Grand Floridian to Magic Kingdom Walkway

[peter11435]

They probably won't make any announcement on this until D23 next month

I honestly wouldn’t expect an announcement at all. But you never know.

 

[Tim Lohr]

I honestly wouldn’t expect an announcement at all. But you never know.

anytime they do anything they like to act like it's a bigger deal than it really is

 

[SKG]

This walkway is good news IMO. Always been a flaw that walking has not been encouraged or an option at WDW between many sites.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I honestly wouldn’t expect an announcement at all. But you never know.

I expect a Parks Blog post closer to completion.

I'm not expecting Bob to get up on stage in front of thousands of SoCal residents at D23 hyping a new sidewalk in Florida.

 

[WDWtraveler]

Photo update as of Friday, July 19, 2019. Construction equipment has appeared at the canal entrance to the Seven Seas Lagoon for the construction of the swing bridge. Photo taken from the monorail. Note the steel barriers stacked up in the center of the photo, to be driven into the shoreline of the canal to keep water out of the construction area. The long red structure is a large crane next to the monorail beam.

 

[larryz]

Photo update as of Friday, July 19, 2019. Construction equipment has appeared at the canal entrance to the Seven Seas Lagoon for the construction of the swing bridge. Photo taken from the monorail. Note the steel barriers stacked up in the center of the photo, to be driven into the shoreline of the canal to keep water out of the construction area. The long red structure is a large crane under the monorail beam.

View attachment 391509

I wonder if Peter Gabriel will write a song about this...

 

[durangojim]

Any idea of how long this will take to complete? We’ll be back at the grand in November and would
Love to be able to walk to the mk

 

[GoofGoof]

Any idea of how long this will take to complete? We’ll be back at the grand in November and would
Love to be able to walk to the mk

Completion date on that permit posted is the end of 2020 so not too likely for this Nov.

 

[danlb_2000]

One more noteworthy tidbit... The e-mail correspondence from the permit application mentioned an "RCID Address Finder" - I'd never heard of that before and it sounded interesting so I went digging to see if I could find it, and sure enough, it's a really snazzy little tool. It already has the information for this project loaded into it and confirms that there will be two new bridges - a stationary bridge crossing the small canal near the Sago Cay GF building, and then a large swing bridge crossing the canal that's used for the water pageant and riverboat maintenance.

Below is a link to the tool. @danlb_2000, I'm sure you'll have some fun with it, assuming it's new to you. You can zoom and and get the address of basically every structure across Disney property, even all the individual Epcot kiosks, haha.

https://rcid.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Solutions/s2.html?appid=ea296a2e5e274cf2856d5cb450c3a96b

Thanks, I totally missed this post. Yes, this is VERY useful. Wish I had known about this a while ago!

 

[peter11435]

Thanks, I totally missed this post. Yes, this is VERY useful. Wish I had known about this a while ago!

I’d always assumed you already had that link

 

[cslafferty]

Ok, I’m from Michigan so not accustomed to Florida’s wildlife. But, there was an uproar several years ago about the alligators when that poor little boy died at GF. So how will they address that risk when building a walkway around those same waters? BTW, our favorite resort is CR because of the short walk to MK, so the possibility of being able to walk from the Poly and GF is great news! But, I am a BIG chicken when it comes to reptiles . . .

 

[ImperfectPixie]

Ok, I’m from Michigan so not accustomed to Florida’s wildlife. But, there was an uproar several years ago about the alligators when that poor little boy died at GF. So how will they address that risk when building a walkway around those same waters? BTW, our favorite resort is CR because of the short walk to MK, so the possibility of being able to walk from the Poly and GF is great news! But, I am a BIG chicken when it comes to reptiles . . .

At the very least, I would expect signage with warnings to avoid the water-especially at night. More than likely though, they'll add some sort of barrier between the walkway and the water.

 

[Andrew C]

At the very least, I would expect signage with warnings to avoid the water-especially at night. More than likely though, they'll add some sort of barrier between the walkway and the water.

