I Have a "Breathless" Update

[palmtreehaven]

We were originally booked on the Breathless a few weeks ago but were moved to a pontoon boat after the "accident" in which no one seemed to know exactly what happened.

On our pontoon Illuminations cruise, I asked our driver if she knew what happened, and when Breathless was going to be coming back into service.

In a nutshell, the driver (I don't know who was driving Breathless that day), was taking the boat out for a spin before the Illuminations cruise to make sure everything was running ok (a normal routine, and no guests were on it, just him).

He was coming back under the bridge from the Hollywood Studios direction and into the bay with Boardwalk, Yacht/Beach club. Apparently, he tried to steer the boat to the left, but it would not go left. There was a malfunction with the steering and the boat took a hard right, going underneath the boardwalk and hitting the concrete retaining wall of the bay (this was between Jellyrolls and Atlantic Dance Hall). Apparently he missed the pylons and crashed right into the concrete. He was injured - to the extent I do not know. I know that a lot of people on the boardwalk apparently witnessed it.

The driver of our cruise indicated that she believed that Breathless probably was not coming back, for two reasons:
1. It was damaged so badly. The front of the boat was crushed, pushing the steering column into the driver, which injured him.
2. Illuminations cruises have declined sharply in bookings, with only an average of two going out a night for a while now (supposedly), instead of the 6 available.

I can't vouche for anything I wrote above, but it's what I was told.
Bummer.

 

[bradk]

thanks for the update, but just to clarify, it's the breathless ii. the original breathless was retired a while ago.

and yes, pontoon rentals is down quite a bit. WDW often tweets about same day availability.

 

[scanne]

bradk,

Just wanted to say that my DD5 loves your picture in your siggy!

 

[Harmonysmomma]

I agree BRAD! Where was that taken??

 

[CanadianPaco]

2. Illuminations cruises have declined sharply in bookings, with only an average of two going out a night for a while now (supposedly), instead of the 6 available.

Any guess why? Other than maybe the cost

 

[katallo]

I think it is mainly the cost. We rented the pontoon in 2006 for $125.00. Now, I understand it's over 300.00. The only other reason I can think of is that so many guests have taken a cruise. We've done Illuminations and Wishes and really don't have the desire to go every year. If costs were lower, more guests would probably taken advantage of repeat trips.

 

[bradk]

resort bookings are down. it only stands to reason that 'luxury' bookings would suffer as well.

as for my sig photo, thanks, it was from a celebrity-studded event that Disney invited me to cover.

 

[jctwizzer]

Looks like Disney has priced the boats out of the market.....a shame.
Pretty obvious they're on the same route with several other attractions.