Major 2015 Pirates of the Caribbean Refurbishment Watch/Rumor.

[The Empress Lilly]

That is the rumour. Though the DLP attraction is so big they could install a dozen Sparrows and he could still be missed.

Let's hope so. Sparrow would diminish the world's best Pirates.

 

[Seabasealpha1]

Four months is all they need to disable all the mouth movements on the figures and replacing them with a replica of Phil Holmes' teeth.

Sorry...no disrespect meant...this is was totally what popped in my head...

 

[Prince Thomas]

Grateful tho that I'll get to ride it in March before such an extensive closing! As long as it makes it look and sound better tho I'm all for it. It's prob gonna only be one Disney trip this year for me anyway this year

 

[tirian]

The animatronics in the burning city have already been refurbished. Various FX have also been upgraded (e.g. Blackbeard's projector in the caverns). Expect more upgrades but nothing mind-blowing. It will, for the most part, simply function the way it did back when WDW was regularly maintained (early 90s).

Apparently, bright metal vents are now visible throughout the ride's ceiling. The vents were installed but not painted to blend into the dark night sky. Does anyone have a pic of this?

 

[tirian]

WDI has been floating the additional show scenes for about 10 years. Adding FP+ to the attraction killed that possibility, since there's now no place for Guests to exit.

POTC and Imagination were both promised refurbs in 2014. The Imagination CMs were even cross-trained to work other locations during the pavilion's closure. However, no replacements had been greenlighted and the pavilion would have sat empty until it got a new sponsor. At least it's open.

I had a long conversation with an Imagineer when the Pirate interactive game opened in early summer 2013. He said that they were going to make load and unload the same area and make unload/the backstage up ramp (the "jog" area) some new show scenes. We were told it was going to be a giant refurb. He said they were going to make it, "just like Disneyland." "The biggest in Magic Kingdom history." Now... I may have been frontline....but I can sniff out when something is wishful thinking/bs. And that seemed like it. Then the new boats came and the entire ride began to unravel. We had to have one of us at all times scooping water out of ever boat at unload. Dispatch times got screwed, boats got stuck daily to the point of having to evac the ride, our numbers plummeted, and wait times got unprecedented (thanks, FP+). It was pretty bad in the last part of 2014. My turning point when I went from feeling pride about conquering pirates to hating pirates is when I was cussed out by a guest on Christmas Eve because people had been stuck on the ride for 45 minutes and management wouldn't call for an evac. We were being promised that we were going down for at minimum 12 months starting sometime in 2014. And we were excited. And, as we know, that never happened.

The ride now almost seems beyond repair. It's a lot worse off than a lot of people think. Right before I left the company, the rumor became that Phil Holmes said no to 12-18 months and that he wanted no more than six. So it's going to be an improvement in the since of the most recent big Space refurb...that Phil also botched terribly. It's unsafe in a lot do ways. Because it's unsafe to ask cast to get in the water 10 times a week to evacuate the ride and it's unsafe to evacuate guest off of it that much. There are also very scary things that have happened that I don't feel comfortable talking about. Just know the ride is in some dangerous waters (forgive the pun). The last time I rode it, they had just turned the lights off on the musicians in the burning city because they weren't working. Those figures not functioning should close the ride. But show doesn't matter. A lot of the problems have to do the belts, the ride system, the sensors, the up ramp, and the down ramp. Almost every other ride at WDW does not require cast to have to spend so much time either walking through the inner workings of the ride or spend time going into the very deepest inner workings of the ride to try to fix it when something minor goes wrong. That needs to be changed. The entire ride system needs to be changed. From the computers, to the load/unload consoles, to the pirates control tower, to the belts, to the pumps, to the ramps. It needs to be so extensive that all cast has to be retrained.

What will it get? The same thing Jungle Cruise got during their 2013 refurb: Not much. Not enough.

 

[drew81]

No, the back row was not closed due to that.

There's far more that needs fixing than that. You just scratched the surface.

RCS
Flume
Backstage infrastructure
Belt motors (again)
Show lighting
Show audio mix and balance
Speakers
And of course the boat fleet

Show lighting needs updated bad.

