POTC closing down for good ?
Please tell me I'm wrong !!!!! As seen on another web site:
(API) Orlando, FLA Disney announced plans to retire one of its favorite attractions, the Pirates of the Caribbean, as part of the yearly reinvention and "re-imagining" of the Magic Kingdom. The underground boat ride ferried visitors among scenes of pirates raiding cities, chasing women, and returning to a secret lair to enjoy their plunder. The attraction will be replaced by a new multimedia extravaganza to be called "The Wonderful World of Advertising."
Many visitors in both California and Florida reacted with dismay when they learned that the attraction had been closed suddenly last Friday. Neither park offered any advanced warning, a practice the company often undertakes in the hope of luring fans for one last nostalgic visit.
"It's just not fair." said 34 year old, Chris Robben, a Sacramento dentist who travelled to Anaheim to share the ride with his 8 year old son, Chris, and his 5 year old daughter, Christine. "I rode that ride six times when my parents took me. It was an E ticket back then and I spent three weeks of allowance. I wanted to share the same ride with my kids."
Wendy Darling, a spokeswoman for Disney, said the company was well-aware of the ride's popularity, but explained that the company was constantly re-evaluating the attractions offered by the parks "in order to present the most satisfactory and amusing amusement park experience."
In the early 1990's, the company redesigned several of the racier scenes along the ride after park patrons complained that the pirates' lascivious behavior did not provide good role models to young men learning to treat women with respect.
This change may have been the source of rumors suggesting that the ride was closed down when a woman was touched by a pirate during a ride. Darling denied that the robot pirates malfunctioned and accidentally molested a rider in the boat. "That's impossible. All of their arms are too short. We're always mindful of safety." she explained.
Darling also refused to comment on rumors the abrupt closing of the pirates' lair corresponded to a tour the company's CEO, Michael Eisner, gave to a group of Taiwanese businessmen. The CEO frequently shows visiting dignitaries around the California park, she explained, and there's no truth to the suggestion that they were negotiating to build a version of the park outside of Taipai.
One source inside Disney, however, offered a different view. "They started laughing when they got off the pirates ride like it was a hilarious inside joke. Eisner thought the pixie dust was really working and asked the interpreter to find out which part of the ride thrilled them the most. The answer was they wondered if the pirates used Napster to swap MP3s."
According to Darling, the new attraction, "The Wonderful World of Advertising" will help park visitors understand the "great artistic and cultural contributions of advertising through the years." The visitors will still ride boats, but now the scenes will show great moments in advertising like the dancing Fig Newton, the Bromoseltzer signs, and the Apple 1984 ad. One scene will also include four life-sized robotic Bud Light bottles acting out the popular promotion from the Superbowl half-time. New computers programmed with artificial intelligence will allow a different team to win each contest.
"The exhibit will also remain fresher", explained Darling. "We will work with advertisers and allow them to update the scenes with their latest campaigns. Park patrons will only see the newest and the best advertising. It won't just be some dusty pirates saying, 'Yo Ho Ho.'"
The company hopes the new ride will prove as popular with advertisers as does with patrons. "It's not like they can click some remote control and get whooshed out of the boat," said Darling. "They'll get to enjoy every last scene."
