Wishes cruise vs. Illuminations: anyone have experience with either?

[fabwallsmom]

I followed the Disboards advice on how to book an Illuminations cruise, but had no luck until today. The reservationist said that the Illuminations cruise was all booked up (at 7:01 a.m.) but Wishes was open. I, being somewhat of a Disney newbie, didn't know anything about Wishes. She said it was basically the same thing for the same price, only from MK rather than Epcot.

Does anyone know if this is right? I made the reservation. I hope it's as good as all the things I hear about the Illuminations cruise!

Any input would be appreciated!

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!!!!

Robin

 

[lUVTOGO]

I also booked the Wishes Cruise for July 10th after trying for 3 days to get the Illuminations Cruise, and being sold out at 7:00 each time. We did do the Illuminations cruise last year, so I figured we would try the Wishes cruise this year! I would like some information also. We are leaving out of the Contemporary.

 

[fabwallsmom]

Congrats on booking your cruise, ILUVTOGO! I'm excited about just getting the reservation! I feel like I won the lottery! We'll be leaving from the Grand Floridian. I had both my husband and I on the phone at 6:50 every morning trying to get a reservation. He's off at the sunrise church service this morning, so I had to do it on my own. I'll go with the kids to the later service because I had to be here to call for my Disney reservation!! LOL!!!

Robin

 

[CarolMN]

I was fortunate enough to go on the WISHES cruise with some fellow DIS members last December. So glad to have had the opportunity and am considering trying to reserve one myself for our next trip. We'll be traveling with my brother's family.

We also left from the GF marina. We enjoyed a "special" treat - got to see the electrical water pageant from the boat. The captain said that a corporate group had paid for a special run of the pageant and that the "regular run" would go on as scheduled later in the evening. Anyway, seeing the EWP from the pontoon was really neat!

Seeing WISHES itself from the lagoon was awesome. The view/experience was different from the pontoon than from inside the park. We still laugh because we though that some of the fireworks we saw when we were inside the park were "bow ties". From the boat, we saw that they were stars! The only thing that was missing from the cruise was the music and narration. You can't hear that from the boat. I hear they are considering piping that in, though. Hope they do!

Anyway, IMHO, a WISHES cruise is definitley worth doing. We've also been on the Illuminations cruises and of course, that is also truly special. My advice is to experience both if at all possible!

Best wishes -