Next up is the Richard Irvine a paddle wheeler that traversed the Rivers of America leaving from Liberty Square. Walt Disney World has two river boats, a side wheeler named Joe Fowler and a rear paddle wheeler named Richard Irvine.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Swan Boat and Richard Irvine Walt Disney World 1973
Continuing the exploration of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in 1973. Two fun boats that a guest could ride in 1973 are featured in today's photographs. First up is a Swan Boat. The Swans traversed the canals surrounding the Central Hub and by Cinderella's castle. I believe the image is taken of the boat on the Jungle side of the hub.
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4 comments:
The Plaza Swan Boats also traversed a "river" around Swiss Family Treehouse Island.
The "Admiral Joe Fowler" is no longer and the "Richard F. Irvine" is now known as the "Liberty Belle".
Interestingly the ferry boats to the Magic Kingdom in the Seven Seas Lagoon now have the names of the two riverboats that plied the Rivers of America at the Magic Kingdom
It is amazing to me how few photos of the swan boats show up… you'd think they would have been very popular with photographers.
Actually the Sternwheeler Admiral Joe Fowler, was if not a clone of disneylands Mark Twain, very closely modeled on it and it was scrapped in the 1980's after being damaged (crack hull) when it shifted in a dry dock mishap. The remaining Steamship is ALSO a stern wheeler it WAS known as The Richard F. Irvine, but was rechristened the "Liberty Belle" after a mid-1990's refurbishment, but fear not, the Admiral Joe Fowler, and Richard F. Irvine are still vessels in WDW's navy as the three Ferryboats originally names the Magic Kingdom I, Magic Kingdom II, and Kingdom Queen were re christened them selves in the late 1990s as The General Joe Potter, Admiral Joe Fowler, and Richard F. Irvine, even MORE recently some of the old unused Disney's Animal ships were moved over to the Seven Seas Lagoon and got the old Magic Kingdom I, Magic Kingdom II, and Kingdom Queen names (or at least some of those names have been reused I do not know if it is all three), additionally, although there never was a side-wheeler on the Rivers of America at WDW there were TWO on the Seven Seas Lagoon, The Ports-O-Call, and the Southern Seas, interestingly the Southern Seas also came to an early end due to a cracked hull, though it was replaced with a "steam outline" side-wheeler, in other words a side wheeler that looked like a steam ship but that was actually modern power plant vessel, originally the pair of side-wheelers were both actual stem ships, and in the early days of the Magic Kingdom saw heavy use as there were no ferries for the first 2-3 years of the Magic Kingdoms life (they had really expected to bring EVERYONE around the Seven Seas Lagoon on the monorails I guess), later they were used to take folks to the Animal Exhibits on Bay Lakes "Treasure Island/Discovery island" and to do "World Cruises" around Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon.
Oh and I believe that Disneyland Paris DOES hove both a side-wheeler and Stern wheeler on THIER rivers of America. and to correct the worst of my grammatical errors in the original comment "unused Disney's Animal ships" should have read unused ships from Disney's Animal Kingdom's Discovery island river Cruise", interesting to note that not only do ships change names a lot at WDW but so do Islands as both Discovery Island and Treasure Island have been in two different places.
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