It is perhaps the single greatest attraction ever created in the history of theme parks and it’s celebrating it’s 45th anniversary this Sunday.
On March 18, 1967, the world was treated to the most advanced and remarkable attraction in the world: Pirates of the Caribbean. The amount of detail and use of animatronic technology is unsurpassed.
Today, we celebrate the anniversary with a wonderful video posted by the Disney Parks Blog showing the different Pirate attractions throughout the world.
Here are some pictures of the classic attraction as well.
Pirates from May 1967
The Blue Bayou
Ye Come Seekin' Adventure
Drink Up!
Captain's Quarters
Fire at Will!
Where Be The Treasure?
We Wants the Redhead!
Who Makes it Six?
I Be Willin' to Share, I Be!
The Singing Trio
Setting the Place on Fire!
Sleeping with Pigs
The Hairy Leg!
Here ye be Spot!
Cannon Fun!
And a special thanks to Daveland for use of their pictures!
After a refurbishment that seemed to last forever, Pirates of the Caribbean has reopened at the Magic Kingdom of Disneyland! Going to Disneyland without the most beloved attraction in Disney history was tough. Pirates is the one attraction that I have to go on every time I visit the park. Maybe I’m a bit too attached to what some people might call a “simple amusement park ride”, but it is so much more than that. It is the single greatest attraction ever created and it showcases the talents of many including Walt Disney himself. So come with me as I take you on a journey to the newly reopened Pirates of the Caribbean and I will describe to you some changes I noticed.
Back from Under the Tarps!
The first thing I noticed was how fresh and clean the talking skull now looks. For the longest time, the talking skull had several spit balls on his hat. Boy would I be mad if I saw some kid spitting spit balls at him! Well, all of those balls of spit have been removed and he has been freshly repainted. He looks great.
Pre-Refurbishment. Notice the Spitballs!
Once we enter the caves after the waterfall, I noticed that the cave looks better than ever. For the last couple of years, there has been holes and wires showing and those are now all covered up and it looks great.
Inside the Caves
After the second waterfall, we come to the island full of skeletons. Here I noticed some substantial changes. First of all, the island itself has been re-sculpted on its edges. The edges look steeper and natural sand no longer goes to the water’s edge. It is now a carved surface, most likely to withstand waves of water crashing against it.
The skeletons themselves have been updated too. The first skeleton we come upon has a new hat and eyepatch, along with a Jolly Roger flag. The skeleton in the middle seems to be pretty much the same complete with his crab companion, but the skeleton with the sword through his chest has an all new skull. It is a totally different sculpt than what had been used to. The skull looks smaller and a little less lifelike. He still looks great, however. Also, this skeleton’s sword has been cut in half as if he were in an epic sword battle before his death.
Pre-Refurbishment.
Pre-Refurbishment
Pre-Refurbishment
Then we come to the Skeleton at the wheel. He now sports a huge wig that looks like a 1980s Rock Star. It’s a strange choice of hair, but his scene still looks amazing.
Pre-Refurbishment
As we came upon the mist screen, I found another substantial change. The mist screen now alternates between Davey Jones and Blackbeard.
Davey Jones Alternates With...
Blackbeard
Our boats then slowly approached the cannonball fight and Barbossa’s animation is better than ever. His body really exaggerates the words he is speaking and it’s great. Barbossa also seems to have a bigger hat with a lot more feathers.
Pre-Refurbishment
The next change came in the Auction scene. It is pretty much exactly the same, except the Auctioneer seems to have a new paint job on his face that is just remarkable. He looks so good. The only thing that was kind of weird was that his head was down the whole time. He doesn’t seem to be interacting with the pirates as much because it looks like he’s talking into his chest. I’m sure that will be fixed one of these days.
Pre-Refurbishment
The Pooped Pirate scene came up next and that tired old Pirate looks great. He has a new wig of curly hair and a thick mustache. I just wish he had his old hat with the long top.
Pre-Refurbishment
The Original Pooped Pirate - Complete with Top Hat!
