If you like today’s story … Well, you then have Jeff Lange & Lee at wdwmagic.com to thank.
After all, they’re the two who let the cat out of the bag yesterday with this exchange over on that site’s discussion boards:
Lee: Now, wait until JH tells the story about what MAY happen to Pirates at DL…thats a cool story.
JL: That is a kick ______ story. I don’t know why Jim hasn’t told it yet, but it rules.
Which is probably how my JHM in-box wound up filling up yesterday afternoon. As dozens of wdwmagic.com readers wrote to me, asking if I might reveal what WDI is supposedly thinking about doing with Disneyland’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride.
So — per your requests — I will now share with you what I’ve heard. Though I have to tell you that a lot of you folks are NOT going to like what you hear today. Hell, I seriously doubt that many of you will believe that this story is even true. You’re going to think that I made this whole thing up.
I mean, this plan for POTC sounds so unlikely, so preposterous. The tale I’m telling just can’t be legit.
But it is, folks. I first heard about this plan for Disneyland’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride toward the middle of last year. The news came straight from one of my very best sources. A guy who’s really wired into the theme park community. No, I can’t reveal his name. All I can tell you that he’s a man who’s got some really great connections at the Walt Disney Company. More importantly, this guy who has never ever steered me wrong with a theme park-related story.
So — before we get started here — I just wanna offer up A WORD OF WARNING: This is one of those ride redo concepts that I know is going to make a lot of you people who just love Disneyland the way it is absolutely crazy. The very idea that the Imagineers would ever think of doing something like this to “Pirates of the Caribbean” — the ride that many Disneyana fans believe to be one of Walt’s crowning achievements — borders on blasphemy.
On the other hand, folks who enjoyed the “Curse of the Black Pearl” film and/or those who just love it when the Mouse takes big chances in order to make old attractions at its theme parks seem new again are going to jump with joy when they hear about this plan.
Alright. I know. That’s enough stalling. Get on with the story, already. I just wanted to make sure that ” … properly warned ye be” before I lay this twisted tale on you.
Okay. You all already know that — since November of 1984, back when the “Country Bear Christmas Special” show first debuted at Disneyland — that the Walt Disney Company has been using seasonal overlays to freshen up rides & shows at its theme parks. The most obvious (and successful) examples of this practice are “Haunted Mansion Holiday” and “It’s a Small World Holiday.”
And — since 1994 — visitors to the Disney-MGM Studio theme park have enjoyed no less than four distinctly different drop profiles on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. So it’s clear that there’s a real hunger out there among theme park fans for attractions that change. Whether it be for only a few months every year or virtually every time you get on that ride (like Tower of Terror and/or the troop transports in the “Indiana Jones Adventure”).
But how would you feel about a theme park ride that gives you one experience during the day, but an entirely different experience once the sun goes down each night?
What am I talking about? Well, do you remember the curse from “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”? If not … Let’s listen in as Captain Barbossa explains it to Elizabeth:
Copyright 2003. Walt Disney Pictures
BARBOSSA: Look! The moonlight shows us for what we really are. We are not among the living, and so we cannot die, but neither are we dead. For too long I’ve been parched with thirst and unable to quench it. Too long I’ve been starving to death and haven’t died. I feel nothing – not the wind on my face nor the spray of the sea, nor the warmth of a woman’s flesh. (The Captain walks out into the moonlight and reveals himself to be a skeleton) You best start believing in ghost stories, Miss Turner. You’re in one!
You get the premise, right? These pirates look normal as long as the sun’s up, but turn into horrific skeleton figures as soon as the moon rises.
So picture this: During the day, Disneyland runs its standard version of “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Which has been delighting theme park goers since March of 1967. But once the sun sets, this New Orleans Square attraction temporarily stops operations for 15 minutes to a half hour to reset. And then …
Well, it’s the same old ride right up until the moment that you enter the harbor for POTC’s bombardment scene. But then … You can’t help but notice that the moon’s out. And the crew of the “Wicked Wench” looks different somehow. Could it be that there are skeletons now manning the cannons on that pirate ship?
But this is just the first of many surprises for all you “Pirates” fans out there. For — instead of following the standard route and just floating to the right — your boat now follows a new path across the harbor. You veer to the left instead, going between the “Wicked Wench” and the Spanish fort. Once that’s done, you then enter a darkened channel that takes you behind the pre-existing POTC sets. Where pools of moonlight occassionally reveal skeletal pirates who — just as they’ve always done — loot and then try & burn down the city.
