Pirates and Pals Fireworks Voyage - My letter to Disney

tkd27

Earning My Ears
Joined
Sep 11, 2012
Hi all, I recently experienced the Pirates and Pals Fireworks Voyage with my family. This was our first time seeing Happily Ever After and we were excited to experience it this way. Below is the letter I sent to Disney's guest relations regarding my experience:

***

I am writing to you regarding my recent trip to Walt Disney World. I took my family on a trip earlier this month to celebrate my daughter's birthday. We decided to celebrate by splurging on the Pirates and Pals Fireworks Voyage on her actual birthday, 5/14.

To be honest, we were disappointed by the happily Ever After fireworks show. We were so disappointed that I had a conversation with a friend recently about how bad the new show is compared to Wishes. He said he disagreed and that he felt it was even better than Wishes. He pointed out the projections and said that they made it a better experience. When I pulled up a YouTube video of Happily Ever After to see what he meant I could believe it. The new show is not just a fireworks show, but rather a whole projection based experience. On YouTube it looked fantastic. From our view with a 100% obstructed view of the castle the experience was lousy.

I cannot believe that Walt Disney World would charge $230 for a family of four to go on a premium experience when 50% of the experience is missed by the people who pay for the upgrade. What an awful, awful way to treat your most loyal guests. Frankly, Disney should be ashamed of itself and should stop selling this experience if you cannot give guests the appropriate view of the castle (to be clear - our view of the castle was completely obstructed the entrance to Magic Kingdom).

On another note: this is not something I would have bothered to write in about on its own, but since I'm already writing I will let you know. Mr. Smee was absent from our experience and only Captain Hook was there. This was disappointing as that was 50% of the character interactions inside the party room. And even further, the desserts served were EXTRAORDINARILY disappointing. We had mini cupcakes that appear to be from the supermarket, cookies (also off the supermarket shelf), and some kind of key lime cheesecake bites which were actually a decent dessert. Other than that it was grapes, carrot sticks, and corn chips. Seriously?

We were unimpressed by the overall experience before we found out that we missed half the show, but now we really feel like we got taken. We pay a premium to vacation at Disney because we believe we will be treated with respect and not taken for suckers. We know that the vacation is going to cost a lot, but the trade off is that we're doing business with a company that wants us to enjoy ourselves and come back again. For the way that this experience worked out we would have been better taking our chances with any old Orlando tourist experience.

We love Disney, but you need to do better than this. It's simply not acceptable.

Sincerely,

Matt

***

If they respond I will update the thread here. I do not think that I was too harsh with my letter, either. I honestly believe it is inexcusable to sell a premium fireworks package that obstructs your view of half of the show. It really isn't right.

On a happier note, my kids did actually enjoy themselves with the other aspects. The interactions with Captain Hook were wonderful and my daughter spent the rest of the vacation pretending to be him with a toy hook she won in one of the games aboard the ship. Our pirate guide was also wonderful (I wish I had mentioned that in my letter and I will add it if they bother to respond to me). The games and songs aboard the ship prior to and following Happily Ever After were a lot of fun. And the Meet and Greet with Peter Pan at the end was also a lot of fun.

Nonetheless, there's no way I'd ever consider this experience again, nor would I recommend it for anyone that is considering it. Even if it was a perfect view of the castle it would probably not be worth the money (but I suppose you could make the argument for it). But with the view you get, it's a complete waste of money.
 
We are planning a private MK fireworks cruise for my daughter's birthday in July. Based on what I've read in many online reviews of HEA, we are fully aware that part of the HEA experience includes projections on the castle. I don't think WDW is responsible for explaining that when I book my tickets.

I think you were too harsh, and you would get further if you started the letter with the positive aspects of the evening and followed up with any constructive criticism regarding issues you might have had.
 