In the burning city, all of the pirates looked remarkable, except I noticed that one was missing. The pirate that is leaning against a lamp post was gone and so was the lamp post! What was even stranger was that his vocals were still being played. I hope they are just refurbishing him. I would hate for him to be gone permanently. He is one of my favorites.
Where Could He Be?
I didn’t really notice any changes from then on until the final Jack Sparrow scene. He looked pretty much the same, except much cleaner with a fresh coat of paint. I’m really not impressed with that animatronic at all though. It just doesn’t fit in with the other pirates and their exaggerated features. How I miss the old Pirates…
Pre-Refurbishment
As we go up the waterfall, we get one last word of warning and the audio now alternates between Davey Jones and Blackbeard like the mist screen earlier in the attraction.
When we finally disembark, a keen eye will notice one final change. The unloading dock has been refurbished and expanded to help accommodate more handicapped people.
The Dock!
A few weeks before Pirates of the Caribbean reopened, a rumor was going around that mermaids from the fourth film would be added to the attraction. I was upset by this as I think the attraction should stay away from film references. Fortunately, it was only rumor and those mermaids never made an appearance. So overall, this long refurbishment was worthwhile. The Pirates look better than ever and the whole ride seems new and fresh. So next time you are at Disneyland, ride Pirates and see what you think. Let us know how you feel about these changes.
*A special thanks to Daveland for use of their pictures!*
We got to the park early and had lunch at Storyteller’s Cafe. We were bummed we missed breakfast (they don’t offer Sunday brunch, we discovered) but lunch is SUPER inexpensive here. Just over $20 for my wife and I. Highly recommended for those on a budget.
The smoke-stack works!
We then headed straight to the new Grand Circle Tour exhibit at the Disney Gallery. Incredible! I wanted everything on the walls in that exhibit! I loved everything from the signage out front (with the working smoke stack!) to the train going around the back gallery. A must-see!
This is an awesome Donald!
We then got to meet one of the Fab-5 in their holiday garb — Donald! He was a great character but had no wrangler! Strange but makes for good talking-to-your-neighbor-in-line time to get your picture just right!
Yodle-ay-ee-hoo!
We thought that today would be a fun time to try riding some things we never ride. Today started with the Matternhorn. After a month+ refurb, nothing has changed. Still rough and still with the old cars. Unfortunate.
What a beautiful day!
Love this scene!
He's winking!
Next was Small World Holiday! I only ride this twice a year so this was a nice treat! Looked and sounded great although one of the clowns that ride their bike on the wire was not working and one of the many suns had an eye (read: light) out. Other than that, it was perfect timing for us to get out of the heat and skip the Christmas parade madness. One day I’ll check that out.
Awkwarrrddd.
On our way to our next ride, we saw the Tangled meetup had a short line (only 20 minutes compared to the normal 45+). We met Rapunzel and Flynn but it was pretty weird. Usually meeting characters is fun because they are big smiling faces that you mime with. These were kids our age and it seemed just — weird. Not sure what that was about.
Vixen!
We also checked out the Reindeer Roundup! We are never in the park early enough and we noticed that Santa Claus is also available for photos at the roundup! Even better, the BBQ restaurant was open pretty late in the day which made me excited to come back for dinner soon! It’s my favorite restaurant at Disneyland so dinner there would be killer!
Settled 1880!
We then put on our mining hats and headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We saw the queue was pretty long but the sign said only 10 minutes. After about a 5 minute wait, we saw that the queue was only going to the stairs and straight up. What a day for Disneyland — no lines!!! We had a great ride.
Beautiful tree.
I went to take a picture of a beautifully autumn-red tree and accidentally punched myself in the eye with the camera. It was a beautiful tree! We also noticed that the collapsing mine projection looked new — although the rocks were not falling. You win some, you lose some.
DCA all Christmas-y!
Looming in the distance!
