Humphrey1227,
It's a pleasant walk, and as RhondaS said, takes about 15-20 minutes. My DH, who runs every day, found it to be a nice place to run-almost deserted many times. As for the difference between the boat ride and walking, the boat ride is only shorter if the boats aren't busy and you hit the schedule right. After Fantastic, there can be an extremely, extremely long wait for the boats. If you don't mind a little bit of a stroll, the path is much quicker after Fantasmic.