Night plans

Until we were called a few weeks ago about our coming cruise ship upgrade to the Walt Disney Suite, this fireworks cruise was the one thing about the trip we were looking forward to most. And we’re still pretty stoked about it.

A little history here… On our first trip in 2003, I encouraged the group to stay up for Illuminations at Epcot. It started then, like it does most nights still, at nine o’clock, which may not seem that late to most folks. But as I’ve written here, we’re not typically stay-up-late folks, and my in-laws have usually turned in by then. And given that my boys were six and eight at the time, nine was late for them as well.

Illuminations was good that night, but we were all too tired to really enjoy it… plus we had stationed ourselves in front of the Italy pavilion, meaning we had almost the full walk around the World Showcase Lagoon and through Future World to get out of the park afterwards. Add to that a long wait for the bus, and it was not a very pleasant experience.

Flash forward to 2005, when I planned for us to stay up to see the Spectromagic parade at the Magic Kingdom. I picked the wrong spot for us to watch the parade, and we ended up standing for an hour waiting for it to reach us. And when it was over, we were out of place for the best view of the Wishes fireworks show, and then again had a longer walk back to the park entrance than planned. Everyone handled it with good-natured humor, but Bob later commented that “the only way that could have been less pleasant was if I had had a rock in my shoe.” (Which led to our running joke for the rest of the trip – Me: “Bob, there’ll be some great fireworks later if we stand here for a while.” Bob: “Let me find a rock!”)

Suffice to say, after those two experiences, I swore off planning evening activities for the group (and the group swore off letting me!).

But then we heard about the fireworks cruises! These take advance reservations, but for a fee anyone can reserve a pontoon boat which holds up to eight people, and a driver will take you out on an hour cruise that includes sitting on the water just outside the park and watching the fireworks. All of us, but Bob and Linda especially, liked the idea of getting to see the fireworks while sitting down, and without having to fight the park crowds.

The cruises are popular, so you have to call exactly 90 days in advance, preferably when the reservations line first opens in the morning. So three months ago, on October 2nd, Brandon and I rose before six o’clock Central time to start dialing the reservation line, 407-WDW-PLAY, and we managed to snare a fireworks cruise for the 8:30 showing of Holiday Wishes – on New Year’s Eve! We booked a “premium” boat, one that has the music piped in. It costs extra, but the music is an indispensable part of any Disney fireworks show.

Truth be told, the price quoted to me when I made the reservation was twice what I was expecting. Apparently the prices get jacked way up for the holiday. But Becky’s parents were okay with it still, so we kept the reservation and here we are!

The reservations CM told us to be at the Polynesian marina at 7:30, and our boat driver would meet us there and we’d leave by 8:00, take a tour around the lagoon, and then watch the fireworks.

We make our way through the Polynesian towards the marina. This is going to be so cool!