After making our way through the NOS crowds, we grabbed some HMH fastpasses and made a b-line for DCA. We met up with fellow RSP-er Robert to ride his favorite DCA attraction: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. It, too, had a short line and we were also the line-time-takers (we were given this lanyard).
Fancy schmancy.
However, I was not sure who to give the lanyard to, so I gave it to the person I thought best to get it — the bellhop loading us into the elevator. Not sure how that went down but let’s be honest, that’s the gauge for how long the line is. The ride looked and sounded great but unfortunately the mirror effect was not working correctly. I wonder what goes into that effect to make it so unreliable?
Below the basement.
Robert here: I wanted to point out one other thing about our trip on Tower. Usually when you enter the library, the door closes, a flash of lightning strikes, and the TV turns on. At that precise moment, the lights go off. However, on this particular trip, the lights stayed on. They slowly started to dim and they were shut off about half way through the preshow video. I wonder if that was intentional or not. It was neat, but I think I prefer the lights to go out with the lightning strike.
*Star Tours chime*
We then headed back to Disneyland (sans Robert) to utilize some Star Tours fastpasses we got from a friend. Unfortunately, as great as the queue was, that’s all we saw. Our starspeeder was halted by a cast member so that we could sing Happy Birthday to another cast member and this seemed to break the entire spaceport. We did receive some neat re-admits that included Star Tours (they’re red) and planned on returning or utilizing for another ride. We ultimately did not.
HMH - Haunted Mansion Holiday!
Triumphant trumpets!
Wish this blew snow.
Oogie!
Merry Christmas!
Instead, we went to Haunted Mansion Holiday and lucky for us, we had fastpasses. This was the longest line of the day at 45 minutes! We sped onto the ride and everything looked, sounded, and smelled great! We even got into the lobby before the narrator began, into the stretching room as he began, and into the hallway right on time! I love when that all works out — but I also don’t think we should hope for that. It should be consistant.
I love the look -- but that's about it.
After, we went to check out Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. I have to admit, this is one of the best looking rides in the park. But something is always a miss for me and I believe I found it. I don’t buy the movements of the vehicle. I get that they programmed human reactions into the ride vehicle but it takes me out of the experience. Also, all I see is a smooth track but all I feel is a bumpy ride. I spend most of the time trying to figure out what’s going on. I don’t like that I don’t enjoy the ride, but I also know I am in the minority here so I’ll ride with friends that enjoy it and think to myself that I am super flexible for my friends. Ha!
Trader Sam's!
It’s Robert again! So while, David was getting stuck on Star Tours and riding some E Ticket attractions, I was with my girlfriend and a few friends at Trader Sam’s at the Disneyland Hotel. Boy I love that place. There are so many intricate details that I notice every time I go. While we were there, we witnessed a bunch of special effects including an erupting volcano, a sinking ship in a bottle, indoor rain, and a sinking bar stool! If you haven’t been there, please go. It’s one of my favorite places to be.
My wife!
It was then time to check out the newly re-opened Pirates of the Caribbean with Robert, Inthia, and Dawn. We will cover the changes in a future post but wow, I thought there were some great changes! There were also some things missing and some things added. Fun ride all-in-all and no mermaids! Where would they put them anyway that would make any sense?
"Rawr" means "I love you" in dinosaur.
We split from Robert, Inthia, and Dawn to use our re-admit at Space Mountain while they went to ride HMH but again, the line was so short, we saved out re-admit for later! Another thrilling ride through the galaxy with a fun photo to boot. I noticed that they no longer utilize the TV screens at the top of the inside queue as no one waits up there anymore. I wish they’d update the videos/screens all together and maybe that’s next.
The Sandwich - Courtesy of Yelp.com
Robert again: So while they were on Space Mountain, Inthia, Dawn, and I got fastpasses for the Haunted Mansion Holiday. While waiting, we ate a delicious dinner at the French Market. I had a great sandwich in miniature Jack Skellington Coffin!
The Rain's Coming Down!
