Ahoy there, Mateys! Get your sea legs firmly in place, because today we’re sailing on the Pirates and Pals Fireworks Voyage in Disney World!
The Pirates and Pals Fireworks Voyage is available on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights, casting off from the Contemporary Resort. When the holiday season arrives, the cruise will sail every night from November 20, 2011 – January 1, 2012.
Currently, the fare for guests 10 and over is $53.99, and $30.99 for the 3-9 year olds with pre-payment required. To book, call 407-WDW-PLAY (407-939-7529) up to 180 days in advance.
Atmosphere
Upon arrival at the Contemporary Resort, you’ll find the cruise meeting location on the Daily Events Board in the lobby. We knew we had found the right location when we bumped into this scraggly lookin’ fella. Clearly he has not yet discovered the Parmesan mashed potatoes at Chef Mickey’s!
Skeleton Pirate
While the room was filled with entertainment (music, characters, pirates), the pirate decor wasn’t quite as whimsical as I had expected. It’s basically a conference room with a couple pirate items displayed.
Eats
After being assigned to your boat (Smee or Hook), the pirate captain — Patch and his twin brother…Patch — will invite passengers to muster inside a conference room filled with snacks and beverages. What’s a cruise without food? As any scallywag knows, it’s wise to stock up with bountiful booty before heading out to sea.
There be treasure!
The snacks included pretzels, cotton candy, chocolate coins, salted peanuts, and more! All of the snacks were pre-packaged so they could be taken on your cruise. I saw more cruisers eating while on land though.
Thankfully the snacks were sweet and savory with no hardtack in sight!
Pretzels
These doubloons were popular with the sweet trade. My son got in on the piracy by “sneaking” coins into his pockets.
Chocolate coins
salted peanuts
Granola and cereal bars as well as dried mixed fruit are probably better sustenance for longer voyages.
Granola Bars
Nutri-Grain
Dried Fruit Energy Mix
White Cheddar Cheese Popcorn and fruit (apples and oranges) were also offered.
White Cheddar Cheese Popcorn
Fruit Displays
Then again, if you’re leaving civilized society, why not enjoy a gourmet fudge brownie?! 😉
Gourmet Fudge Brownie
You’ve seen the single serving chocolate chip cookies in the kid meals all around Walt Disney World. Here, they were served in packages of two. One if by land, two if by sea?!
chocolate chip cookie
Allergies? I spoke with a Cast Member who advised noting any special diet information on your reservation – just as you would with any meals at Walt Disney World. This will insure that snacks are readily available upon your arrival! If you have concerns, feel free to ask.
dietary concerns?
Surprisingly, the cotton candy didn’t go as quickly as other items. The chocolate coins seemed to be one of the favorite discoveries, especially among the younger pirates.
A self-serve beverage station included soft drinks (Coke, Sprite, Diet Coke), juice, and bottled water. No Grog or any other alcoholic beverages are served. This is a rum-free pirate cruise.
Beverage Display
Beverage Station
A cautious cruiser always stocks up water aboard their ship, even when embarking under the Jolly Roger!
Dasani Water
Hot drinks included coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. Along with cream, skim milk, sugar, and other beverage enhancers!
Hot Beverages
Coffee for pirates needing an extra boost before sailing the Seven Seas Lagoon.
Coffee Station
Hot Beverage and Tea Station
Hot chocolate, tea, honey, and condiments
While snacking, families are invited to have pictures with Captain Hook and Smee.
Heading Out to Sea
Soon, the pirates invite passengers to queue up for the cruise. Captain Hook, Smee, and kids pre-selected to carry their boat’s flag, lead the march outside and to the dock where a swashbucklin’ adventure begins.
During our voyage, we watched the Electric Water Pageant, heard pirate tales, watched Wishes fireworks, and answered Disney trivia. Our son won a plastic pirate toy.
All kids who did not receive a prize during the game were invited to select one at the end of the voyage.
Electric Water Pageant
Overall
Cast Members were readily available to assist with any needs. There were frequent reminders that there is no Head on the “ships,” so bathroom breaks were advisable before sailing time.
