The new wheelchair boats for Small World are exactly the same as the old wheelchair boats were. The first time we rode a wheelchair boat was in 1987 and the design has not changed since then. We rode one last week and the only difference we noticed was that the new boats are nice and clean and that the bumpers on the boats seem to be more shock absorbing than the old boats (Sometimes the boats go into a sort of "holding pattern" and while your boat is stopped, it may be hit into by the next boat in line). Our boat got hit from behind and we barely heard or felt it.
The boats have a flat surface at the back of the boat with a large area you can drive the wheelchair on. This is flush with the surface of the loading area so that a wheelchair can easily back right on. The boat has seats for 6 in rows with one seat on each side of the boat, separated by a sloping ramp. I know the boats can take 2 wheelchairs, I have never personally seen more than 2. If there would be more than 2 wheelchairs, I think the "extra" wheelchairs would have to be all the way to the back of the boat, because there would be nothing to keep the wheelchairs on the boat if they were farther up (since there is no "lip" on the boat to keep the wheelchairs from rolling off).
The picture on
Deb Will's site that was already posted are good. The seats look in the picture like they would fit 2 people, but only one adult and maybe one small child will fit on each (my niece sat with her 3yr old in one seat). The 2 sets of parallel lines that you can see in the picture are bumps in the floor. The front wheels of the wheelchair is pulled up over them to help hold it in place during the ride.
The passengers can either walk down the ramp before the wheelchair passenger gets on or board like guests in the other boats, by stepping over the side of the boat. The wheelchair is pushed down the ramp, toward the front of the boat. So, the person in the wheelchair will end up sitting between the two riders sitting in the front row of seats.
As someone already mentioned, wheelchair users begin in the regular line and when the line comes around, there is a passage that takes you to the exit. Before the renovation, wheelchair users just came into the ride at the exit and it was like "salmon swimming upstream" as you walked the opposite direction from the people exiting the ride. It looked to us like they made the walkway a bit wider (although that might just be an illusion because it's brighter). They also separated off the wheelchair lane so while you are walking down to the exit to board, no one is in your lane.
Here are
some pictures posted before by SafetyMom. The second and third pictiure in the 3rd row show the walkway/exit, but they have added a rope to divide the wheelchair boarding area from the exit since the pictures were taken.