Short April refurbishment scheduled for Pirates of the Caribbean

[Jeffxz]

Well here is an unnerving tweet:

Matthew Gottula ‏@DLthings 5m
Pirates queue stretches all the way to Haunted Mansion and over the footbridge and back and it closes for refurb tomorrow

This is most likely at DLR where HM is near pirates. I couldn't imagine how crowded the MK would need to be for something like this to happen there.

 

[dstrawn9889]

about to say that the line in that case would have to be like 1/2 mile long, blocking tiki,carpets, cbj,and blocking the parade route

 

[Seth7721]

Does Big Thunder Mountain have a camera system now?

 

[Gabe1]

This is most likely at DLR where HM is near pirates. I couldn't imagine how crowded the MK would need to be for something like this to happen there.

Ahhh. Pirates is going down in magic kingdom 4/28 to 5/1. Never thought of both going down for return on same day.

 

[Unplugged]

Surprised no one bothered to point out there are already 3 photo ops around & related to PoTC. There's the Captain Jack stage, Goofy Pirate near the PoTC entrance, and the Pirate League. They are not on the ride, but they are where most of us seem to be accepting of them and welcoming in many cases as they make sense for fun photos. They don't need another photo op, especially on the ride.

 

[Kman101]

They probably want the money from the cost it takes to purchase said photo. There really is no need for an onride photo for pirates. Feels like yet another money grab.

 

[AndyS2992]

Paris seems to have had two, the one above mid ride and one as you go down a drop.

 

[doctornick]

Surprised no one bothered to point out there are already 3 photo ops around & related to PoTC. There's the Captain Jack stage, Goofy Pirate near the PoTC entrance, and the Pirate League. They are not on the ride, but they are where most of us seem to be accepting of them and welcoming in many cases as they make sense for fun photos. They don't need another photo op, especially on the ride.

IIRC Pirate Goofy no longer meets since he got moved to Pete's Silly Sideshow. I don't think anyone does M&G's in the location anymore, which is unfortunate. I've suggested that Captain Hook and Smee should appear there.

 

[Zummi Gummi]

Surprised no one bothered to point out there are already 3 photo ops around & related to PoTC. There's the Captain Jack stage, Goofy Pirate near the PoTC entrance, and the Pirate League. They are not on the ride, but they are where most of us seem to be accepting of them and welcoming in many cases as they make sense for fun photos. They don't need another photo op, especially on the ride.

No Pirate Goofy anymore.

 

[TP2000]

Ahhh. Pirates is going down in magic kingdom 4/28 to 5/1. Never thought of both going down for return on same day.

Yes, both Pirates have refurbs starting the same day. But one is four days long, and the other one is four weeks long.

Pirates @ Disneyland Closed 4/28 to 5/23
Pirates @ WDW Closed 4/28 to 5/1

That's interesting. But since the Disneyland closure is four weeks, and the WDW closure is four days, I doubt they are closing for the same reason to install some new special effect.

 

[Kman101]

I've seen the photo "frames" (whatever it's called lol) for the Pirates pictures. I do like them. I don't really have a major issue if they do start Pirate on-ride photos, I've just never heard of anyone wanting said photo opportunity before. But I do like the way the photos look.

 

[Kman101]

And I have a question, I've noticed this year lots of very brief "refurbs" for rides. Are they actually doing anything in them or are they just saving on actually running the attraction and calling it a refurb?

 

[Gabe1]

And I have a question, I've noticed this year lots of very brief "refurbs" for rides. Are they actually doing anything in them or are they just saving on actually running the attraction and calling it a refurb?

We were there for thunders earlier this month 4 days. There were workers on track every day. It opened up a half a day late because there was horrible rains one of the days. Yet Kali came back as more of a seasonal close. Even the rafts were still dirty and same mildew.

 

[bebert]

Could we spend the time and resources to fix the ride and keep it and it's effects from breaking down every 30 minutes? Dont get too used to this if you like, eventually it will stop working too.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

<grumpy cat>
Honestly, I think on-ride photos are silly, and see them as another way to milk visitors for cash.

Personally, I have never bought one - and will never buy one.
</grumpy cat>

 

[rct247]

I rode Pirates yesterday following this refurbishment and I couldn't really see anything different other than possibly some lighting changes. It wasn't a good ride through. The strobe behind the skeleton manning the wheel before the drop wasn't flashing correctly. It would flash on for a good solid second or two and then flash off hardly resembling a lightning flash at all. Following the drop, the blacklights along the back of the wall in the Pirate ship scene were so bright that I could actually see the wall for the first time. Lighting also seemed too bright on the "wench for a bride" scene. The lighting was casting shadows of the animatronics on the wall serving as the night sky. Finally, the animatronic sitting down with Jack Sparrow peeking over his shoulder was missing a map that the audio was referencing.
These were issues I had never run into before so it was interesting to see them surface a day after a refurbishment.

On the plus side, the waterfall projection was working, but was blurry.

 

[Bolt]

And I have a question, I've noticed this year lots of very brief "refurbs" for rides. Are they actually doing anything in them or are they just saving on actually running the attraction and calling it a refurb?

Highly doubt it would be cost cutting when MK had major media crawling all over the park...

 

[Kman101]

I hadn't thought of that when posting the question. I was sincere in posing that question (wasn't trying to make yet another joke about cost cutting). It just seemed like there were so many really short refurbs so I was wondering if they actually do anything during them or just saved on running the ride.

 

[NMBC1993]

I actually rode Pirates last week, the day before the refurbishment and I hope for the sake of Walt that they actually fixed some of the issues I saw. First off all those "Mermaids" in the cave area were not moving at all, no water effect, no lights, nothing. I think I even saw some of the mechanisms sticking out of the water, but I was unsure at the time. Also, during the rampaging town scene one of the pirates in the back, who carries one of the torches had his entire arm dangling at his side with the torch pointing towards the ground. I know things could have been a lot worse, but if they had a refurb literally the next day, I hope they did more than on-ride photos because if they didn't, those pictures are going to show some very disappointed guests (available for $29.99 in our gift shop)

 

[TP2000]

I rode Pirates yesterday following this refurbishment and I couldn't really see anything different other than possibly some lighting changes. It wasn't a good ride through...

That's a shame. I wonder what the point of the refurb was then?

The Disneyland Pirates still has three weeks left of its four week refurb, reopening May 23rd. So if there was no on-ride photo installed at WDW, and not much done to any of the glaring show problems, then I guess these two Pirates refurbs are just a coincidence that they started at the same time. Still curious that WDW's refurb was four days long, and Disneyland's was the more typical four weeks long, both starting on the same date.