 

[Father Robinson]

I remember clouds on the ceiling, which to me totally made it seem like you were actually outdoors. That used to blow my mind. I haven't seen those clouds in years, wish they'd bring those back. As minute as an effect like that seems on the surface, it really did add a huge touch of realism.

 

[artvandelay]

Show lighting needs updated bad.

I would hope they would go with LED lighting. Eliminates burned out bulbs, but the focus still needs to be maintained.

 

[articos]

WDI has been floating the additional show scenes for about 10 years.

Longer than 10, even.

 

[mousehockey37]

This is the biggest problem with WDW. They need to have the rides open 365 days a year or heaven forbid, you may offend a guest and ruin their vacation!

What's wrong with taking the ride down for as long as is needed? Boohoo, someone's feelings get hurt that they didn't get to ride their favorite ride. Well, hurt feelings are better than having something go wrong with the ride itself and you actually physically get hurt.

A long, extensive, intricate refurb can be some proof that maybe the higher prices we pay to go to WDW are worth it, and that our voices are being heard. This business of keeping the ride running at doing the minimum amount of maintenance is someday going to backfire. If that means that multiple rides have to be down, the so be it.

 

[doctornick]

This is the biggest problem with WDW. They need to have the rides open 365 days a year or heaven forbid, you may offend a guest and ruin their vacation!

What's wrong with taking the ride down for as long as is needed? Boohoo, someone's feelings get hurt that they didn't get to ride their favorite ride. Well, hurt feelings are better than having something go wrong with the ride itself and you actually physically get hurt.

Which comes down to WDW (especially a very busy MK) not having enough capacity for the amount of guests. There should be enough ride capacity that taking down attractions for proper refurbs does not leave a park with too little to do for the amount of guests.

All the parks at WDW really should have a construction to match capacity to the sheer volume of guests at WDW.

 

[mousehockey37]

Which comes down to WDW (especially a very busy MK) not having enough capacity for the amount of guests. There should be enough ride capacity that taking down attractions for proper refurbs does not leave a park with too little to do for the amount of guests.

All the parks at WDW really should have a construction to match capacity to the sheer volume of guests at WDW.

Well, it's the monster they created, and they now will have to start dealing with it.

They can either start doing detailed refurbs that bring the rides up to snuff, or they could possibly get a ride permanently shut down until repairs are made. In either situation, people are going to be stuck wandering. It'll look like the week of Christmas to New Years, only people won't be waiting in lines.

 

[doctornick]

Well, it's the monster they created, and they now will have to start dealing with it.

They can either start doing detailed refurbs that bring the rides up to snuff, or they could possibly get a ride permanently shut down until repairs are made. In either situation, people are going to be stuck wandering. It'll look like the week of Christmas to New Years, only people won't be waiting in lines.

Well, sure, they should shut down Pirates and refurb the heck out of it. Do what needs to be done to make the ride up to par.

But at the same time, they should be building something on the Fire Mountain plot and adding to Tomorrowland at the old stage location (or outside the berm), etc. And add new countries to WS (or rides to existing pavilions), put something in WoL, add a ton of stuff all over DHS [hopefully, this will actually happen in the near future] and build on the undeveloped plot between Asia and Africa [in addition to Pandora].

WDW should probably have like $3B worth of expansions done in the short term to accommodate the crowds that already exist there. That would allow rides to be taken down for refurbs when needed without it creating a huge capacity issue or "ruining someone's vacation" -- if you have enough options, people won't mind as much when a certain individual ride is down.

 

[mousehockey37]

WDW should probably have like $3B worth of expansions done in the short term to accommodate the crowds that already exist there. That would allow rides to be taken down for refurbs when needed without it creating a huge capacity issue or "ruining someone's vacation" -- if you have enough options, people won't mind as much when a certain individual ride is down.

But they won't. Going with the thread of Iger's paycheck, to tie this together, doing that much work would mean reinvesting the profits that the parks make to *gasp* enhance the existing product and add new ones. This means that Iger wouldn't get paid as much, so the answer is no.

Outside of Pirates, they need to reinvent FW in EPCOT and just do ANYTHING with DHS.

