What did they hate about the boat ride? The wait? The long wait is the reason I routinely walk to Epcot, as well as MGM. During my stay two weeks ago, I was headed to Epcot from BW, around 10:00 am or so. The boat was just boarding, and started pulling away from the dock as I passed the Bakery. By the time I had arrived at the Intnl Gateway area, the boat had pulled in, but had not started unloading. I actually beat the boat passengers to the bag check area. I do tend to walk a bit faster than most people....so others may have a different result.
POP is pretty close to Epcot..in fact you can watch IllumiNations from some areas of POP. That, and CBR, are probably the closest non-deluxes to Epcot.