Pirate Cruise

[1sttimedis]

Has anyone set up a pirate cruise for their kids? Need feedback to decide if this would be good for my 8 & 5 yr old boys.

 

[Memaw2Wm]

My grandson did this two summers ago (2002) ... he was seven and really enjoyed it.

 

[crisi]

Just did it last week with my 4 and 5 year old.

Book as far as you can in advance. It fills up fast. And pricey - at $30 per child. There are seldom no shows or cancellations and they only run in three days a week. If its the least bit chilly, dress your kids appropriately, the wind whips around Bay Lake.

The kids enjoyed it. We got to the GF marina at about 9:00 for our 9:30 cruise. They checked in the kids and put them in lifejackets and bandannas. There were more girls than boys and most of the kids were in the 4 to 8 age range. At 9:30 they paired up, loaded them on the boat and took off. 24 kids, 3 adults. (Be warned, you do sign away your rights to sue if anything happens to your kid on the cruise. Isn't an issue for us, and I'm sure there aren't many people who take their little pirates away instead of sign, but it might make someone think twice about putting their kids on that boat).

From there its pretty fuzzy what happened. We know they went straight over to the Poly marina (cause we went to the Kona Cafe for brunch and saw them debark). At the Poly the apparently had to find the other half of the map. .....

And it gets even fuzzier. We aren't sure what happened, but my kids talk about "pirates" and a "booby trap" and finding the treasure in the "woods" (WL?). They pulled in at 11:30, with peanut butter sandwiches, juice boxes, rice krispy treats and gummi bears in a bag (we ate waiting for the monorail) and as they left the boat were handed their share of the "booty" - Mostly the stuff you get at a kids birthday party - rings, mardi gras necklaces, a superball shaped like an eye, whistles.....

They had a good time and I'm glad we did it.

I wouldn't recommend it for a first timer unless you are going to be at Disney for a long time or already planning on going again soon - however, by your next trip your eight year old would be too old to enjoy it. We were there seven nights and made it into MGM only to see Fantasmic, didn't see everything we wanted to at AK, missed much of Epcot - but we did do things like Blizzard Beach, the Pirate Cruise, and a long big sit down dinner every night .... if you are going for the parks, it will take an entire morning (prime park time) and you may leave wishing you'd been able to see more of the parks.

 

[Memaw2Wm]

This is my grandson's (age 7) tale of the pirate cruise (summer 2002):

At the Grand Floridian Marina, William donned a life jacket and a pirate’s bandana. The pirate crew, supervised by three adult Disney Cast Members (DCMs), climbed aboard their ship (a pontoon boat) and set sail across the Seven Seas Lagoon on a two hour adventure looking for treasure! As the ship pulled away from the dock, the pirate crew gave a loud pirate roar … ARRRRRRRRR!

According to William, the boat sailed for a bit then stopped near an island where one of the DCMs pulled a bottle out of the water. Then teasing the kids he tossed it back into the lagoon before retrieving it a second time and opening it. Inside was a piece of a treasure map! Using the map as a guide the pirate crew headed to a second “island” (Polynesian Resort).

This island had two volcano slides and the pirates disembarked to hunt for the next clue. Another piece of the treasure map was found under a bush. The pirate crew climbed back onto the boat and headed towards the Contemporary Resort.

At the Contemporary Resort one of the DCMs jumped off the boat saying that she was going to go get the treasure for herself and the pirate ship took off without her! The quick thinking DCM “stole” a mouse boat from the Contemporary’s marina and chased the pirate ship into Bay Lake.

The second piece of the treasure map directed the pirate crew to River Country at Fort Wilderness across Bay Lake. Once more the intrepid pirate crew disembarked to search for the third and final piece of the treasure map. Once located, the final map piece directed them to cross a wooden suspension bridge (watch out, those spiders bite). Safely across the bridge the pirates searched, this time finding a wooden treasure chest with brass fittings filled with loot bags (containing candy, jewels, and small toys). ***

Carrying the treasure chest the pirate crew boarded their ship a final time to journey back to the Grand Floridian Resort. During the return voyage the pirates ate a brown bag lunch consisting of PB&J on wheat bread, Rice Krispie Treat bar, Gummi Bears and a juice box.

*** Since we were staying at FW, William was able to point out where they found the treasure when we were traveling back to FW that afternoon.

 

[crisi]

Having heard your story before, I've been feeding it to my kids trying to get confirmation, and I think some things may have changed (but my kids are at that age its hard to tell). Most of the "pirates" didn't seem to eat their lunch on the pontoon (although my daughter got through her rice krispy bar) - and I think if your kids are especially young (and need help getting things open yet), they'll take lunch off the boat with them. It may vary by cruise, if there are enough kids breaking into their lunches, more kids will. Both our PB&Js were on white bread, but the lunch was otherwise the same. They do talk about the map being in a bottle, but it was missing the X. They said they didn't get chased by a boat, but insist there was a "booby trap," so that plot twist may have changed (or may not have - as I said, getting real information out of my 4 and 5 year old is tough). And their loot contained no candy, just small toys.

Thanks so much for William's story. I get the feeling that there are a lot of parents who would like the details and mine aren't the only "pirates" that tell rather fuzzy stories.