The cruise is high on humor and good family fun. Clearly, this is not an event geared toward imaginative food. Still, kids will love the simple snacks!
My 11 year old was tickled as much with this festive event as he was with the Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party. Here, the slapstick humor hit his tween funny bone while he filled up on sugary snacks. He laughed the whole way back to our resort. Was it the pirate jokes or the sugar high?! 😉
Arr! It’s a pirate’s life for me!
Kim LaPaglia is the Editor (and resident superhero) here at the Disney Food Blog, a Disney World Mom’s Panelist, and the owner of the blog Castle Concierge.
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Hi!
We’re planning on doing this next year whilst on our honeymoon and it will be our sons first trip he’ll be 17 months. It looks fab! Can you take the snacks onto the boat with you? It’d be great if you could stock up those brownies look delish!
We’re doing this during our upcoming trip in Dec. Soooo excited, I’m sure me&my kids alone will wipe out that cotton candy display ; ) Glad to hear it was enjoyable! Do they give out loot bags to fill up with your goodies for the cruise or do you just take what a pirate can carry?
Kelly – yes, you can stuff your pockets with all the goodies you want and enjoy them out on the boat! Enjoy a magical honeymoon and your sons’ first trip!!
Brandy – no loot bags but I can tell ya that my son’s pockets were stuffed with chocolate coins! Most of the eating was done on shore during the get-together prior to boarding the “ship”. But, feel free to take snacks to-go too! Enjoy your voyage!
My just turning five year old daughter and I did this in September. We had a blast! She had an epic sword fight with Captain Hook and walked with him all the way to the dock. Have to love walking through the Contemporary lobby singing ” Yo Ho” at the top on your lungs 🙂
Thanks so much for this review! We are doing this cruise in December (my boys will go to Pirate’s League earlier in the day) and I’ve been wondering what it was like. I’m glad to know there are hot beverages available since the weather may be cool during our visit!
This does sound like fun.
Kristi – Now that’s a perfect souvenir – an absolutely precious memory! Hooray for Miss 5!
Shayne – Awesome planning to do Pirate’s League earlier in the day!! I hope your pirates have an incredible voyage. Yes, those warm drinks will help if the evening is cool. 😉
JoAnn – It was so much more fun than I had anticipated. Pirates and Pals is very entertaining for all ages!
Well, this has changed since this review was written. Just did this this evening. They no longer have a lot of the food listed up here. Gone are the peanuts, brownies, cookies, granola bars, nutri-grain and dried fruit. Also gone are the cans of soda and bottles of water. They replaced the cans and bottles with cups of lemonade or iced tea. They also had a cake and ice cream bars, but a lot less portable stuff available. All in all a bit of a disappointment after reading this review and hoping for all the goodies listed…
Kim, after Wishes ended how much longer did the cruise last? We are planning to do this for our upcoming trip in November, but we were going to use Disney Transportation from Pop Century. My concern is that since the Magic Kingdom closes at 10:00 on the night we are going to do this, we may not be back at the Contemporary in time to get back on a bus back to Pop Century before they stop running for the night. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Our family is going to disney this year, leaving december 22th adn coming back home january 5th, so we’ll be there for christmas. I’ve been hearing great things about this but my concern is that my son is allergic to wheat and Milk ..will there by anyting he can eat while on the boat or we should bring our own snacks.??
It is only right to share that the only regretable experience for my fiance’s and my 7 day trip to disney was going on the pirates tour out of the contemporary hotel. Our understanding was that we would enjoy pirate stories, fireworks, and a light fun evening. Our “captain hook” made many offensive insults to most of the riders (thinking it was pirate humor) and absolutely humiliated her. Upon docking she fast paced to avoid the attention of running to escape the entire hotel. She experienced a mild panic attack and our final evening at a wonderful resort was left in shambles. The snacks, wait, etc were all reasonable as we got to meet a nice family from New Jersey that made pre-departure fun. Unfortunately though I will recommend to anyone who asks to stay clear or be warned.
An absolute waste of time and money!Very disappointing. I won’t get into details except to say with all that Disney has to offer, this should be avoided. This was our 3rd trip to Disney with our daughter and decided to try something different, and different it was, everything about it was cheap, except for the price.