Questios about Fireworks Cruises and Booking

[Laura's Dad]

We have decided that we would like to do a Fireworks cruise and see Wishes at the MK instead of Illumintions at Epcot. I have read the tips for getting Illuminations cruises 90 days ahead of time on the DIS Boards. Is the process the same for the MK cruises? Do you book the cruises from a specific resort or does Disney do that for you? We had considered dining at O'Hana prior to the cruise. Do each of the MK resorts (Poly, Cont., GF, WL and FW Campground) have these specialty cruises? We can get from one place to another, but want to make sure we do things on time. Any help or experiences would be appreciated.

 

[DisneyWorldDad]

You book the cruise at the appropriate time and the reservation agent tells you which marina to meet at (or lets you choose, I should say). The agents are very good at telling you where to be and what time.

We met at the Poly, but they brought our boat over from somewhere.

This is money well spent!

 

[Crazy Hakim]

1. Wishes is not presented every night, so you must be sure you are selecting a night that has the show scheduled.
2. It is not as difficult to schedule a Wishes Cruise compared to IllumiNations. At IllumiNations they only have availability for 5 boats plus Breathless, the parking area is limited to just these 6 boats. While the number of boats available for Wishes is a LOT more, I have seen as many as 12+ boats out on the Seven Seas Lagoon.
3. Most every resort has boats available (The Grand Floridian, The Poly, The Contemp, Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness), but usually the most boats and drivers are dispatched from Wilderness Lodge, but that does not mean that you cannot request being picked up at the Poly and dropped off at any of the other resorts. If you do this, it is very important that you give accurate ages of any children under the age of 12, so the driver can properly size the live jackets required.

Does that cover all your questions?

 

[Twigs]

I booked a wishes cruise and followed all the prompts given on the Booking an illuminations cruise thread. After they secured the cruise for me they asked me where I would like to depart from, and I requested the Polynesian which I got.

 

[rlyrehc]

I did the same as the last poster. I only want to add that I booked mine less than 30 days out and had no problem getting Wishes. We did the haunted fireworks boat ride in Oct and though we found that we didn't like the view as much as the Illuminations cruise, we decided to try Wishes again and see if the cruise is any different this time.

 

[Stitch's mom]

I read this the other day and you may want to keep it in mind. We are doing the Wishes cruise early Feb. but there may or may not be sound piped in on the boat. I called CRO and was told they are in the process of getting the music on all the boats but that the boats all congregate around the same area and she thought we would be able to still hear it. Thought I would pass that on since I didn't even think of it when we booked.