Changes like this can happen from time to time, I suppose, as the sensibilities shift and what have you, but the greater issue at play, at least to me, is that it's hard to know what these rides are even about anymore.
I was saddened over the years to see stuff from the PotC movies introduced into the Orlando ride; I remember always hearing about how the original ride was better, but the more I read about it the more I thought the WDW version got a bit of a bum rap from people, as the work done to give it a sense of cohesion was actually pretty good, from the barker bird to the voices outside the fortress exterior shouting about spotting pirates incoming, to the long queue carrying us through the dungeon and other areas, it gave the ride an identity distinct from the time/space displacement and moral story of the original even while retaining a number of the same scenes and sequences.
Yet, when they brought Captain Jack in I shrugged a bit and figured it might be alright, since perhaps they were never completely comfortable with the changes at WDW and figured it was better to take things in a different direction. However, they then introduced the new Fast Pass system and completely upended the well done queue, as well, and combining that with blasting the movie score around Caribbean Plaza it just really killed the setting and nullified a lot of what was intended in the original design and architecture.
Last week really hit me hardest, though; I got to take my first trip to Disneyland, and of course Pirates was at the top of my list of must-do attractions, because I was operating under the assumption that Disneyland's version hadn't inserted stuff from the movies and had retained its original design. Man, did my heart sink the moment I saw the mist screen and Davey Jones' face on it saying something pointless at me. There's a ride where the entire conceit is a trip through space and time to see the pirates looting and pillaging, ending with the pirates drunkenly and stupidly bringing about their own destruction at the end, coupled with the rise back up that's meant to signify us returning to the present day and place (in this case, the Blue Bayou), but now with all the "Where's Cap'n Jack?!" nonsense thrown in to completely throw the entire thing off course and off theme.
So yeah, individual scenes can change; what worked in the 60s might not click so well come the 2010s, and that in and of itself doesn't bother me so much. Yet what even is Pirates of the Caribbean anymore? As best I can tell, as an attraction it's now little more than another commercial for an existing property that's been around since the early 00s, as if we all don't know what it is already or wouldn't go and see it without the ride being altered to remind us to...and honestly, it's kind of sad. Makes me fear what could've happened to the different Haunted Mansions had the Eddie Murphy movie not bombed.
