Friendship Boat

Fantasmicguy

Fantasmicguy

Well-Known Member
George said:
I actually like the slowness. When I'm jogging along that path that connects Disney's Hollywood Adventure Style Park to the Boardwalk area resorts, I feel as though I'm fleet of foot and capable of super human heroics. Of course, if I enter the waterway and swim out to the boat to save all the aquatically transported guests from some danger that I am imagining, everyone gets all uptight and yelly and lectures me about "rules" and other rubbish.
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Same
 
N

natatomic

Well-Known Member
Slipknot said:
Any Friendship Boat fans out there? I witnessed a delivery of a brand new Friendship Boat this morning (still wrapped up but if you saw it, you'd know what it was) in the Cast parking lot of Epcot (CENTER). Don't know if this is a brand new boat to the fleet or just a replacement for one of the existing Friendship's. After all, the existing boats look pretty bad. Just thought I'd post about it here before I forget after falling back asleep.
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As someone else said, the boat (Friendship III) was just taken out of rotation to be sent to be refurbished. Though, I use the term loosely, as it IS just the hull that's being replaced. Friendship I and II have both been "refurbished" in the last year...year and a half? Both came back in...less than desirable shape (visually, you'd never know they had any sort of work done to them at all). The jobs were done so less-than-desired, that they aren't going with the same people who refurbished the I and II; apparently, who they're going with now are ACTUALLY boat people, unlike the previous people they used (if you want specifics, I don't know any names or anything beyond that really).

When the Friendship I went out, there were high hopes of it coming back with the scuffs taken out (if not a new paint job), new A/Cs (though rumor was they were out of the budget...still, they hoped, since those boats can be unbearably hot), and supposedly they were going to redo the floor of the I and II (if you compare the front entry of those two boats to the other 6, you'll notice that I and II have a ramp that leads into the boat. The rest all have a flat entry, and there's just a step down to where the captain and deckhand stand. The plan was to change the I and II to be flat like the rest of the boats, with just the step down for the CMs). There was much disappointment when the only things that had changed were the hulls and....that's it. Oh, and the doors had been repainted, but nothing else.

Rumor is they still want to move the throttles from the right side on the VI, VII, and VIII to the left side, since they're the only boats with right-handed throttles, whereas the rest of the fleet have left-handed throttles. But only time will tell how much truth there is to that. The boats seem to be going out for refurb in numerical order, so we might still be looking at another 2-3 years till the first right-handed throttle boat goes out.
 
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mcrgw29

Member
^Yup, from what I know Disney was still under contract with a company for the I and II's "refurb." They did such a terrible job, too. Take a lot at the I, it is actually curved now. They even had to redo the hull as they screwed it up the first time. They do still want to make all these changes but realistically they are not going to happen. The boats can't even be painted. FriendShip I was out-of-service for 9 months I think and had nothing but the hull done to it. They are being done in numerical order.
 
harryk

harryk

Well-Known Member
Love the boats - have great smooth rides (whatever - no storms on the waterways). Would appreciate it though to see the boats cleaned up of not trash - but webs from the various bugs which come aboard each night. What kind of effort is needed to remove the bugs and webs prior to sailing each morning? The motor launches are the coolest boats on the lakes. The Castaway class needs new engines -- they make too much noise.
 

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