Anyone watched Illuminations from La Hacienda?

[archdandy]

I was wondering if anyone has watched Illuminations from La Hacienda? Me and my fiancee are going to WDW for our honeymoon and have never watched Illuminations before and heard its hard to find a good place to view them outside. We have dinner reservations for La Hacienda and thought it might be a good idea just to watch the show from there. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Jeanieblue114]

I have watched it from the outdoor pavilion at the quick-service location there that is attached to La Hacienda, and it was a good view as always. I have not seen it from inside yet. I've always liked the Mexico area as the best place to see Illuminations. From what I understand, the view from inside should be good.

Please report back when you do see it.

 

[theguda]

My wife and I watched Illuminations from a window seat inside La Hacienda last November. It was the highlight of our trip...and it was also my first time watching Illuminations. You will LOVE it!!!! Enjoy!!!

 

[catne]

just an FYI, getting a reservation at the right time at La Hacienda will not guarantee you a good view, just so you know! We actually had a window seat, sitting down at 8:00 when Illum. was going to be at 9:00. And then we found out that about a third of the seats in La Hacienda are in a side room with no view of Illuminations...and we had one of those "window seats" in there that does not face the lagoon so you see nothing.

In the bigger room, there are only a few tables that are actually at the windows with an unobstructed view (and it looks like a great view, too.) The rest of the tables in that room have a view, but "through" the people at other tables. They do dim the lights (to almost dark) and pipe in the music...and if you're in the non-view room you can get up and go stand at the back of the other room to see. But the view is not good at all.

It's luck-of-the-draw to get one of the Illuminations-view tables...when we were there last Fall they would not allow people to wait for a better-view table. They were telling people they had to take the next available table or lose their reservation.

 

[TDC Nala]

Yes, if you get the right table with the right view, it is a good view. But you're not guaranteed to get that kind of table, because if it's busy they will not let you wait for a view table. Approximatly 1/3 of the tables in the restaurant don't have a view at all. If your only reason for going there is to see Illuminations you should be aware of that.

 

[Havana]

Yes, It was incredible! Definitely worth planning on doing once.
As others stated it does take some coordinating of times and luck to get a decent table.
We sat in a second row table from the window and the view was still nice.

 

[WEDWDW]

FWIW,this is my experience with Hacienda and IllumiNations:

I was "Pixie Dusted"(did not make ANY request) with a GREAT "IllumiNations view window table" at Hacienda during my trip in December.

It was AWESOME and since it was FREEZING outside it was more "awesomer" to watch from indoors as I enjoyed a great meal.

It was really cool-they pipe in the IllumiNations music.At the moment that the Narrator "blows out" the Lagoon Torches,the lights in Hacienda are dimmed.

Although I had a GREAT experience,there are VERY,VERY few "prime" tables.

Hacienda just isn't "set up" very well to provide a great IllumiNations experience for A LOT of Guests,only a FEW.

I would not encourage anyone to make a Reservation there JUST for the IllumiNations experience,unless the Guest goes in with a "if we get a "good" table,fine,if we don't,fine" attitude.

 

[MaryKatesMom]

We've seen Illuminations before but might try this trip for La Hacienda. Even if we don't get the best view, it will still be better than waiting an hour to get a good seat.

Sounds like the odds are the same as R&C and it is indoors. We froze outside at R&C but the view was nice.

 

[archdandy]

Thanks for the replies everyone! It gives me something to think about at least. Its going to be our honeymoon so I was kinda hoping if we mentioned it to the hostess/host when we arrive for our reservations they might give us a decent seat for the show.