Has anyone taken a Wishes Fireworks Grand Gathering Cruise?

[taramarie]

I am going on one if Februaray and want to know all about it before I go. Any information or pics you could share would be great!

Tara

 

[MulanMom]

If this is the pirate cruise one, where you leave from the Contemporary, then we did it. It was a lot of fun and we would do it again if given the chance. The pirate who ran our ship was very charismatic. We all happily joined in on sing alongs and trying to answer questions. The music for Wishes is piped into the boat and the view from the water is stunning. I actually preferred that to viewing Wishes is the park.

Enjoy. You'll have a great time!

 

[DisneyFanatik]

We did the pirate cruise one in 2004 and it was great. We all met at a designated spot in the Contemporary where we had a dessert reception. Joining us was Captain Hook and Mr. Snee. They took pictures, signed autographs and were really playful! We were then escorted to our boat by "Patches" the pirate. He was great! He asked questions and gave out prizes to whoever had the right answer. One ds got a hand hook and the other got a telescope. It was raining the night we went so we all got free Mickey rain slickers too! We watched Wishes from the water with the sound piped into the boat. After that we went back to the Contemporary and just as we were docking Patches announced that someone special was waiting for us. It was Peter Pan. As we disembarked the boat Peter was there to say hello, take pictures, etc. Overall it was a wonderful experience!

 

[Tinkerbellmom33]

We did this in Sept. It was a lot of fun! Our pirate was "Patches." He asked all kinds of trivia and all of the kids got a chance to answer and win a prize. It was really cute. We also got to see the Electric water pageant. That was nice to see too. Peter Pan was waiting for us as we docked. The character interaction was really great and was a treat to see the fireworks from the water. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Here are a few pictures:

"Patches"

I don't want to give it away, but here's one...

 

[Tinkerbellmom33]

Sorry they're so huge! Gotta work on that

 

[kcork1026]

Our group is considering doing this cruise in June, the one pic. of Wishes is enough to convince me. Now to work on the other members of the group (who are not on these boards to see)

 

[tracers]

Do you have to get PS for this? How do you make reservations? Cost?? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Tracers

 

[Tinkerbellmom33]

Yes. You have to have a group of 8 or more. It was 90 days out, I don't know if that changed to 180 like the dining. I'm sure you can find it on the PS calculater here on the DIS. The Grand Gathering # is 407-939-7526. They can give you all the info you need. It only goes a few times a week. They'll tell you what's available for your time frame. I forget the exact charge...around 30 for adults and 20ish for children?. I think I found the info on allearsnet.com
Enjoy!

 

[Goofy4]

Did it in October.

Here's a couple threads that I quickly pasted in here (not sure how much they apply directly to the Grand Gathering cruise):

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=950198
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=937625
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=946785

Wishes video: http://www.ourmedia.org/node/74900