Though WDW's is more concise, I do believe that the DL has slightly better storytelling. For one thing, longer ride means more soundtrack, which makes a big difference to me...the extended cavern tunnel between the skeleton scenes and the living pirates does an important job of describing the curse...and telling you what is coming next.
Although...this was before the whole "upgrade" to Jack Sparrow. I admit I haven't ridden DL's since they did that.
I agree with you about the storytelling ability the longer ride at Disneyland allows. And the Jack Sparrow overlay from '06 highlights this.
For example, the mist-screen waterfall where Davy Jones (and now Blackbeard) appears in WDW 35 seconds after your boat leaves the loading dock, while people are still settling in, fiddling with purses, whispering about lunch, etc. At Disneyland that same mist-screen waterfall appears at the 5:30 second mark into the ride, just before you enter the Battle Scene and the first big animatronic area.
On the opposite end of the ride, the farewell act given by Jack Sparrow in the Stockade Scene with all the jewels happens at the very end of the ride in WDW. You see Jack Sparrow doing his Yo-Ho shtick as your boat clunka-lunks onto the conveyor belt and pauses, and then you whizzz right into the unload area and it's
gather-your-belongings-and-exit-to-your-left-folks.
At Disneyland the same Jack Sparrow scene appears as your boat clunka-lunks onto the conveyor belt that attaches to the lift, and then your boat glides back up the waterfall as you pass Jack Sparrow. Yet there is still a full 2:30 minutes of ride time left as your boat ascends the waterfall lift and glides back into the bayou and passes the talking parrot and treasure map. You get the full impact of the Jack Sparrow scene, with further closure from 30 seconds of additional dialogue as you go up the lift, and then another two minutes of floating time to decompress before you exit your boat.
The Disneyland pacing and extended ride time really lets the plot settle in and gel, and I think the overall effect is far more powerful.
The different ride times between the two parks are most telling.
Pirates of the Caribbean at WDW
7:15 Minutes Long
Pirates of the Carribean at Disneyland
15:15 Minutes Long
There's a
full eight minutes of extra time on the Disneyland version! Several of those minutes are just spent floating through pretty bayou scenes or passing extra cavern scenes, but several of those minutes are used quite effectively to build up the story more and provide a buffer in the plotline that lets your brain process it all much smoother.