Do you miss the Liberty Belle Riverboat at the Magic Kingdom? Well, it turns out the boat that used to take guests around the Rivers of America hasn’t been demolished yet. Our eye-in-the-sky photographer @bioreconstruct spotted the Liberty Belle docked in a backstage marina.
Check out an aerial view of the old Liberty Square Riverboat.
Disney moved the Liberty Belle backstage in July 2025 after the Rivers of America closed to make way for the new Piston Peak and Villains Land.
Some elements have been removed from the Liberty Belle (like the smokestacks), but the boat is mostly as we remember. Disney usually removes the stacks in order to move the boat backstage. Beyond that, the boat appears to be relatively unchanged.
What does Disney have planned for the Liberty Belle? That’s unclear. It seems noteworthy that the boat hasn’t been demolished yet. Maybe it’s not a priority since it’s sitting backstage. But, the options for repurposing the Liberty Belle are relatively limited. It’s not a real boat despite loads of misinformation saying otherwise. It ran on a track around the Rivers of America, and it doesn’t have a steering system. Turning it into an actual operating boat is possible, but very unlikely.
We’d love to see the Liberty Belle preserved in some shape or form. Maybe permanently docked somewhere and used for special events? The boat is a part of Magic Kingdom history. It was originally built in 1973 when it was called the Richard F. Irvine. It later saw a complete refurbishment in 1996 that saw the boat renamed to the Liberty Belle. It’d be a shame to see a bit of Disney history demolished, though that seems like the most likely outcome.
