Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland, 1993

Made Explore on August 6, 2006


Pirates of the Caribbean is a dark ride at the Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris theme parks that inspired the movie trilogy of the same name. It is one of the most popular and well-known Disney attractions.

During the course of the indoor boat ride, guests float through an immersive, larger-than-life pirate adventure featuring gunshots, cannon blasts, and burning buildings, all set to pirates carousing and pillaging while accompanied by Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me) written by George Bruns and Xavier Atencio.

Originally envisioned in the late 1950s as a walk-through wax museum, the attraction evolved into a boat ride through complex show scenes filled with Audio-Animatronics characters after the 1964 World's Fair, which brought about several advances in Disney's theme park technologies. Additionally, it was planned to feature real pirates from history. Instead, humorous sketches of fictional pirates by Imagineer Marc Davis inspired the animatronic diorama seen throughout the final attraction.

Opening on March 18, 1967, Pirates of the Caribbean was Disneyland's largest Audio-Animatronics project to date and was the last attraction which Walt Disney was involved in designing. Since the Disneyland attraction was constructed before the advent of lifelike research skeletons, the original skeletons that made up parts of the show were genuine medical specimens; most still remain today. It is widely rumored that the skull and crossbones mounted on the headboard of the bed featured in the "Captain's Quarters" are genuine as well.

The portrait of the female pirate above the bar in the Captain's Quarters scene is an original work by Davis. The pirate captain in the scene where captured women are auctioned as brides is a test bed for updates and developments to Audio-Animatronics technology; many innovations are tried on him first. As a result, his movements are far more lifelike and expressive than virtually any other Audio-Animatronics figure in all of Disneyland.

The ride never was intended to be part of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort because of concerns that it would not be exotic enough due to Florida's geographic proximity to the Caribbean and New Orleans, the settings of the Disneyland attraction. Instead, Imagineers developed plans for a similar attraction called the Western River Expedition, which would have featured cowboys and Indians instead. After many Walt Disney World guests complained about the lack of Disney's celebrated pirate attraction, an abbreviated version opened in Florida on December 15, 1973.

The ride begins amid glimmering fireflies during an evening abuzz with the croaking of bullfrogs in a swamp. Daring adventurers board their boats at Lafitte's Landing, and are at once afloat in the heart of bayou country. On one side is an actual working restaurant, The Blue Bayou, made to look like the backyard dinner party of a southern plantation.

Once past several rickety houseboats, the soft strumming of a banjo melody (which is actually Oh! Susanna) can be heard over the peaceful symphony of nature as guests pass by one houseboat, on the porch of which an old man calmly rocks back and forth in his rocking chair. But then a talking skull and crossbones above an archway provides this taunting warning:

Psst! Avast there! It be too late to alter course, mateys. And there be plundering pirates lurkin' in ev'ry cove, waitin' to board. Sit closer together and keep your ruddy hands in board. That be the best way to repel boarders. And mark well me words, mateys: Dead men tell no tales! Ye come seekin' adventure with salty old pirates, eh? Sure you've come to the proper place. But keep a weather eye open mates, and hold on tight. With both hands, if you please. Thar be squalls ahead, and Davy Jones waiting for them that don't obey.

Then a more chilling sound becomes audible: the thundering of a waterfall, down which guests plunge. When they reach the bottom of the waterfall guests then get to enjoy the theme for the ride