Friendship Boat service to Disney's Hollywood Studios closing for refurbishment

Posted: Friday April 27, 2018 7:47am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

The friendship Boat service that runs from the Epcot area resort hotels to Disney's Hollywood Studios will be unavailable from early May 2018.

Work on the Swan and Dolphin bridge will close the boat service beginning May 7 2018. During the work, the walkway across the bridge will remain open, and bus service to the Studios will remain operational as normal.

Impacted resorts include Disney's yacht and Beach Club, Disney's BoardWalk Resort, and the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin hotels.

Friendship V

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Wngo905Jul 18, 2018

Yep, it was up and running during our trip. CM said it started back June 30.

RaveOnEdJul 18, 2018

Thank you for asking! We'll be at the Dolphin starting 11 days from now, and looking forward to taking the boats to EPCOT and DHS!

cmb5002Jul 18, 2018

Thanks! I checked another thread mentioning the refurb, but I guess I missed this one.

Biff215Jul 18, 2018

According to the other thread, everything is back running as usual. https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/friendship-boat-service-to-disneys-boardwalk-resort-to-be-intermittent-this-week.944391/

cmb5002Jul 18, 2018

Are there any updates on this? Just curious as we'll be heading to Dolphin in about a month.

WDWtravelerJun 03, 2018

Photo update as of Sunday, June 3, 2018. A ground level view of the bridge repair. The scaffolding is located on the far side of the bridge. The repairs have not been started on this side of the bridge, so I expect this work to continue for some time, meaning the boats will be out of service longer than anticipated.

BoarderPhreakMay 09, 2018

Yeah... I willl say we took it again this past trip, only because it was hot and sunny out - and the boat is shaded and breezy. As I recall, we didn't really want to walk anymore either. :p

peter11435May 09, 2018

Improving the AC would be nice But again. If they wanted to do that they don’t need to wait for the boats to close.

DznyRktektMay 09, 2018

Understood, but it could be a good time to at least restore the A/C.

peter11435May 09, 2018

The boats don’t have to be closed for boats to be taken out of service for refurbishment.

flyerjabMay 09, 2018

I too like seeing the boats out and about. Anything that adds to the kinetics of the environment. Also, I love hearing the boats in the Epcot resort area. Sitting on the Boardwalk outside the Boardwalk Bakery, or on your balcony in the evening, hearing the boat horn has become this type of audio nostalgia for me. Same goes for the steam train whistle when we are staying at the Grand Floridian or the Poly. There is something to that sound that I truly love to hear when walking around the resort or at the pool. It has that 'makes me feel like a kid again' nostalgia to it that is hard to duplicate.

Kman101May 09, 2018

The boat is definitely fairly slow. I've only used it once as well, lol. There's a reason many say you can walk faster than the boat ... but it's nice to have options. I like seeing the boats out.