The LibertyBelle is currently at Dry dock in refurbishment. It is due back in the Magic Kingdom September 22.
It was initally scheduled for a short rehab last September where they were goinig to teak the decks and do the boiler inspection (they teak about every 3 months and inspect the boiler once a year). During that scheduled down time, the boat was brought to wet dock which is located behind Big Thunder Mountain. While it was there they decided that they would take it to Dry Dock, where they could pull it out of the water and do a full overhaul, since it had not been fully rehabed since it debuted as the LibertyBelle in 1995 (I think it was 95...but anyway, it has been years). They had to wait for a spot in dry dock to become avalaible, as they were working on a fireworks cruise boat. Once that spot became avalaible they were going to move the boat, but realized that they could not because of the Pirates rehab. It would have required them to move some of the heavy machineary that was brought in for Pirates, so they waited until Pirates was reopened for a few weeks for Spring Break and then they made the decision to move it. Since the boat can not steer on it's on they have to tug it across the Seven Seas lagoon and Bay Lake in order to move it from Wet dock (behind Thunder in the park) to Dry Dock (behind the Contemporary), they realized that they did not have anything to tow it with as, in past, they would use the Keelboats, which of course are no longer in operation. So they had to get one of the Ferryboats (Iroically enough they used the Richard F Irvine ferryboat, which was the original Riverboats name) and they towed it to dry dock. So in all the time that it has been out of service, it has been just patiently waiting it's turn... It only got to Dry Dock and pulled out of the water about a month ago, so the rehab has just gotten underway.