We then had a bad bout with attractions. We planned on trying to ride Star Tours with our group all back together but the fastpass line was 25+ minutes. We tried to ride HMH a second time but it was closed! We were, however, able to take a buzz through the Hundred Acre Woods with Winnie the Pooh. I really love that ride and am saddened every time I see the line so short. I really hope people make their way to that attraction enough!
The Decked Out Splash - Courtesy of Flickr.com
While making our way back to HMH, we noticed that Splash Mountain had a holiday layover on its facade that looked really great! I guess it’s been around for a few years but I had never seen it before. Nice touch — wish it was lit at night.
Suzi and I left to try to make it to Tortilla Joe’s at DTD before the rest of the group went on HMH. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed for the night and we went home. What I did notice throughout the whole experience: the Davy Crockett Canoes are still open! I have to get on that before they shutter up for the winter!
It will be me, Robert, for the rest of this report:
The Floating Leota Ornament
After David and Suzi left, we finally made our way to the Haunted Mansion Holiday. It was great except, Madame Leota was no longer a floating ornament. She was stationary and there was no sign to her ornament pieces. Also, her face was being projected, which they never do anymore. It’s evident that they don’t use the projection often as they were not able to perfect it. The projection was not aligned with the bust inside the crystal ball and her eyes were very small and pinched in the middle. It really looked bad. I assume that was the reason the ride was closed earlier. When David went on it earlier in the day, he said that she looked good and was a floating ornament. Oh well… I’m sure they’ll fix her up soon.
Sleeping Beauty's Castle
Inside the Castle
We headed over to Fantasyland after the Mansion, and took a bunch of photos of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle while it was all decked out for Christmas. It is really beautiful. While over there, we walked through the Castle to view the Sleeping Beauty scenes. I love that it’s back. It brings great childhood memories.
Make an Evil Wish!
After the Castle, we went on Snow White’s Scary Adventures. It was a great ride and everything looked amazing.
Original artwork for Casey Jr. on display at the Disney Gallery
A trip to Casey Jr. came next. We sat in our favorite spot, the caboose. There’s nothing like a trip on Casey Jr. at night. It is something that is so special and uniquely Disneyland.
BTMRR
We ended our night with a late night ride of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It was the perfect end to a wonderful day at Disneyland.
I love Halloween so much and one of my favorite things to do is drive around and find different houses with Halloween decorations. Well, while driving through Hollywood a couple of weeks ago, I found a house, which was decorated with a heavy Disneyland influence.
The left side of the yard had a great replica of the Skeletal helmsman scene from Pirates of the Caribbean.
Forever the Captain of his Ship
Great detail on the Skeleton.
The opposite side of the yard had a basic cemetery scene, but one tombstone looked familiar…
A Mansion Tombstone?
Right away, I knew that this tombstone was sculpted to resemble the tombstones found in the Haunted Mansion. Take a look below at the tombstone’s influence found in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion:
Photo by Daveland
People that put care and energy into the Halloween decorations displayed in their yards really make Halloween what it is. It is such a wonderful thing to find a great haunted house, especially with scenes from different Disney attractions. I will keep a whether eye open for more Disney Halloween Houses in the future.
Ahoy there, Crew! Today be “Talk Like a Pirate Day” and ye Disney Parks Blog be celebratin’. They be postin’ all things Pirates, includin’ this here video of Walt describin’ what’s to come to New Orleans Square.
So Mark well me words mateys… Dead Men Tell No Tales!
Being a huge Disneyland fan, I love making lists of my favorite things at the park. The following is the list of my top five favorite Pirates from my favorite attraction “Pirates of the Caribbean”.
5. The Pirate with the Hairy Leg
A Pirates Life For Me!
4. The Pirate Over the Bridge
Six Bottles of Rum!
3. The Pirate on the Canon
Yo Ho!
2. The Talking Skull
It Be Too Late to Alter Course Mateys!
1. The Auctioneer
It Be Gold I'm After!
