These sound awesome - anyone been on one recently? What about with a small child? Is it exciting enough that they're not going crazy?
- Sorry, didn't want to read thousands of posts to find out if someone had already posted their experience... Thanks!
We just returned and did an Illuminations Cruise. And how wonderful for us that I met someone here on the dis who wanted to join us and it was great to meet a new friend!!!
Anyway, in answer to your question, I think it would depend on the small child. The boat left the Yacht Club marina and we travelled towards Hollywood Studios while our captain pointed out things we might not have noticed and gave us some history of that area. It was very quiet. We were 6 adults on the boat and it was just quiet and relaxing. After doing that, we headed towards Epcot and parked under the bridge. By then, the people on the bridge above had probably been standing awhile waiting for the fireworks and we could hear them talking (most of them were saying how did those lucky people get in those boats
). The boats are in place for probably 5 minutes. We just sat and chatted. Then the fireworks start and it seems as if you are right there. After all of the times I've seen Illuminations, and have had some great viewing spots, this was amazing.
The pontoon boats hold 10 people. Six can sit in front of the captain. Since there was only 6 of us, we all sat out front (I had planned it that way--I didn't want a full boat). However, there is bench seating behind where the captain stands for another 4 people. I would think that a small child would be okay as there is a bit of wiggle room either in the front or back areas. The experience prior to the fireworks (taking the ride plus getting into the parking spot) didn't seem long at all.
I can't say enough how wonderful I thought this experience was. It was not only worth the money, it was also worth getting out of bed at 3:30 in order to call in at 4:00 am to get one of these boats.