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

http://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions...n-extensive-refurbishment-later-this-year.htm

It really needs it too. I can think of several things:
1. Mist projection
2. Boats getting stuck or taking on water
3. Addressing the fact they now close the back row because an idiot tourist stuck out his hand and was injured.

Maybe because of #2 and #3, they'll put in new boats to address their getting stuck or taking on water and which don't require the back row to blocked off but extends the length behind the back row to prevent that kind of accident in the future.

I most recently rode POTC this past Tuesday Jan 13th. I noticed that this mist projection was working the best I have ever seen. The past few times this fall and winter it was completely off. Also, the mermaid effect was working also. It is on the right of the boat near the skull rocks where the water bubbles right before the skeleton beach scene. I have never seen this working before except for in the random youtube video. I also noticed that the clouds going past the moon at the ship battle scene was working quite well.
But I am glad that it is getting the much needed refurb.

Hey, while we are at it how about a Carousel refurb. Don't even get me started on that one.

 

[Kman101]

That's the problem with WDW. mousehockey is spot on. WDW just doesn't have the capacity to take their rides down for long, extensive refurbs. That's why they shudder at the thought and likely why Phil is pushing for 4 months instead of 6. They need everything doctornick said they do.

And yes, the Carousel of Progress is in a sad state.

 

[Sage of Time]

WDI has been floating the additional show scenes for about 10 years. Adding FP+ to the attraction killed that possibility, since there's now no place for Guests to exit.

You gotta be kidding me.

UGH. Huge let down. What did they want to do before FP+ mangled everything? And if they wanted to, could they work around FP?

 

[FutureWorld1982]

The Imagination CMs were even cross-trained to work other locations during the pavilion's closure.

Really? That's strange, as I know almost all of the Imagination Cast Members, and never heard this (I am not trying to prove you wrong, I am just quite surprised to hear this).

 

[ohsnappletea]

Sigh. It's very obvious that Pirates is in need of some TLC. She's 41 years old. Yeah, she's in some rough shape but I don't think she's absolutely terrible.. give her a little bit of credit. Yeah, boats get stuck. They started to get stuck ever since we switched to plastic boats from the old ones. Yeah, you can get wet on the ride. There's a sign outside that says "you may get wet!".. it is a water ride. Mist projection with Blackbeard has been fixed and, in my opinion, looks better than ever, along with the clouds and mermaids. We also don't close the back row.. we load every row in the boat so.. not sure where that came from.

Yeah, the cast goes through a lot to make sure she's working safely but we do the best we can to make sure she runs the best for the guests. Does it stink we go 101 all the time and have people do the boat dance to get boats unstuck? Yeah kinda. It makes the day more interesting but when I get to see a family's face at Unload after they've road the ride, it makes it all worth it. Pirates is my favorite ride and I love every day I get to work there. There's so much they could fix, of course, it's like that on every ride, Pirates more than others some days.. but who knows. I just hope Disney does the right thing with the ride and takes care of her. Sorry for getting defensive, but she just needs some love.

 

[articos]

Sigh. It's very obvious that Pirates is in need of some TLC. She's 41 years old. Yeah, she's in some rough shape but I don't think she's absolutely terrible.. give her a little bit of credit. Yeah, boats get stuck. They started to get stuck ever since we switched to plastic boats from the old ones. Yeah, you can get wet on the ride. There's a sign outside that says "you may get wet!".. it is a water ride. Mist projection with Blackbeard has been fixed and, in my opinion, looks better than ever, along with the clouds and mermaids. We also don't close the back row.. we load every row in the boat so.. not sure where that came from.

Yeah, the cast goes through a lot to make sure she's working safely but we do the best we can to make sure she runs the best for the guests. Does it stink we go 101 all the time and have people do the boat dance to get boats unstuck? Yeah kinda. It makes the day more interesting but when I get to see a family's face at Unload after they've road the ride, it makes it all worth it. Pirates is my favorite ride and I love every day I get to work there. There's so much they could fix, of course, it's like that on every ride, Pirates more than others some days.. but who knows. I just hope Disney does the right thing with the ride and takes care of her. Sorry for getting defensive, but she just needs some love.

Love CM's like you. Keep up the good show and thanks.