Almost the entire walkway is not beach entry like at the GF. I would say it’s likely they will have to do nothing other than maybe add signs because the natural barriers already exist. Also people can walk the path today if they choose. Just not all the way.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

Almost the entire walkway is not beach entry like at the GF. I would say it’s likely they will have to do nothing other than maybe add signs because the natural barriers already exist. Also people can walk the path today if they choose. Just not all the way.

Very true...I'm not familiar with the topography of that area...is it possible to approach the water? Or is there a drop-off or something between the water's edge and the walkway?

 

[GlacierGlacier]

Thanks, I totally missed this post. Yes, this is VERY useful. Wish I had known about this a while ago!

It's a great tool, designed for both internal and public use. It's interesting to see which buildings/addresses had their names changed when their contents changed.

For instance, the theater which houses the frozen sing-a-long is appropriately named, but the theater right next door is still the monster sound stage.

Also, some of the projects are code-named, some aren't. SWL is Project D, but TSL is not marked as Ascot. Meanwhile, Pandora is all marked with Morpho, still, despite being in full operation.

 

[GoofGoof]

Very true...I'm not familiar with the topography of that area...is it possible to approach the water? Or is there a drop-off or something between the water's edge and the walkway?

You could approach but there’s no “inviting” way to get into the water. The fences went up anywhere they had a sandy beach leading to water since it was too tempting for people, especially kids, to put their feet in. At Crescent Lake for example they added the fence along the beach club sandy beach but there’s still a grassy area between EPCOT Intl gateway and ESPN club boardwalk area where the grass leads straight to the lake with no barrier. I would assume they do the same here. Maybe a fence on the small sandy part but not all the way around. Just my guess.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

You could approach but there’s no “inviting” way to get into the water. The fences went up anywhere they had a sandy beach leading to water since it was too tempting for people, especially kids, to put their feet in. At Crescent Lake for example they added the fence along the beach club sandy beach but there’s still a grassy area between EPCOT Intl gateway and ESPN club boardwalk area where the grass leads straight to the lake with no barrier. I would assume they do the same here. Maybe a fence on the small sandy part but not all the way around. Just my guess.

That makes sense. With my youngest son, if it's possible to access water, he'll at the very least give it a shot...which is why I'm on him like white on rice basically every time we go anywhere that's like that. At our local waterfront, there's a huge park area with a bandstand, shade trees and benches that juts out into the harbor. There's about 5-6 feet of ankle-breaking rocks at a not-insignificant angle between the grass and the water below...he always tries to see how far I'll let him go (I stop him the second a foot touches the top rocks). It's a good thing I'm not in charge of this kind of thing at WDW...I don't trust a good chunk of the population to watch their kids as closely as they should.

 

[GoofGoof]

That makes sense. With my youngest son, if it's possible to access water, he'll at the very least give it a shot...which is why I'm on him like white on rice basically every time we go anywhere that's like that. At our local waterfront, there's a huge park area with a bandstand, shade trees and benches that juts out into the harbor. There's about 5-6 feet of ankle-breaking rocks at a not-insignificant angle between the grass and the water below...he always tries to see how far I'll let him go (I stop him the second a foot touches the top rocks). It's a good thing I'm not in charge of this kind of thing at WDW...I don't trust a good chunk of the population to watch their kids as closely as they should.

They have had no swimming signs for years but I’ve seen a lot of people ignore them over the years. Adding the rocks and fence makes it much more difficult to ignore but there’s a lot of lake and canal front areas at WDW and they can’t and shouldn’t have to fence everything off.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

They have had no swimming signs for years but I’ve seen a lot of people ignore them over the years. Adding the rocks and fence makes it much more difficult to ignore but there’s a lot of lake and canal front areas at WDW and they can’t and shouldn’t have to fence everything off.

Oh, I absolutely agree with you 100%. "No Swimming" for me means don't even stick a toe in.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I’d always assumed you already had that link

What other links are there that you think we have?