Pirates of the Caribbean (Disneyland Park)

Pirates of the Caribbean
Disneyland
Land	New Orleans Square
Designer	WED Enterprises
Attraction type	Boat voyage
Theme	Pirates of the Caribbean
Propulsion method	2
Soft opening date	March 16, 1967
Opening date	March 18, 1967
Vehicle type	Boat
Vehicle names	Pirate ships
Ride duration	15:30 minutes
Maximum speed	3 mph (4.8 km/h)
Number of lifts	1
Drops	2

Pirates of the Caribbean is a dark ride at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California that takes guests back in time to the 17th century to witness the pillaging of pirates in the Caribbean. It opened on March 18, 1967.

Description

Queue

The ride's building contains wall paintings of various pirates seen on the ride. Just before the loading area, there is a talking parrot seated next to a treasure map and behind a Jolly Roger flag.

The main entrance to the ride

Blue Bayou

The loading area is at Laffite's Landing dock in the calm, lazy Blue Bayou. After loading, guests proceed through the quiet bayou passing by the Blue Bayou Restaurant, fireflies, the sound of croaking frogs, and a man smoking a pipe on the porch of his cabin. Then, the boat heads into a cave and makes a sharp right turn to a tunnel with a talking skull (voiced by Xavier Atencio) embedded above it. The skull warns guests about the plundering pirates below, starting with "Avast there maties..". Right after this, the boat drops about fifteen or twenty feet down into the Grotto.

Grotto

After coming off the first drop, the boat proceeds a few feet and then goes down a second shorter drop. Then, guests pass a hermit crab pinching its claws. Throughout the grotto are moving skeletons, including one driving a broken helm of a wooden ship, one drinking wine, one skeleton pirate captain buried in treasure, one looking at a mirror in its bed, and another stabbing itself with a sword. As the boat exits the grotto, ghostly voices (voiced by Paul Frees and and Xavier Atencio) warn guests of the dangers to come.

skeleton with pirate ship helm in the grotto

Main show

After exiting the grotto, the boat passes a pirate ship blasting cannons at a Caribbean fort. The cannon firings are formed by mist images and light effects in the water. The pirate captain is Captain Barbossa (voiced by Geoffrey Rush) saying crazy lines firing the cannons as he holds his sword.

The boat proceeds into the town; to the right is the town magistrate, Carlos getting dunked in a well by two pirates and other villagers are lined up behind him awaiting to be dunked. One of the pirates is a captain who is questioning him about Jack Sparrow and the town's treasure. Carlos' wife is opening her windows in their house behind the well saying, "Be brave Carlos, don't listen to him". Meanwhile, Jack is hiding behind a lining of clothes from the Costuera shop.

The boat goes deeper into the town; to the left is an auction. Pirates are forcing the townspeople to surrender their valuables as they are auctioned off to other pirates by an auctioneer. The auctioneer is trying to sell off a group of hens, but the pirates demand the rum instead. A female pirate in red encourages the rum-craving pirates as they chant, and another pirate shoots at the chanting pirates to quiet them down.

The boat goes under the bridge into an area where women with weapons chase pirates with stolen goods. To the bottom of that, an overweight pirate (voiced by Corey Burton) is looking at a map to help guide him to the town's treasure. A nearby dog notices that Jack Sparrow is popping out from a barrel behind him, looking at his plans to help seek the treasure. As the boat goes under another bridge, to the right is a pirate trying to get cats' attention.

Once the boat goes under that bridge, to the left is three pirates singing "A Pirate's Life for Me" in front of another neighing donkey (in a stable); and a dog singing along with them one sings while playing the mandolin, another plays the accordion, and another just sings. As the boat goes further into this scene, there are more drunk pirates singing the same song in front of a building that they are burning down. To the right is a drunk pirate snuggling with muddy pigs and above sits a pirate holding on to a jug of rum swings his muddy foot above the guests.

Then, just inches away is the entrance to a prison where there are two cells holding pirates. In the cell that is most noticeable, there are three pirates in jail. One is holding a bone, another is begging the dog in front of them to give the key that unlocks the cell and another is whistling to catch the dog's attention. The dog refuses and stays put while wagging its tail. Following this is an area where four drunk pirates shoot at each other while singing "A Pirates Life for Me". Straight ahead the boat gets on a lift hill; to the left is one final scene with Jack Sparrow, finally having found the treasure. He sits on a rocking chair wearing various jewelry he found, sings along with the shooting pirates and talks about how happy he is to have found the treasure (voiced by Johnny Depp). The lift then returns guests to the Blue Bayou, hearing the voices of Davy Jones (voiced by Bill Nighy) and Blackbeard and passing a talking parrot in the process.

