

Anyone know if Disney operated them before or it was a 3rd party and who is operating them now?
Click to expand...
Didn't OKW rentals end because of the Disney Springs Amphicar rides?
 
bpiper

bpiper

Well-Known Member
montyz81 said:
Didn't OKW rentals end because of the Disney Springs Amphicar rides?
Click to expand...
The rentals ended back 2014.... Before Disney springs.

Also I am seeing that they are only returning to the Deluxe resorts on the Monorail loop and Crescent lake.

Oh well....
 
Disone

Disone

Well-Known Member
bpiper said:
Pontoon boat rentals were removed way before Covid-19 started.

Anyone know if Disney operated them before or it was a 3rd party and who is operating them now?
Click to expand...
Pontoon rentals were still available at the Grand Floridian, Polynesian and some other locations when the resort shut down in March 2020. There were other areas that stopped pontoon rentals way before covid but Disney still had some rental locations and it was Disney.....
castlecake2.0 said:
Sammy Duval did the water sports at contemporary, but the rentals at the resort were/are operated by Disney and “hosted” by Mercury.
Click to expand...
Correct. :)
 

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