Hey Everyone ! P&P question…we have this booked for an evening when Wishes is at 9pm. We were told to be at CR no later than 7:45pm. Does that sound about right for those that have done the cruise ??
I have heard reports of a lot of standing around and waiting if you arrive too early. What is your experience ? We will be coming from EP on the monorail, and I’m trying to allow the right amount of time. Thanks so much !! 
Sounds about right to me. You will check in, you might have to wait a few before everyone is let in. You get your snacks, drinks, pics with Smee and Hook then head down to the boats. You will see the water electric parade then the fireworks.
My one word of advise for you is to get in line for Smee and Hook first.
Oh and when the cruise is over get right off the boat and head stright to Peter Pan.
I only did the Pirates Cruise once and can confirm there was a lot of standing around time. The night I did this, I arrived at the Contemporary (via monorail) at 8:22 and immediately walked to the check in area. Around 8:45, we were admitted into the ballroom where you could have your picture taken with Captain Hook and Mr. Smee and eat assorted desserts. After having our pictures taken, there wasn’t much else to do except sit around and wait (or try to cram in another Mickey Bar). By 9:15, we gathered to depart for our boats.
Based on this, if Wishes starts at 9:00 during your Cruise, 7:45 sounds like when the doors will open to get the evening started.
Great @Jayzeeduck. My only other advice is not to make the mistake I did and come right from dinner to the party (unless you skip dessert). We ate at Be Our Guest that night, which necessitated eating cupcakes. Thus, I did not get my money’s worth out of the desserts at the pirate party. Not that those desserts were anything great, but I hate to leave food I’ve already paid for on the table.
Excellent suggestion, @FlyerFan1973 ! We have an early ADR at Garden Grill, so I will keep that in mind (and hopefully it won’t necessitate eating yummy cupcakes!!). Thanks again.
What I will say is that we had an amazing time, we definitely felt we got our monies worth even though we didn’t eat ourselves silly. We loved it and will be booking again next year.