Only this time … These skeletal pirates actually notice us. That there’s a boatload of tourists floating close nearby. So — periodically — they make attempts to board our vessel and/or deliberately try and sink us.
Copyright 2003. Walt Disney Pictures.
In short, these are NOT the “ne’er do-well cads” that we’ve met on previous trips through POTC. In fact, given how intent this bunch of boney b*stards is on scaring the cr*p out of us, it’s doubtful that any of them can truthfully claim that ” … Aye, but we’re loved by our mommies and dads.”
Thankfully, by the time our boat finishes its backstage journey and manages to hook back up with POTC’s original flume (just past the attraction’s burning dungeon sequence), we have only just managed to escape with our lives. As our boat chugs back uphill to the offload area, we thank our lucky stars that those skeletal pirates weren’t actually able to harm us and (perhaps) recruit us to join their doomed crew.
That’s the plan, folks. Disneyland’s “Pirates” ride remains as it always has during the day. Which is a basically family-friendly attraction. But — once the sun goes down — this New Orleans Square favorite will take on a much more darker, sinister tone. This new nighttime version of POTC will make the “Haunted Mansion” seem almost tame by comparison.
Now I know what I’ve just described above sounds utterly preposterous. That there’s just no way that the Walt Disney Company would ever allow something like this to be done to Disneyland’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride.
But the fact of matter is, folks, that this sort of redo for Disneyland’s “Pirates” actually has been proposed. Senior Imagineers have gone down to Anaheim and wandered all through that cavernous show building out beyond the berm. They’ve even measured the available space out behind behind POTC’s pre-existing sets. And — sure enough (If you take advantage of POTC boat storage space) — there really is enough room back there for another flume. As well as space for several new show scenes for this more horrific take on “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
“So when’s this ‘Pirates’ redo supposedly going to happen?,” you ask. Well, that’s really the wrong question to ask in this situation, folks. Given how controversial this proposed nighttime retheming project supposed is, perhaps the more apt question might be: “How likely is it that this project ever actually gets off the ground?”
To be honest, a lot of that depends on how these new “Pirates” sequels do. Should these films rack up grosses approaching what “The Curse of the Black Pearl” earned (Over $650 million worldwide), I’d wager that Disney Company management would then take a closer, more serious look at this proposal.
But — for now, anyway — this proposed “Pirates” redo remains one of the more unusual proposals bouncing around WDI these days. Good old family-friendly “Pirates” by day. Much darker, significantly scarier version of the same ride at night.
I’m sure that you folks will have some questions about this project. So let me now try & address some of the issues that I’m sure will come up.
- Yes, the plan is that Disneyland would make sure that parents understand that the skeletons take over POTC once the sun goes down each night. So that no small children would be unintentionally exposed to the much scarier nighttime version of this New Orleans Square attraction.
- No, I don’t have any information about how WDI intends to daily swap out all of the AA figures that regularly appeared in “Pirates” ‘s bombardment sequence and/or the burning dungeon scene at the very end of the ride for skeletons.
As for what I personally think of this proposed “Pirates” redo … To be honest, I’m not all that big on scares. So I don’t know how I’d feel about having skeletons leaping out at me menacingly every few seconds. To me, that just makes this second POTC flume (You know? The one that’s supposed to go behind all of the previously existing sets in the show?) sound like an extended version of the attic sequence from “The Haunted Mansion.”
But — that said — I still have to admit that I’m pretty intrigued by the idea of a Disney theme park attraction that goes one way during the day, but then takes an entirely different path at night. So — if the Imagineers actually do manage to ever install this ambitious retheming at Disneyland’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” — I know that I’m flying out to Anaheim just to check this out.
But what do you folks think? Is this really the sort of thing that Disney should be doing at its theme parks?
Or perhaps the better question might be proposed to all the people who’ve actually worked at Disneyland’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” over the past 37 / nearly 38 years. As in: Is there really room enough behind POTC’s pre-existing sets to do something like this? To install a new flume, to build new show scenes that can properly support & present skeletal AA figures? I’d love to hear what these people have to say.
I know, I know. I’m probably asking more questions than I’ve answered in this article. But I have to admit that this proposed “Pirates” retheming project just fascinates me. I almost wish that it would get the green light. Just so we could see if the Imagineers could actually pull this thing off.
Anyway … What do you folks think?