Questions about wishes/ Illuminations Cruises

[3princesses+aprince]

We're going to book a Wishes or Illuminations cruise for August!! It's a surprise, so i'm really excited. I know I have some time to decide which cruise I'll book, but I just had a few questions.

I'm deciding between the Wishes, Illuminations or Pirates and Pals Voyage. Can anyone give me any opinions on these. I am curious about the Pirates one. I know you'll see Capt Hook and Peter Pan, that's neat. Just not sure if my girls will enjoy it more than a regular cruise. My dd8 and dd5 do love pirates. My dd8 flew off her chair while eating at El Pirate y El Perico restaurant in Mk when she saw Capt Hook and Mr. Smee getting ready for autographs and pics. lol

Also, does the "basic" Wishes package include Audio of Wishes or do you have to pay for the "celebration" package to get the audio feed? It says it's included in the celebration package but does not list it for the basic. I just figured it would come with it. Who would want to watch Wishes without the music, unless.... you can hear it from the boat anyway. If not, I would definitely pay for the celebration pkge to hear it.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Anyone

 

[Bastiansmom]

We were lucky enough to do the Wishes Cruise for free in July. We were walking around the pool at the Wilderness Lodge after dinner (headed to catch a boat to MK) and a lifeguard asked if we (ME, DH, DS6) were available and would like to do a Wishes Cruise that night! Of course, we said yes!! I looked online (wdwinfo.com) at the available cruises to compare what we did. We had 8 people and the driver on our cruise. The group of 5 had been asked first, then he asked us (a group of 3) so I'm guessing that the cruise was designed for a group of 8 or he would have asked another family of 5 not us (3). Going by the number of guests, I'm going to say we had the BASIC cruise. However, we did have the audio from Wishes on the boat. I don't know if we were just lucky or if it is on all the boats. The snacks included cans of Coke products and bags of chips. I don't know if it was because it was early (not quite dark) or just cloudy, but it was kind of hard to see the fireworks from the boat. The cruise was still awesome, it's just that seeing the actual fireworks was a bit of a downer. The electrical water parade was VERY COOL! They provided a life jacket for my son. After the cruise, we asked if boats were still going to MK, our driver wasn't sure, so he took my family (only) on a speed boat to MK!! That was so great.. our own little private family moment at WDW!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Oh, wow, how lucky were you guys that night. That's great!! Thanks for your reply. I'd really love to hear if anyone else had a better experience seeing the fireworks cause that would make me rethink my plans and maybe go with the illuminations cruise instead. I figured that would be a great view of them.

Thanks again

 

[Bastiansmom]

This was our first time viewing the fireworks, so I really don't know if it was not as good. I think it was because it wasn't dark, and was really cloudy so the fireworks were hidden by the clouds. If it wasn't for that, it would have been awesome. The cruise itself was really special. We were in the boat cruising around the lake for over an hour before the fireworks started. Our driver was really nice and told us interesting things about the park and the lake. If you can happily afford the cruise, I would do it. For me, the alone (plus 6 other people) time with my family was great. It was so quiet and peaceful. I wish I could remember our driver's name. I would tell you to request him.. he was great!

 

[happymommy]

We have only done an illuminations cruise, and that was new years eve. We were staying on the concierge level at AKL, so I had asked the concierge to do all our bookings (dining, the cruise, one night at Simba's cubhouse so DH and I could have a dinner at Jiko alone). I thought we just had a regular illuminations cruise booked, but when we showed up at the Yacht Club after dinner, the driver met us and showed us our boat - it was Breathless, a small Kriscraft reproduction wooden speedboat. We felt like celebrities! The other pontoon boats looked fun, but our driver gave us a great ride, really fast! The kids wore lifevests, but we skipped it I think. We went all around, over to MGM and caught a glimpse of Fantasmic, zipped all over, then parked right under the bridge at Epcot. My DH and I had brought a bottle of champagne that we picked up at the gift shop at the Yacht Club after dinner, and borrowed some glasses from the bar there, then the driver said we normally aren't allowed to eat or drink onboard, but it was okay with him. I don't know the rule now. The really cool thing was, being NYE the bridge above us was wall to wall people, absolutely packed! Here we were sipping our bubbly, the kids were having fun, watching the show. The smoke does obscure some of the visibility of Illuminations, though, so you will get a bit of a worse view than if you were on the bridge, but the whole experience was so fun! I think that if we weren't going through the concierge, we would never have gotten Breathless (I heard it books up the day it's open for booking, maybe used to be 180 days or 90 days), much less any cruise, being new years eve. Sorry to ramble on, but we thought it was worth it, as it created a new memory for that trip (we've been many times, so it's nice to try something new and special each trip if we can). Also, afterwards, we took a cab back to AKL from the Yacht Club. Best money ever spent! Took maybe 10 minutes.