I have done both the Illuminations Cruise and the Wishes Cruise. It was 12/27/03-1/3/04 and we did them one night after the other. We were staying at the Dolphin so getting to the Illuminations Cruise was like a walk down the hall. We went down the river by Crescent Lake to MGM and then back up to Epcot to dock under the bridge between the UK and France, where we viewed the show. The view was amazing, those islands in the our point of view did not obstruct the viewing of the Globe moving or any other part of the show. We learned many cool facts and somewhat "inside" jokes about the area from our skipper. The next night we did the Wishes cruise. Although the view was amazing, you could not hear any part of the vocals or music on the Wishes Cruise. I'm not sure if this is the same on the cruises now though (it has been over 3 years since we did it, plenty of time for change). The skippers for this cruise also gave cool facts about the seven-seas lagoon, Bay Lake (I think it was called that), the water bridge, the MK tunnels, and we even got a close up view of the water pagent.
Does anybody know if you are able to hear the music now on the Wishes Cruise (clearly, not faintly) as this was a fun way to view the show and we still haven't seen the show from a good spot, during our next trip (Feb 2006) we ended up watching the show from Fantasyland after a bad experience on the Pooh ride: we got in line for a 10-minute wait, but the man at the top of the line would allow almost 45 FASTPASS people go for every 1 standered queue person. It turned into a 45-minute wait and we got out 30-seconds before the show began. It wasn't easy to watch as they lunch fireworks from the Pooh building (next to the castle) and from behind the park. I'm just wondering if they added a stereo system or something to the cruise ships to hear the music to the fireworks?