Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

News Updates about the Port Orleans Resorts.
Forum rules
Comments are welcome in response to news posts, but you can't start your own news topics here.
The Sassagoula Sentinel
Posts: 416
Joined: April 6th, 2011, 11:32 am

Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

Unread post by The Sassagoula Sentinel »

Well this one came out of the blue... the Riverside Levee boat rental marina will be permanently closing as from Sunday 2 March.

Very Bad Show, Disney - you are meant to be all about "plussing" your parks and resorts, not "minussing" them.

The Sassagoula river ferry will continue to operate to and from Downtown Disney as normal, as will the children's pirate cruises and the cycle rentals, but no more Sea Raycers, kayaks or other boat rentals. As far as I know at the moment, this will be a permanent closure. Apparently this will happen at the other Moderates too.

And so another bit of magic is chipped away. :(

Please email wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com if you want to make your views known, and perhaps ask for a proper explanation.


Update 2 March: I contacted my friend Denise from mousesteps.com and she and her partner Jeff took a trip over to Riverside yesterday and rented out a pontoon boat for an hour-and-a-half and took one last nostalgic trip along the Sassagoula before the service finally closed last night. Her report and photos can be found HERE, and Jeff's video of the trip on YouTube HERE. So sad to see this wonderful facility go away.


Update 4 March: I've heard mutterings that this might be something to do with an external (third-party) contractor who ran the rental service. To be honest, I'd always assumed it was run by Disney directly (certainly the staffing was provided by Disney cast members) but I've never really had the need to look into it.

According to website WDW News Today, the facility was not popular enough at the Moderate resorts and so the company has pulled out, leaving just the Deluxe Resort locations operating. I'm guessing the current closure of the DTD rental dock for the Disney Springs project won't have helped either.
Thorpy
Posts: 171
Joined: February 10th, 2013, 1:06 pm

Re: Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

Unread post by Thorpy »

Sad really sad. We hired a boat last year and it was a fun experience.

Slowly, what makes Disney different to other places is being eroded away.
carrotcruncher
Posts: 10
Joined: August 5th, 2012, 5:51 pm

Re: Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

Unread post by carrotcruncher »

Shame was maybe going to use it this year
dznynuts
Posts: 1
Joined: February 28th, 2014, 9:09 pm

Re: Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

Unread post by dznynuts »

Very, very unhappy. This Nov. would be first time going with entire family - 15 of us. Really wanted to take our grandchildren on a boat ride. Shame on Disney!! :x
shoemakers4
Posts: 23
Joined: May 22nd, 2013, 8:55 am

Re: Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

Unread post by shoemakers4 »

Liability. I'm almost certain it's due to liability insurance costs, maintenance costs, and the lowered interest in such activities. It also could be that they saw no way to keep rentals away from the Disney Springs construction without stopping the water taxi service. BUT! It doesn't matter the reason. Those decisions are made by the Disney brass. What does matter is what the future of this service is. Will they replace it with something else or bring it back later on. Knowing Disney's history, I'm willing to bet it's gone forever.

On a side note, if it wasn't for this site I really wouldn't have known about this service or it's options before our first stay at POR last fall. I'm going to assume that Disney has had this in the back of their minds for some time.
User avatar
Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2094
Joined: September 11th, 2008, 6:44 am
Contact:

Re: Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

Unread post by Admin »

I contacted my friend Denise from mousesteps.com and she and her partner Jeff took a trip over to Riverside yesterday and rented out a pontoon boat for an hour-and-a-half and took one last nostalgic trip along the Sassagoula before the service finally closed last night. Her report and photos can be found HERE], and Jeff's video of the trip on YouTube HERE. So sad to see this wonderful facility go away.

Andre
Image
- The Unofficial Visitor's Guide to the Port Orleans Resorts in Orlando, Florida -
Thorpy
Posts: 171
Joined: February 10th, 2013, 1:06 pm

Re: Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

Unread post by Thorpy »

The boats added so much energy to the atmosphere. I guess the pilots of the water taxi are the only ones that really benefit as it makes their job easier.
Fridges in value resorts, also take away another benefit of staying in moderates, and I'm not sure what changes have been made to the difference in beds, over the last few refurbs, but the differences between categories are slowly eroding.