This is the list of my favorite pirates as they currently appear. If we were talking about the original version of the attraction, it would be a totally different list. My favorite would be the guy sitting on the barrels in the arsenal scene followed closely by the Pooped Pirate.
My All Time Favorite Pirate!
The Original Pooped Pirate
So these are my favorite Pirates from “Pirates of the Caribbean”. Which pirate is your favorite?
And once again, a special thanks to Daveland for use of their pictures!
A while back, I posted a video of Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa promoting “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”. You can see that original post by clicking here. In that video, Barbossa was sitting on a bed that was very reminiscent of the Captain’s Quarter’s scene in the attraction. I thought it was an obvious reference and I had hoped it made the final cut of the film. If you saw the movie, then you will know that an important scene takes place at this location! It is a great attraction reference.
Below is a photo of that scene from the film followed by a photo of how it appears in the attraction:
Well this was a rare but well-deserved double-trip this weekend. Day 1 was an after-work-on-a-Friday trip. We started heading to the parks around 7:45 and arrived close to 9pm by the time we walked through the gates of the Magic Kingdom known as Disneyland.
It was an amazingly cool summer night and the entrance to DCA looked stellar. As we entered Disneyland through a not-so-crowded turnstile, we passed under the train into a sea of summer guests reaching the end of their day at the park. We swam our way to Store Command in Tomorrowland where we picked up some really neat pins!
We then grabbed a quick bite over at the TLT (Tomorrowland Terrace) and made our way over to Big Thunder via Fantasyland. I love going that way because the park is so serene by Big Thunder Ranch. There’s mostly moonlight lighting the way. It’s nice and quiet with some Big Thunder excitement coming by every now and then. I remember when I was a kid there was a quail sanctuary – I suppose you would call it – right where the smoking area is along the side of BTMRR. I wish they’d bring something like that back. As a young passholder in the 90s, my family and I would feel a sense of pride watching those little birds grow up.
As we approached the BTMRR queue, we saw that the line was too long and because Fantasmic! was just starting, knew it would be the best opportunity to jump aboard Pirates of the Caribbean and sack the Spanish main! Everything looked and sounded great. The boats were a little backed up when looking from the queue but by the time we got on, everything was flowing smoothly. The guy in the middle waiting to be dunked is still on extended vacation.
Pirates!
After that, we decided to socialize with some grim-grinning ghosts over at The Haunted Mansion. This ride always amazes me and this time, I really noticed how disorienting it is. I’ll have to dig up a track layout in the future and check out how it pertains to the park’s geography because, like “Pirates…”, it’s just SO MASSIVE! I noticed in the attic scene opposite the Bride (where the Hat-Box Ghost might one day stand again) the decor looked a little more disheveled than usual. I like to pretend it’s the ghost of the HBG trying to reassemble himself! Also, the last Melloman on the left was out of sync from his fellow vocalists.
The Haunted Mansion under the moonlight.
After the Mansion, it was just about time for the park to close and the Big Thunder queue only got longer than before. We got some great grub over at the Stage Door Café and then traded some great pins with a cast member on our way out. This cast member seemed to be a higher-up and had some fun with us and our pin trading etiquette. I don’t trade often so I am a timid trader but I did get an awesome Country Bear pin that I’ll post in my collection in the future. Inthia got another HM pin from the tombstone series.
Stage Door Cafe Funnel Cake!
On Sunday, Suzi and I decided late in the day to take a trip down. Again, we walked through the turnstiles around 9pm but this time at DCA. It’s turning into one of my favorite things to walk through that beautiful gate at the DLR. This was our first time really taking in all of the construction projects going on in what’s becoming Carthay Circle. Walls, walls everywhere!
We popped over to Soarin’ Over California which is always a treat. I just wish they would have built 4 theatres instead of 2 to accommodate the long lines. I never see it with less than a 30 minute wait. This trip, I really took in the beauty and detail of the queue. The banners up top correspond to the photos on the wall and the windows and skylights are a nice touch. I am such a sucker for early flight and space travel and reading those placards is just so interesting.
What detail!
