Disney World announced on May 1, 2026, that a fourth Magic Kingdom ferryboat is coming in 2027, the first addition to the Seven Seas Lagoon fleet since 1976. The name they chose carries more history than most people will realize the first time they step aboard.
The new vessel will be called the Meg Gilbert Crofton, named after Walt Disney World’s fourth president. What Disney’s blog post does not say directly: Meg Crofton was also the first woman ever to serve as president of Walt Disney World, taking the helm in 2006 and holding it until 2013. That detail makes this more than just a nice honorific. The first ferryboat named after a woman will now cross Seven Seas Lagoon every single day as guests make their way to Magic Kingdom.
The boat itself is 120 feet long and has been under construction at a marina in Florida. Disney is preparing to ship it in pieces to the resort over the next few weeks, where a team will spend roughly a year assembling, painting, and finishing it before the 2027 launch. The fleet will grow from three ferries to four, a capacity boost that makes sense given Magic Kingdom is simultaneously undergoing its largest expansion in history.
Crofton joined The Walt Disney Company in 1977 as a marketing manager and spent nearly three decades climbing through the company before being named president. During her time leading Walt Disney World, she oversaw New Fantasyland in Magic Kingdom, the first major theme park expansion at the resort since Animal Kingdom opened, which brought Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Be Our Guest Restaurant to life. She also opened Disney’s Art of Animation Resort in 2012. When she received her window on Main Street, U.S.A. in 2015, it named her the founder of the “Center for Leadership Development” with the line: “We start leaders on their journeys.” Her portrait, created by Walt Disney Imagineering, will be on the first deck of the new vessel alongside a plaque sharing her story with future guests.
The three existing ferryboats, the Admiral Joe Fowler, the General Joe Potter, and the Richard F. Irvine, were all renamed in 1997 to honor people who built the resort from the ground up. Fowler was a Navy rear admiral who supervised the construction of Disneyland and Walt Disney World and served as Disneyland’s first General Manager. Potter was an Army major general and governor of the Panama Canal Zone who solved Walt Disney World’s entire infrastructure puzzle, designing the underground utility systems, drainage canals, and power supply that made the resort possible. Irvine was the Walt Disney Imagineering executive who shaped the master plan for Disneyland’s attractions, with significant contributions to the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. There is also a quiet historical thread here worth noting: both the Admiral Joe Fowler and Richard F. Irvine names originally belonged to riverboats on the Rivers of America inside Magic Kingdom. Both those riverboats are now gone. The Fowler was destroyed in a 1980 crane accident, and the Irvine was renamed the Liberty Belle and retired in 2025 as part of the current expansion. The names live on in the ferry fleet.
Our take: the choice of Meg Crofton feels genuinely earned here, not ceremonial. A ferryboat named after the person who oversaw New Fantasyland is now launching alongside the park’s next major chapter, and there is a real symmetry in that. And because the ferry crosses Seven Seas Lagoon dozens of times every day, her name and story will reach more guests in a quiet, lasting way than almost any plaque inside the park ever could. The first female president of Walt Disney World deserves that kind of visibility.
The Meg Gilbert Crofton is expected to launch in 2027. For the latest Walt Disney World news, visit fantasylandnews.com and our Disney hub. Join the Realm at fantasylandnews.com/the-realm.