It seems they are heading towards a case of pay bargain price for value, or pay through the nose for a deluxe. Until they make fastpasses onsite only, and hike the values up, as the only way to get on the popular rides.
User avatar
Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2094
Joined: September 11th, 2008, 6:44 am
Contact:

Re: Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

Unread post by Admin »

I've heard mutterings that this might be something to do with an external (third-party) contractor who ran the rental service. To be honest, I'd always assumed it was run by Disney directly (certainly the staffing was provided by Disney cast members) but I've never really had the need to look into it.

According to website WDW News Today, the facility was not popular enough at the Moderate resorts and so the company has pulled out, leaving just the Deluxe Resort locations operating. I'm guessing the current closure of the DTD rental dock for the Disney Springs project won't have helped either.

Don't forget to email wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com to make your views known and perhaps ask for a proper explanation.

Andre
Image
- The Unofficial Visitor's Guide to the Port Orleans Resorts in Orlando, Florida -
SuzieBell
Posts: 5
Joined: March 25th, 2011, 1:32 pm

Re: Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

Unread post by SuzieBell »

So sad...95 days and we will be staying here and the boat rides were on our list of things to do! I also did hear (on another site :shock: ) that this was run by an third party vendor. Does anyone know if this include the bike rentals too or just the boats?
User avatar
Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2094
Joined: September 11th, 2008, 6:44 am
Contact:

Re: Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

Unread post by Admin »

It's only the boats, cycle and Surrey Bikes rentals are still available.

Andre
Image
- The Unofficial Visitor's Guide to the Port Orleans Resorts in Orlando, Florida -
SuzieBell
Posts: 5
Joined: March 25th, 2011, 1:32 pm

Re: Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

Unread post by SuzieBell »

Admin wrote:It's only the boats, cycle and Surrey Bikes rentals are still available.

Andre
Oh good! Thanks so much!
jodeeee4
Posts: 11
Joined: October 7th, 2010, 11:12 pm

Re: Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

Unread post by jodeeee4 »

I emailed Disney World about how disappointed we were with the closing of the boat rentals. Someone from Disney called me to let me know that it wasn't Disney who ran the rentals, it was a third party company. It was this company who decided to no longer offer the service. She reassured me we could go to a deluxe resort and rent a boat there, but frankly, that's a bit of a hastle. Just sad that one of the extras that make moderates better than values has disappeared.
Thorpy
Posts: 171
Joined: February 10th, 2013, 1:06 pm

Re: Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

Unread post by Thorpy »

The other extra we got when we first upgraded has also been negated, and that was fridges. Of course that's arguably gone the right way, with them now being available at the Values as well. the differences have diminished though.
bobbrger
Posts: 4
Joined: December 7th, 2016, 6:32 pm
Contact:

Re: Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

Unread post by bobbrger »

That is some sad news, obviously its old news but I haven't been in a while.
Thorpy
Posts: 171
Joined: February 10th, 2013, 1:06 pm

Re: Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

Unread post by Thorpy »

Can't see your advert staying up for long !

I wonder if these are bots or real people paid to do it ?
User avatar
Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2094
Joined: September 11th, 2008, 6:44 am
Contact:

Re: Riverside boat rental marina to permanently close

Unread post by Admin »

Thorpy wrote:Can't see your advert staying up for long !

I wonder if these are bots or real people paid to do it ?
I can never work it out either, I see a few of these sort of things a week, usually appended to some old thread (and I delete them as quickly). I guess it's probably link farming to boost search engine optimisation rather than expecting anyone to actually click on the spam links. I assume people are at least partially involved at some point in the process as the questions in the forum registration process should be hard for a bot to get right.

A better way to do SEO is to build a site that actually has lots of useful and relevant content, which people genuinely want to visit and link to. Not to blow my own trumpet or anything, but a search for "Port Orleans" or any related topics via any of the major search engines usually returns at least one of my pages in the top three results (sometimes number one).

Andre
Image
- The Unofficial Visitor's Guide to the Port Orleans Resorts in Orlando, Florida -
Post Reply