I love the film they have but wish they would do an overhaul to it like they did with Star Tours. I wouldn’t want a 3D experience, however, because this attraction is so immersive already. (We rode in the first row in the center which is my favorite place to sit. No one above you and you get the most immersive feeling, in my opinion.) I just wish they would at least clean and restore the film from time to time because I see dust that appears and disappears more frequently now and Downtown LA is so outdated now that LA Live and the Nokia Center are there. And why is that section sped up? I also never understood why they shot the Disneyland footage at Christmas time? I love Christmas time at the DLR but in August, it’s a little jarring. I wonder how the first-time guests feel about this — if they even notice it? I do love finding the Hidden Mickeys in the ride. There’s even a Hidden Eisner if you look closely!
After an amazing flight, we ate over at the Taste Pilot’s Grill which is one of my favorite places. I am still on my diet so I looked for something I could have that was a little more substantial and found the ribs on the menu. WOW! These ribs are SO GOOD! I even lucked out because it was right before closing. I ordered the 3-piece ribs and got the 5-piece. I love when cast members understand how to please guests and not waste food. I highly recommend the X3 or X5 ribs!
What a treat!
On our way out of the park, we noticed that the Condor Flats sign was spinning once again! I had almost completely forgotten that it ever spun but I have noticed over the last few months that it has been facing different directions every time. I wonder if this will remain intact post-refurb of the park? Spinning this sign seems strange to me, though, as when it’s facing the Grizzly Peak, guests just see the blank back-side of a sign. Seems like a strange choice to me but it was nice to see it spinning!
We slid on over to Disneyland and went straight into The Enchanted Tiki Room and what treat did we get when we got there? Maynard! Arguably the most beloved cast member at Disneyland, I was very excited to have my first Maynard / Tiki Room experience. We showed up in time, too, for us to see all of the gods do their chants. There were some kids getting Dole whips that were at first uninterested in the Tiki Room, but once they saw that I would walk to each of the gods as they spoke, they got way into it and started guessing, along with me, which of the gods were to speak next! It’s nice to see that some kids are still interested in some of this early Disneyland magic.
I think my favorite thing in the Tiki Room.
Maynard blew us away with his Tiki Room speech. His pre-show is so well crafted and energetic it made everyone laugh out loud and get in the spirit of the show! What was disappointing, though, was the lack of crowds in the Tiki Room. There were only about 15 people in the attraction this go-around. I hope it was just because the fireworks had already ended and there was a Fantasmic! show in-progress. All-in-all, though, a great Tiki Room experience!
We then met up with a friend just outside the Tiki Room and went to look at a Vinylmation he had told us about. Now, one thing you should know about me is I do not care for vinylmation but this one was really weird. It was part of the Holiday collection and was just an eye. Like a classic Mickey Mouse eye. We couldn’t figure it out for the life of us so we called a cast member over and it was a super interesting conversation!
We asked many questions about the lack of pretzels in the park, the placements of some shops in the park, and the lack of Haunted Mansion merchandise. I’ll post some of his interesting takes on the parks but if you find yourself wanting to know some great Disney trivia, look for “Matt” in Adventureland or Frontierland. He apparently floats around and is well known by the cast members.
After blowing our minds with some interesting trivia, we headed over to TheHaunted Mansion, which once again, looked and felt perfect. I had never realized that about 90% of the photos on the wall in the hallway scene are of the HBG. Interesting stuff!
Is this haunted room *actually* stretching?!
To cap off our night, we headed to the Coca-Cola Corner to have some pretzels and drinks and talk all things Disneyland. What was most amusing while eating there, was this random guy hanging around the corn dog cart across the street that insisted on high-fiving everyone leaving the park for the night. We had run into this guy just before entering the Haunted Mansion but it was funny seeing him still at it. Hopefully he made good use of the hand sanitizer available all over the parks!
Can’t wait to go back and start to see the transformation to Halloween Time! It’ll be RSP’s first holiday season and we couldn’t be more excited!
