Pirates of the Caribbean is a classic Disney ride in both Disney World and Disneyland that’s a favorite among many. Â There are tons of details in the ride and lots of cool and interesting things to learn about it. Â It’s always been a popular attraction, but thanks to the movies it’s only gotten bigger with Disney fans. Â Because it was around for so long before the movies (dating back to Walt’s time) there are lots of fun facts floating around! Â Here are some of the favorite things I’d like to share.
- The original concept of Pirates of the Caribbean for Disneyland was for it to be a walk through wax museum. Â Once they started working on it, Walt wanted a larger space and had the waterway and boats put in to transport guests.
- The Pirates of the Caribbean ride existed long before the movies ever came out. Â After the films became extremely popular they added some of the movie characters into the ride, including Jack Sparrow and Barbossa.
- Pirates of the Caribbean was added to Disneyland park in 1967, but it wasn’t part of opening day at Magic Kingdom in Florida. Â Park creators originally thought that guests wouldn’t be as interested in a ride about the Caribbean over on the east coast because they were much closer to the actual Caribbean – but guest demand told a different story and the ride was added in 1973.
- Is it possible to make pirates politically correct? Â Disney attempted to make their ride a little more PC in 1999 during a refurb. Â In the auction scene the banner now says “Buy a Bride” – but the original one said “Take a wench for a wife.”
- The auctioneer in that scene is voiced by Paul Frees – that’s the same person who does the voice of The Ghost Host over at the Haunted Mansion.
- In the queue you can see two skeletons playing chess. Â They are locked in a permanent check – the only available move leads to a repetition of moves that will occur over and over again with no one winning. Â It’s very clever – so clever, in fact, that at one point a cast member knocked over the chess pieces and none of the Imagineers could figure out how to put it back the way it was. Â Luckily, they eventually found Marc Davis’s original sketch showing the set-up of the chess board.
- While the ride exists in both Disney World and Disneyland, it differs in each park. Â Disneyland’s is longer and has more scenes. Â One of the biggest differences is actually in the location – Pirates in Disney World is in Adventureland, but in Disneyland it’s in New Orleans Square.
- The fire effects in the ride were so realistic looking that the Anaheim Fire Department required them to build an automatic shut-off for the effect in case there was a real fire so they could tell the real fire apart from the fake one.
- There are over 120 animatronics in Pirates of the Caribbean, including humans and animals.
- Johnny Depp actually surprised guests in Disneyland by stepping into the ride in place of his animatronic character. Â Imagine going through the ride and seeing the real Johnny Depp there as Jack Sparrow!
Did you learn anything new about Pirates of the Caribbean? Â What’s your favorite fun fact?
As a chess lover, I definitely appreciate the never-ending chess game!
And yeah, pirates shouldn’t be PC. They need their “wenches”, lol!
Yeah, I mean they’re pirates!
I love this ride! It was a perfect break from the rain last summer when we were there. I’m so glad it’s not a walk through wax museum= much cooler the way it is!
Yes, I wouldn’t enjoy it as much if I was walking through it!
OMG I had no clue about any of these! This is cool, this is one of my favorite rides at Disney. I’m sure the wax museum would have been super cool as well!
I bet it would be cool but I feel like people would get totally out of control if they weren’t contained! Haha
I love these facts! So fun! When my mom was younger, in the 70’s, she got stuck on the ride and had to listen to the song play over and over again haha!
Oh my goodness, I’m sure she’s sick of the song now!
When I was a kid Pirates of the Caribbean was my favorite Disney ride. I went to Disneyland first, and much later I went to Disney World. I thought the rides was different, but didn’t know for sure. It sure would have been fun to see Johnny Depp in the ride.
I grew up with the Disney World ride and was fascinated to see the differences at Disneyland the first time I went there two years ago!
Johnny Depp was there just the week before I went to Disneyland for the first time! Many people I’ve talked to have been surprised to find out that the ride existed long before the movie! It’s also in other Disneyland Parks around the world–I’ve ridden it in Tokyo!
How cool is that! What was it like in Tokyo?
Great as usual! But I have especially fond memories because that’s where I got to eat in the Blue Bayou overlooking the ride’s river, and I loved that experience!
Oh, that is really cool! I did that at Blue Lagoon in Disneyland Paris.
I remember riding this when I was little before the movies came out and then riding it last September after. It was fun to see Johnny Depp as Captain Jack in the ride the second go around, but I wish there was more drops in the actual ride, haha! I didn’t know it was supposed to be a wax museum – how interesting!
Ha I agree with you, I would love more drops and more thrills personally!
Wow, these are all such cool insights into Pirates of the Caribbean! I didn’t know that they had the ride before those movies were even made, that’s so neat 🙂
Kristen | http://www.sophisticatedgal.com
Yeah, it’s pretty cool that they took an already existing ride and made such a great movie series out of it!
Really interesting stuff! I can’t imagine seeing Johnny Depp in place in the ride. That would be nuts!
Right?! I’m sure you’d be trying to figure out if it was really him or not!
I’m super into Pirates of the Caribbean and I clicked on this thinking “oh yeah, right.” But I actually didn’t know a few of these!
Oh yay! I was hoping to find some things that were new to people!
We didn’t get to go on Pirates the last time we went to DL and I was so sad!
Aww, hopefully you’ll get the chance again sometime! I actually like the one in Disneyland better than at Disney World.