Pirates ride, where's the mermaids?

[999th Happy Haunt]

There are still some water splashes where the projections were. You have to be playing close attention but they're there.

 

[larryz]

My wife was on the right side of the boat and her hair got wet from it.

"You MAY get wet!"

 

[Soarin' Over Pgh]

That particular cannon blast on the right has been particularly bad ever since around July 2013 for some reason. It started to get bad when managment almost destroyed the ride by putting in those plastic boats... and I do mean that ride almost Disneyland's Space Mountained because of those new boats.... but that's another tale for another thread....

Do go on...

 

[Dizmunk]

There are sudden splashes in the mermaid area that scare me every time!

 

[HMF]

The effect never worked as planned. It was deactivated and I believe the projectors removed.

Now if only they remove the singing and the mist screen.

 

[HMF]

the biggest reaction I ever saw to it was a raised eyebrow...
Now what if one of the skeletons on the beach morphed into Jack Sparrow (Shanghai)and welcomed you to follow him back in time... now THAT would be an addition that would actually move the story a bit...

If by move the story you mean ruin it further. Also, There is no time travel in the WDW POTC.

 

[ford91exploder]

WDI tried to put MORE IN sometime in 2013/2014 without the original ones ever having worked consistently. It's amazing to me that 2013 WDI couldn't get a projector to work when 1969 WED built the Haunted Mansion. There was a small motor in the water that was to emulate a tail splashing the surface of the water as the mermaid dived back down. But that worked even less often than the very standard projectors. The mermaid effect was completely turned off during the 2015 refurb

No surprise why 2013 WDI can't do stuff, They hire a bunch of kids out of school because they are CHEAP, 1969 WDI was people who had decades of experience in their respective professional domains which gives them that invaluable bit of knowledge 'what does NOT work',

They had college kids back then too as they were useful in coming up with new concepts but just because you can conceptualize a design does not mean you can design and build something which will work for decades in the 'real world' which is a separate skill as is making the device maintainable.

 

[Professortango1]

Yet another WDW effect that has stopped working.

 

[peter11435]

Yet another WDW effect that has stopped working.

It was purposefully removed because it never worked as intended.

 

[Professortango1]

It was purposefully removed because it never worked as intended.

Like the Yeti was purposefully turned off because it didn't work as intended. Or the jeep in Kilimanjaro or mist on Everest, etc.

 

[TheGhostWithTheMost]

Like the Yeti was purposefully turned off because it didn't work as intended. Or the jeep in Kilimanjaro or mist on Everest, etc.

No. The Mermaids, from the first day they were installed, didn't work correctly. They were not taken out to cut cost, they were put in cheaply and never worked. They needed to be turned off rather than guests continue to go on the ride and see "PANASONIC" projected on the water from the broken projector above it.

 

[peter11435]

Like the Yeti was purposefully turned off because it didn't work as intended. Or the jeep in Kilimanjaro or mist on Everest, etc.

No. Not like those things at all.

 

[Professortango1]

No. Not like those things at all.

All of those didn't work as they had planned. So they axed them.

 

[TheGhostWithTheMost]

Do go on...

There was a period of time where I knew too much about how unsafe Pirates was and I encouraged my family to not go on it when they visited the parks during the 2013-2015 time period. I still feel strange about riding it even after the refurb. It needed a lot more work than what they gave it. The ride is in terrible shape and, if anyone doesn't believe me, track how many times it goes down everyday!

 

[TheGhostWithTheMost]

Another time, I'll tell the story about when the head of the drunk who argues with the Auctioneer fell into a boat that had guests in it (luckily, into a back row where there were no guests sitting because those heads are heavy) and was handed to the cast member at unload by guests as they got off the boat. The ride has been falling apart for some time now.

 

[The Duck]

I still wish they would bring back this guy (or at least, a reasonable facsimile). The WDW POTC is the only one without a talking skull.

 

[HMF]

I still wish they would bring back this guy (or at least, a reasonable facsimile). The WDW POTC is the only one without a talking skull. View attachment 194074

I can understand why they got rid of it. It never made much sense.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I still wish they would bring back this guy (or at least, a reasonable facsimile). The WDW POTC is the only one without a talking skull. View attachment 194074

I'd like to see him replace Davey Jones and Blackbeard.

Also, no harm with the mermaid removal. The effect was awful and the mermaid skeleton on the beach was a much cooler addition.

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Sorry if this has already been posted I couldn't find it anywhere, but what happened to the mermaids in the water? I was on pirates last night and noticed again no mermaids.. are they broken or done away with?

They replaced the projectors with splashing effects during the fall refurb of 2015

 

[TheGhostWithTheMost]

The splashing has been there (on and off) since 2013. They just turned the projectors off.