Gallery

The old auction scene.

Jack Sparrow in the barrel behind the "pooped pirate".

Changes

Pre-1997 changes

The "Old Bill" scene, originally part of the Magic Kingdom version, was added to this version in 1973. A new outdoor queue replaced the old one in 1987.

1997 changes

Ricochet sounds were added after the pirate fires at Carlos' wife and she shuts the window, and she has a different scream.

The original chase scene involved pirates "pursuing" attractive women in circles, an overweight woman "pursuing" a pirate in circles, and an overweight "pooped pirate" sits next to a barrel, exhausted from "pursuing" a woman. The pooped pirate brandished her petticoat and uttered suggestive dialogue while she hid in the barrel next to him, occasionally peering out from it. This scene was altered to show pirates chasing women for the items they held, an overweight woman with a rolling pin chasing a pirate with stolen ham, an overweight pirate surrounded by food and craving more of it, and a cat with a fish in its mouth peering out of the barrel.

Multiple animatronics from another attraction were turned into pirates and added to the singing segment.

The original ride did not have anything near lift ramp after the shootout scene save for flashing eyes. A new scene was added near the lift ramp: Two pirates try to pull treasure up from a lower area while skeletons lay nearby and a voice chants "dead men tell no tales" repeatedly. A pirate sitting on a barrel (voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft) was taken out to make room for this new scene and was believed to have been moved to the chase scene.

2006 revamp

In the grotto, portions of the "Scare Me" music that played were replaced with a quiet, melancholic instrumental version of "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)". The ghostly voices that played before the ship battle were replaced with a misty waterfall containing a projection of Davy Jones.

The original ship battle involved an unnamed pirate captain and his crew against a Caribbean fort. In the updated battle scene, the captain is replaced by Hector Barbossa who demands Captain Jack Sparrow and a fortune in gold from his enemies.

The original town scene involved pirates dunking Carlos, the town magistrate, into a well in an attempt to get him to say where the town's treasure was. His wife tells Carlos to not tell the pirates anything, and a pirate shoots at her every time she says something. The updated town scene is similar to the old scene, only the pirates now demand the treasure AND the location of Jack Sparrow while Jack himself hides between some dresses.

The chase scene was changed again: women with weapons now chase pirates with stolen goods, the overweight pirate now brags about a treasure map and a key that he claims Jack Sparrow will never find, and Jack Sparrow replaces the cat in the barrel, peering over the other pirate's shoulder.

The treasure-lifting scene near the lift ramp was replaced with a treasure room housing a drunk Jack Sparrow, having stolen the key from the overweight pirate, celebrating and singing. Guests can now hear the voice of Davy Jones as they go up the lift ramp.

2011 changes

On May 20, 2011, Blackbeard replaced Davy Jones in the misty waterfall and at the lift ramp. In the following November, Blackbeard and Davy Jones began to alternate in the waterfall and at the lift ramp. Blackbeard was removed from the waterfall in November 2013.

2018 changes

The misty waterfall was replaced with the original ghostly voices and a transition scene containing a pirate caught in a booby trap turning from a skeleton to a human and an octopus moving its arms.

In the original auction scene, the town's women were "auctioned" off to the pirates as brides. The "auctioneer" is trying to sell off an overweight woman, but the pirates demand the attractive Redhead instead. Another pirate fires a gun every so often to quiet the other rowdy pirates down. In the new scene, the townspeople are forced to surrender their valuables so they can be "auctioned" off to the pirates. The auctioneer is trying to sell off a group of hens, but the pirates demand the rum instead. Redd, the female pirate in red, encourages the rowdy pirates and tries to get the auctioneer to sell the rum, and another pirate fires a gun at the rowdy pirates to quiet them down.

Trivia

• This was the final attraction that Walt Disney himself worked on before his death.
• Disneyland's version of the ride is the only one that is not located in Adventureland.
• Xavier Atencio was actually a set designer for rides but wrote "A Pirates' Life For Me" only because Walt Disney thought he would be good at it.
• Jack, Barbossa, and Davy Jones were all voiced by the actors who played those characters in the movies.

External links

• Pirates of the Caribbean page on the Disneyland website
• Pirates of the Caribbean page on the Tokyo Disneyland website

This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at Pirates of the Caribbean (theme park ride). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Disney Parks Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.