I'm not trying to get anywhere with them. I'm not looking for a freebie or anything, but I want them to know how disappointed I am. I do think it's their responsibility to make sure the premium products they sell contain a premium value. If they are selling premium seating for the night time attraction then the seating should actually allow you to experience. I intentionally didn't read reviews for Happily Ever After because I wanted to have a spoiler-free experience with it the first time I saw it. In my opinion a guest shouldn't have to read up on it to know whether or not Disney's premium seating for the experience contains value.
 
I don't think you were too harsh at all. I completely understand that you wanted to avoid spoilers. Disney should have had a disclaimer when selling tickets to this event "Note: the projection portion of this show will be missed if you partake in this event". If it were my letter I would have requested a partial refund based on missing a portion of the experience. When you pay for an experience, you should recieve the service or experience that you paid for, and it sounds like you didn't recieve what you paid for.
 


Hi all, I recently experienced the Pirates and Pals Fireworks Voyage with my family. This was our first time seeing Happily Ever After and we were excited to experience it this way. Below is the letter I sent to Disney's guest relations regarding my experience:

***

I am writing to you regarding my recent trip to Walt Disney World. I took my family on a trip earlier this month to celebrate my daughter's birthday. We decided to celebrate by splurging on the Pirates and Pals Fireworks Voyage on her actual birthday, 5/14.

To be honest, we were disappointed by the happily Ever After fireworks show. We were so disappointed that I had a conversation with a friend recently about how bad the new show is compared to Wishes. He said he disagreed and that he felt it was even better than Wishes. He pointed out the projections and said that they made it a better experience. When I pulled up a YouTube video of Happily Ever After to see what he meant I could believe it. The new show is not just a fireworks show, but rather a whole projection based experience. On YouTube it looked fantastic. From our view with a 100% obstructed view of the castle the experience was lousy.

I cannot believe that Walt Disney World would charge $230 for a family of four to go on a premium experience when 50% of the experience is missed by the people who pay for the upgrade. What an awful, awful way to treat your most loyal guests. Frankly, Disney should be ashamed of itself and should stop selling this experience if you cannot give guests the appropriate view of the castle (to be clear - our view of the castle was completely obstructed the entrance to Magic Kingdom).

On another note: this is not something I would have bothered to write in about on its own, but since I'm already writing I will let you know. Mr. Smee was absent from our experience and only Captain Hook was there. This was disappointing as that was 50% of the character interactions inside the party room. And even further, the desserts served were EXTRAORDINARILY disappointing. We had mini cupcakes that appear to be from the supermarket, cookies (also off the supermarket shelf), and some kind of key lime cheesecake bites which were actually a decent dessert. Other than that it was grapes, carrot sticks, and corn chips. Seriously?

We were unimpressed by the overall experience before we found out that we missed half the show, but now we really feel like we got taken. We pay a premium to vacation at Disney because we believe we will be treated with respect and not taken for suckers. We know that the vacation is going to cost a lot, but the trade off is that we're doing business with a company that wants us to enjoy ourselves and come back again. For the way that this experience worked out we would have been better taking our chances with any old Orlando tourist experience.

We love Disney, but you need to do better than this. It's simply not acceptable.

Sincerely,

Matt

***

If they respond I will update the thread here. I do not think that I was too harsh with my letter, either. I honestly believe it is inexcusable to sell a premium fireworks package that obstructs your view of half of the show. It really isn't right.

On a happier note, my kids did actually enjoy themselves with the other aspects. The interactions with Captain Hook were wonderful and my daughter spent the rest of the vacation pretending to be him with a toy hook she won in one of the games aboard the ship. Our pirate guide was also wonderful (I wish I had mentioned that in my letter and I will add it if they bother to respond to me). The games and songs aboard the ship prior to and following Happily Ever After were a lot of fun. And the Meet and Greet with Peter Pan at the end was also a lot of fun.

Nonetheless, there's no way I'd ever consider this experience again, nor would I recommend it for anyone that is considering it. Even if it was a perfect view of the castle it would probably not be worth the money (but I suppose you could make the argument for it). But with the view you get, it's a complete waste of money.
It sounds like Disney really played it cheap for this particular "magical extra cost" experience. I'm glad you shared your completely reasonable disappointment with them.
 
