Walt Disney World is expanding its fleet of ferryboats that connect Magic Kingdom theme park and the Transportation and Ticket Center. The new vessel, the resort’s first since 1976, will be named the Meg Gilbert Crofton, president of Disney World from 2006 to 2013.
Disney expects to launch the double-decker vessel sometime in 2027, the official Disney Parks Blog reports. The 120-foot-long boat is under construction at an undisclosed Florida marina, and will be shipped to WDW in pieces in the new few weeks, the blog says. When complete, it will have a similar look and capacity to the existing boats.
The new Meg Gilbert Crofton will join the fleet of ferryboats — named the Admiral Joe Fowler, the General Joe Potter and the Richard F. Irvine. They sail on the Seven Seas Lagoon and are open-air alternatives to the resort’s monorail system leading to Magic Kingdom, the world’s busiest theme park.
A portrait of Crofton will be found on the first deck of the vessel with a plaque that shares her story. She began working at Disney World in 1977.
Meg Crofton talks with Magic Kingdom visitors at the park’s Be Our Guest Restaurant in the Fantasyland expansion in 2012. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
“I was humbled to learn that my name would be on this new ferryboat,” Crofton said in the blog item. “It means so much to be recognized by the cast members I had the privilege of working with for so many years.”
“Meg was a mentor to countless Disney leaders, myself included,” current WDW President Jeff Vahle posted online. “She also led the resort through some major expansions, including the transformation of Fantasyland that added Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Be Our Guest Restaurant to Magic Kingdom.”
In 2015, Crofton was honored with her name put on a window above the park’s Main Street.
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The ferryboat namesakes are a group of heavy-hitters and official Disney Legends. Fowler led the building of Disneyland, Potter oversaw construction of Walt Disney World and Irvine was head of WED Enterprises (the predecessor of Walt Disney Imagineering). Crofton will be the only living person with a Disney ferryboat named after her.
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