With the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island now permanently closed, fans are wondering where the Liberty Belle riverboat will end up. The hope is that it will be preserved and live on somewhere else on Walt Disney World property, but Walt Disney World hasn’t announced any plans for the vessel. We’re not sure if the Liberty Belle will end up in a scrapyard or somewhere else on Walt Disney World property, but we do know that it isn’t able to navigate on its own. In this article, we’re going to take a closer look at how Walt Disney World moves the Liberty Belle riverboat.
Moving the Liberty Belle Riverboat
The Liberty Belle, or Liberty Square Riverboat, has more in common with a monorail than an actual boat. That’s because it ran along a track when it was in operation at Magic Kingdom. As you can see in the photos below, the track ran along the bottom of the Rivers of America, with the Riverboat only controlling forward or backward motion.
So, how do you move a boat that has no side-to-side steering? The answer is a lot of coordination with other boats to push and pull the riverboat, along with ground-based support to move it through the backstage canal and channels. Here are some behind-the-scenes photos released by Disney, followed by a time-lapse of the Liberty Belle moving from dry dock to Magic Kingdom.
Essentially, you could just play the video below back in reverse to get a good idea of how Disney will move the Riverboat out of Magic Kingdom and (presumably) back to dry dock.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