I don't think you were too harsh at all...for the price you paid, we attended the Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Party and had a table and tons of nice desserts, sparkling juice, coffee,etc and a wonderful view of HEA with noone crowding us. It is understandable that you did not want to spoil any details. By posting this, I think you've done a PSA and warned people about the experience they will get. Some people are fine with just seeing the fireworks....We are not those people, we want the FULL experience. I get you...
 


It's always disappointing when you pay a high price for something and it doesn't turn out the way you anticipated. I'm sorry you had a less than satisfying experience. I don't think you were too harsh and I'm interested to hear if you get a response.

I remember when Disney first introduced the Dessert Party around 2012. The price was $25 for adults, which I didn't think was too bad for dessert and a good viewing for the fireworks. The prices has since skyrocketed, as much as $79! People are willing to pay this price, so Disney can charge it. I understand splurging every now and then, but there is no way I would consider paying that price now.
 
I did Pirates and Pals three years ago and the experience seems to have diminished from then. Did you at least get mickey ice cream bars?! I thought the best part was actually our hilarious pirate host who kept cracking joke after joke then going down the celebrations on the boat. We were on our Disneymoon so he sang "Kissed the Girl" to us!
 
Thank you to everyone being understanding of my position. I was worried I was going to get flamed for posting this!

I did Pirates and Pals three years ago and the experience seems to have diminished from then. Did you at least get mickey ice cream bars?! I thought the best part was actually our hilarious pirate host who kept cracking joke after joke then going down the celebrations on the boat. We were on our Disneymoon so he sang "Kissed the Girl" to us!

Oh, yeah, there was also ice cream (though not Mickey Bars). We had the cookies and cream Mickey ice cream sandwiches, which actually were really good.

We had assumed the desserts would be a dessert spread like you get at a buffet. Like the Chef Mickey's dessert spread or something. The lime cheesecake bites were like something from that, but everything else was very disappointing.
 
I did the Pirates & Pals cruise back in 2014. Wishes was still around, we had a great view of the show. The desserts were OK-- we had a really lovely cake (I didn't care for it because it was carrot cake, but it was pretty and obviously made from a bakery on property), mickey bars, and a bunch of packaged snacks like cotton candy and cracker jack. It was a fun evening, but looking back, I felt like we paid way too much for it.

The price has since gone up, and if your party was scaled back from mine (which it looks like it was), that's unacceptable. I don't think you were too harsh. You paid for a premium service that has deteriorated over the course of the past four years. Part of that is because the fireworks viewing on the lake doesn't necessarily work for HEA, therefore, this experience needs to be modified and enhanced to make the price worth it. You were right to email.
 
Update: Disney wrote back and told me that they are going to refund the full amount of the experience for my family of four, so wow - kudos to Disney's customer service. I didn't ask for that and I didn't expect it, but that's great. I responded by thanking them for that and asking that they still please pass my feedback to the appropriate people in charge of that experience.

Of course they'll probably end up getting that money right back. Now that they've refunded us we're considering putting it toward the Tomorrowland dessert party for our next trip in October so that we can really experience HEA as it was meant to be experienced :)
 
Thank you for your post. I used the search feature because I was considering it for my 3 year old grandson in January. It's not that much more to rent a boat for illuminations. I'm definitely leaning more toward that now. Glad they worked it out for you.
 
Thank you for your review and for the follow up! It's very helpful to those of us trying to decide where to spend our time and money to receive honest reviews--both good and bad. And kudos to YOU for taking the time to express to Disney how you felt about the experience.

Several years ago my husband and I received some very poor customer service at the GF, and I wrote to them about what had happened--not because I was looking for a refund or anything else, but because I honestly believe in the Disney magic (corny, and probably even foolish, I know, but there it is) and I just honestly wanted them to fix the issues so that no one else experienced what we did.
 

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