We recently went on the Pirates & Pals Fireworks Cruise at Walt Disney World and it was an incredible experience. Your evening begins in a ballroom at the Contemporary Resort where there is a meet & greet and dessert party.
The lobby in front of the ballroom has pirate statues you can pose with and a coloring table for the kids. Each member of your party is given a pirate bandana to wear as your ticket.
Inside the ballroom there is an endless supply of treats while you wait to meet Captain Hook & Mr. Smee. There are treasure chests of gold coins, cupcakes, cookies, popcorn, pretzels, soft drinks, tea & coffee and chips & salsa. In a refrigerator there is a generous stockpile of Mickey & Disney ice cream treats. The menu is all you care to eat.
Meeting Captain Hook & Mr. Smee was delightful...they were very generous with the time they spent with each family. Toddler Son enjoys sharing toys with the characters...in this case he presented his Duplo Lego Captain Hook figure and the good Captain seemed to appreciate the gesture.
Teenage Son has a vintage Figment Plush he likes to take pictures with and the pirates were very accommodating. The ballroom was relatively dark presumably in keeping with a "pirate atmosphere" and they played lots of music from Jake and the Neverland Pirates television show. The hosts of the party were two pirates named Patch and Patch...respectively. Of course they issued orders to all of us (we were their pirate crew) to which we were supposed to reply "Aye, Patch!". Once everyone had met the Captain & Mr. Smee and gorged themselves on endless Mickey Bars Patch and Patch led us to the boats! The group was split up into 2 groups....Hook & Smee.
We then walked out to the Bay Lake dock (Captain Hook saw us off) and boarded the boats for a wonderful cruise from Bay Lake over the water bridge to the Seven Seas Lagoon. We were in the "Hook" boat on the Port side (that would be left to a landlubber) of the boat. Our cruise led us by the beach of the Polynesian Village and over to the Grand Floridian.
Patch had all of the lights turned off and had us attempt to scare the folks on the Grand Floridian Dock. We cruised up to them then turned on the lights and proceeded to shout "Arrrggh!"....they seemed mildly amused but mostly disappointed that we were not their water taxi.
At one point we got a water view of the Electrical Water Pageant. Patch led the crew in classic Disney songs ("Yo ho...a pirates life for me" and others) before the ship anchored in a position just off the Magic Kingdom dock. Since we were on the Port side (left) we were on the Magic Kingdom side of the boat and our view was unobstructed. The canopy of the boat is very high so the view is acceptable form the other side but you will be looking over people to see the Magic Kingdom. We did not make a request one way or the other but did end up getting some of the best seats on the boat and we were thrilled.
The view of the Fireworks was spectacular and the music was piped into the boats. At one point there was a torrential monsoon down pour that lasted mere minutes, it was remarkable to watch...the show just continued through the rain without missing a beat. The fireworks would light up the night sky and you could see the enormous rain drops splashing into the lagoon! The boat had a canopy so for the most part we did not get too wet. The considerable rain passed quickly and took some of the heat out of the air. After the Fireworks ended the boat returned to the Contemporary Resort dock. Patch was very high energy and hosted a trivia contest among the crew to pass the time. Our boys both won pirate hooks.
When we returned to the ballroom Peter Pan was waiting for us. Again Toddler Son presented Peter with a toy to which Peter joked about keeping. Of course Toddler Son did not want to lose his toy but Peter was very sweet about it. This was a marvelous experience, we have never been much for camping out for a Fireworks viewing spot so this was right up out alley. And the view from the Lagoon is just breathtaking with Main Street lit up in the distance, the Monorails passing by and the Fireworks reflected in the water. It is one of those very uniquely Magic Kingdom moments where it really shines above the other Disney Parks...a real example of "The Magic of Walt Disney World".
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