Wishes Cruise - EXCELLENT!

[luvthatdisney]

Hi guys,

I just thought I would post our experience with a Wishes Cruise (Birthday Cruise). We went on August 11 (my birthday) and purchased the birthday package (cake, drinks, decorations, etc...). The total cost was $220 and we tipped the captain $30 (Jeff from the CR - he was great!!). So for a total of $250 we had a wonderful cruise.

We left the CR marina about 9:15 pm (Wishes was a 10:00 pm) and went around Bay Lake. He took us over past Fort Wilderness and Sneaker Island!! He provided alot of lesser known triva about the area and about Discovery Island and the old River Country. He then docked at the Wilderness Lodge and we ate our cake and watched the water pagent parade. Then we went over towards GF and Poly and he gave us more triva about that area. We then "parked" right in front of MK. He told us the large pontoon boats have the speakers in them (25 ft boats) and the smaller ones do not. He said usually a smaller boat will pull up beside the bigger boats to hear the sounds from Wishes. Since we had a big boat we could hear everthing just fine.

This is the way to see Wishes - IMO!! It is really meant to be seen from a distance - no straining our necks to look UP to see them - like you do if you are actually in MK.

DH and I agreed this was money well spent and was one of the highlights of our trip. If anyone has any questions about one of the Wishes cruises, please ask!!

Also, Jeff our captain told us that for many years he drove the cruises at Illuminations and he much prefers the Wishes Cruises. He said Wishes is more Pixie Dust and Illuminations is more educational. If you can get a cruise with Jeff - he is great - the kids even enjoyed it (my teenagers dont like much!!)

 

[PixieDust32]

Thanks for the tip! I love love love Wishes, makes my tears drop!

Never watched from the outside, maybe next time.

 

[letterdavidman]

I'm glad you enjoyed this so much!

DW and I will be doing a Wishes birthday cruise next Wednesday, and we can't wait!!!

Thanks for the report!

 

[hoganjdmb]

we leave on Friday and will be celebrating a birthday while we are there. This sounds exciting and reasonably priced. How do you book it and what is the time frame from getting on the boat and getting off? Also, is it priced per person or by group size?

 

[psar]

So glad you had a wondeful time. Captain Jeff is the best.

 

[unixadm]

Was this a Pontoon boat, or something different? I have reservations for the Wishes Cruise leaving from GF....I believe it is the pontoon boat....just wanted to see what the differences were between the boats.

 

[aengus]

Was this a Pontoon boat, or something different? I have reservations for the Wishes Cruise leaving from GF....I believe it is the pontoon boat....just wanted to see what the differences were between the boats.

There are two different sized pontoon boats, 22' and 25'. They are phasing out the 22's and replacing them 25's.

 

[dcgrumpy]

Here's a silly question? How do you book the cruise 90 days out when the park hours and the time of Wishes isn't out yet?

 

[javaj]

Here's a silly question? How do you book the cruise 90 days out when the park hours and the time of Wishes isn't out yet?

You book a specialty cruise to see Wishes from your choice of marina. They set up a tentative time, but your actual departure time is 30 minutes prior to Wishes (they request you be at the dock 45 minutes prior to start of Wishes).

 

[Skylarr29]

Here's a silly question? How do you book the cruise 90 days out when the park hours and the time of Wishes isn't out yet?

You just book your cruise and then call about 2 weeks prior and they tell you what time to be there based on what time Wishes is. Wishes has been most every night so there hasn't been any issues.

 

[letterdavidman]

Forgot to ask this earlier, but what are the chances of DW and I getting to see the electrical water pageant as a bonus? I know Wishes is at 9:00, and DW and I have to be at the Poly marina at 8:15. It would be awesome to get to see that as well. Here's hoping that we get one of the boats with speakers.

 

[Lizzybee]

I'm so glad you loved it, we did too. We spend Easter night on the pontoon watching Wishes...amazing. Ours was a small boat without speakers and we had no trouble at all hearing the music from a nearby boat. We also saw the Electric Water Pagent. I'm a single mom and I saved up for this surprise and it was worth every penny! Incredible experience!!!!

 

[lham1531]

I have this booked for October - not a birthday cruise, just the "normal" one - I am paying $187 or something like that and I know it's a smaller boat because we only have 6 people and it seemed silly to pay an extra $50 for the bigger boat -

But now I'm worried about not having sound directly on the boat - has anyone done the smaller boat? Did you pull up beside a boat with music? Was it loud enough?

 

[Lizzybee]

I went on the smaller pontoon and we did pull up by a larger boat and could hear the soundtrack at what we would consider a perfect level, but we don't listen to the radio or TV very loud at home. Hope you love it!

 

[san4u2]

Thanks for the info. I booked this boat as a surprise to my family and to finally see Wishes. In all the times we have been I have always missed it. This is my way of making sure it doesn't happen again I have seen Illumanations many times as it is hubbys favorite. But he is always willing to go out on a boat as he and my kids love the water.
We leave in 33 hours and will be checking in to the Poly on the 21.

 

[MamaKate]

Thanks for the review!!!

I have a Wishes B-Day cruise booked as a surprise for my sons 10th birthday in September.

It will only be 3 of us and I was wondering how big is the cake??? Will we have alot left over??? Did you get to choose your type of cake???

Also, how was the boat decorated???

Thanks for the info!
,
Katie

 

[KelliR]

August 11 is my birthday too! I will take your advice and try to book the Wishes cruies for our upcoming trip in November. Thanks for the info ... aw:

 

[luvthatdisney]

The cake was a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. It was a small round cake not sure of the size. It was good, but kind of reminded me of a Peperidge Farm cake you get a the grocery store. It was not one, but it kind of tasted like one. Icing was very light - not the heavy sugary icing. My TA with DU (thanks Beth) made this ressie for me and I do not remember if she asked what kind of cake we wanted or not, but I am sure you could request it. There were 5 of us and we had half a cake left (which we took back to the room with us) we also had coke, diet coke, water and sprite to drink. Jeff let us take all of the left over drinks with us.

I wish I had learned about this cruise years ago. IMHO it was one of the highlights of our trip. We did see the electric water parade while we were eating our cake. Our marina was the one at CR (which is where we stayed) very convenient!! So for cruises leaving from GF or Poly I am not sure where the driver take you or if you see the water parade. I know when I went to pay for our trip (a few days before) the CM at the marina told me that she was not sure if I could pre-pay as other resorts send their boats to CR for the cruises. However, our boat was a CR boat so I was able to pre-pay.

Even if you are not celebrating something this cruise was well worth the money!

 

[luvthatdisney]

Oh, forgot to add...

The boat had a sign on each side that said "Happy Birthday" and ballons attached to the canopy top. That was about it for the decorations. It was kind of dark when we arrived at 9:00pm, but you could see the decorations. Once we got out on the water it they were not as easily seen, but I enjoyed it all the same!!

 

[MamaKate]

Thanks for the info on the cake and decorations!! My son likes chocolate, so I'll call and see if I can get a chocolate cake.

It's sounds like alot of fun and I'm really looking forward to seeing my sons reaction when I take him on the cruise!!

Thanks!
,
Katie