Minecraft – How to get an animal out of a boat

The easiest way I find is to look directly downwards, right click to exit, and then carefully hop from the boat. It still moves, but not so much.

Perhaps Mojang may address this in a future update? It might be worth going to the Get Satisfaction page for Mojang and seeing if it's been raised as an issue already. If not, raise it.

Disclaimer: This information will likely change as water physics change fairly often.

EthosLab discovered that the new interaction between boats and water has very strange quirks. For example, he found that while boats won't rise in water usually, they will rise if the water consists completely of "water source blocks" (no stream blocks). It's more difficult (and more time consuming) than the old method because you need to place each individual water block in your elevator, but it works. Here is a video of him constructing it and then testing it.

Also, if you want to make a boat ride that stays on one level, you can build an EATS Road (which is conveniently featured in the video above as well). It's essentially a transportation system that keeps a boat at its maximum speed all the time, making it as efficient as travel by minecart. The way it's constructed allows for the "track" to stay on one level all the time, which is perfect for a boat ride as well (you can of course add rises and drops if wanted).