If you had a $40,000 vehicle, you would never loan it out to a stranger for $50 when that stranger had no idea how to drive it and had no supervision, right? That, apparently, is one of the key differences between you and Disney World.

Turns out, you can rent a pontoon boat and drive it around Bay Lake (that’s the one right in front of Magic Kingdom), and it’s SHOCKINGLY cheap. Like, cheaper than a meal at one of Disney World’s fancy signature dining restaurants. The price tag was a surprise in itself, but what came AFTER I rented the boat just made my jaw DROP.

I go to Disney World pretty often – a couple of times a year, and more if I can – so I’m always looking for new things to discover and new experiences to try. I absolutely LOVE all the classic rides, snacks, and shows, but sometimes you just need to switch things up, ya know?

That’s how I ended up out on the docks behind Disney’s Contemporary Resort, waiting to rent a pontoon boat. I’ve been a passenger on the boats at Pirates of the Caribbean, Frozen Ever After, and Peter Pan’s Flight – now it was MY turn to drive!

The first thing you need to know about renting a pontoon boat in Disney World is that it is surprisingly cheap. It costs $50 per half hour, and you can have up to 10 guests on board. The next thing you need to know is that you CAN bring drinks and snacks on board! You can’t have alcohol on the boat, but feel free to bring along some soda, water, popcorn, corn dog nuggets, whatever your heart desires.

You can rent boats from Disney’s Contemporary Resort, Disney’s Beach Club Resort, or Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. I went to the Contemporary. When I arrived at the window, the Cast Member told us that there were no boats available at that time. You see, you can’t make reservations for this particular activity. That’s kind of a bummer because you could just be out of luck if all the boats are taken and no one comes back to return their boat soon.

However, I decided to wait for a bit to see if someone might bring a boat back, and luckily they did! There were a few other people waiting at the dock to rent a boat, but because I got there first, I got the next available boat. There wasn’t an official waitlist – I just booked it up to the window from where I’d been hanging out when I saw the boat pull in. They say first-come first-served, and they mean it!

The boat rentals apparently start at 11AM each morning, but it seemed like they actually started a bit earlier, because I got there not long after 11 and they were all already gone. So if you’re hoping to get a boat right away, I’d recommend arriving earlier, around 10:30AM.

At the window, I just had to sign some forms, show my ID proving I was over 18 years old (all drivers have to be 18 or older), and put on a green wristband showing that I was signed off as one of the drivers of the boat. Then, a Cast Member took us down to the boat, turned it on, and briefly showed us how to make it go forward, backward, or stop.

Are you ready to hear what happens next? This is the truly SHOCKING part. They just…gave me the keys. To a $40,000 pontoon boat. And apparently trusted that I’d get the hang of driving it.

I asked several follow-up questions because my anxiety-ridden brain was not comprehending that there was no further training or rules. We can go anywhere on the lake as long as we stay far enough away from the shore? Yep. (Truly, I couldn’t believe there weren’t more restrictions there.) There are other boats on the lake right now? Yes indeed. (Surely a collision is unavoidable.) And one of those other boats is the very large ferry boat taking guests between the TTC and Magic Kingdom? Heck yeah it is. (What.) And…no one’s coming with us? No Cast Member on board? Apparently not. We’re on our own, folks.

Don’t get me wrong — there definitely were safety guidelines and rules to follow (see the card of rules at the boat rental window) — I just expected more supervision and actual instruction before we took off!

So, yeah. Anyone that you see driving a pontoon boat right next to Magic Kingdom could be a person who has never driven any kind of boat in their life and had approximately 30 seconds of training before they just went out completely on their own. 😬

As terrifying as it was to just be let loose in Bay Lake with a $40,000 pontoon boat that I had NO practical experience driving, it ended up being super fun. My sisters and I took turns driving, and we went all around the back part of the lake, looking for otters that the Cast Member told us they’d spotted the other day (sadly, we did not find any otters. There were some cool birds, though.).

We did notice that there were a few Cast Members on speed boats who were available to help if you got yourself stuck or would come by and tell you off if you broke one of the few rules, so we weren’t totally left to our own devices. Plus, the top speed of the pontoon boat was like 5 MPH, so we really couldn’t move fast enough to actually cause any trouble. Our biggest concern was definitely staying out of everyone else’s way, which we (for the most part) did just fine.

The scariest part of the whole thing was definitely when we decided to cross the man-made water bridge to get from the back part of Bay Lake to the front (right in front of Magic Kingdom). The bridge is SMALL, and larger passenger boats were consistently going over it, leaving not a ton of wiggle room for us to scoot by. For reference, look at this on the map. See that tiny stretch of water in the middle? That’s what we were attempting to cross.

After much anxiety and a couple of close calls with bigger boats that thankfully did not result in any crashes, we made it across! We cruised along for a bit but had to turn around pretty soon to make it back to the docks at the Contemporary Resort on time.

That’s another thing I wanted to mention — because the pontoon boat goes so slow, a half hour passes QUICKLY. Make sure you prioritize your time to get where you want to go! (Note that you can stay out for as long as you want, but every half hour costs $50.)

It’s just wild to me that Disney is totally fine with random people driving these boats all over Bay Lake. I was sure that there would be more rules and instructions, but they just tossed us the keys and let us go! I think it’s totally safe – between the low top speed of the boat and the Cast Members on speed boats, I never felt like things could get out of hand. It’s definitely an experience that I’ll be doing again, especially when I want to escape the crowds in the parks. There’s no better way to do that than to hop on a boat and sail around Bay Lake!

So if you’re looking for a new experience in Disney World, want to escape the wild crowds in the park, or just have always dreamt of driving a pontoon boat with Cinderella Castle views, you absolutely should do this. Make sure you arrive at the boat rental window early so that you don’t have to wait a long time to get out on the water!

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