Short April refurbishment scheduled for Pirates of the Caribbean

[FutureWorld1982]

Well, Disneyland's Pirates are three times as long as our version (I'm exaggerating, I know), so it takes three or four times longer for a refurb, no?

 

[TP2000]

Well, Disneyland's Pirates are three times as long as our version (I'm exaggerating, I know), so it takes three or four times longer for a refurb, no?

Disneyland's Pirates is a 15 minute long ride, on three separate levels. WDW's Pirates is a 7:30 minute long ride on two separate levels. So maybe the extra level at Disneyland is what requires the extra three weeks?

 

[TTA94]

Maybe Im alone on this but Id like to see them do a major overhaul of Pirates at WDW. Keeping it a boat ride but making it longer, more thrilling, updated animatronics.

 

[GrumpyFan]

Please tell me they've fixed the boats/track! We were there in October of last year, not long after the new boats were put in, and had one of the worst experiences I've ever had. Our boat got stuck at least three different times, and once a CM had to come out and have us rock back and forth to get it unstuck. It wasn't bottoming out either, it was hanging up on different sections of the guide rails on the sides. Very annoying!

 

[NearTheEars]

The only issue we've had the last 5 or so rides is the big boat pileup at the end of the ride. The mermaids have been hit or miss.

 

[Marc Gil]

They need to dim the lights and turn on the cloud projectors. When I rode Disneyland's POTC, I was in shock! I felt like I was actually outside again.

I haven't seen WDW's lighting and cloud effects working since the refurbishment in 2006.

 

[Sassagoula-Rvr]

We got stuck on a trip this winter...but to be fair...I feel they way overloaded the boat...we were all squished together...and all but 3-4 were adults. When we went down the drop...those of us in the front row were SOAKED.

But they had to come out by the wench scene and have us rock the boat.

 

[marni1971]

They need to dim the lights and turn on the cloud projectors. When I rode Disneyland's POTC, I was in shock! I felt like I was actually outside again.

I haven't seen WDW's lighting and cloud effects working since the refurbishment in 2006.

They do still work. Surprisingly more often than not they're simply switched off.

Sad I know.

 

[mm52200]

I still don't understand who made the poor decision on the new boats, they're horrible. Never before did you get wet on Pirates and now every time we rode on our last trip we got wet. When they are getting new boats, why don't they simply just build more of the old design, rather than build these that don't work. I mean do they actually test models of the new boats before ordering them or not?

 

[dstrawn9889]

dont think its the boats, per say, its the butts in the seats that make the difference... 'muricans heavier now more than ever.

 

[Marc Gil]

I actually like getting wet on POTC. It cooled us down a lot when we visited 2 weeks ago. The only downside was the AC at set at full blast, so we were freezing after we got sprayed.

 

[tl77]

The DL version isn't just longer, but it has a lot more AA figures and effects... WDW has the room to accommodate the extra figures, they just never bothered to make them, and the thing that's really annoying to me is that when they closed World of Motion the shipped some of those figures to the PotC in DL instead of WDW giving the DL version even more stuff

 

[TP2000]

The DL version isn't just longer, but it has a lot more AA figures and effects... WDW has the room to accommodate the extra figures, they just never bothered to make them, and the thing that's really annoying to me is that when they closed World of Motion the shipped some of those figures to the PotC in DL instead of WDW giving the DL version even more stuff

The WDW Pirates truly is the Cliff's Notes version of Disneyland's masterpiece (the last ride Walt worked on personally before he died in December, 1966).

A shame that since WDW has the shorter ride in a smaller facility with fewer AA figures and effects that they can't keep it up better. Disneyland has better maintenance for a longer ride in a bigger facility, and Disneyland is a park with many more rides than Magic Kingdom has to worry about. Rather interesting how that works, I've always thought.

 

[tl77]

The WDW Pirates truly is the Cliff's Notes version of Disneyland's masterpiece (the last ride Walt worked on personally before he died in December, 1966).

A shame that since WDW has the shorter ride in a smaller facility with fewer AA figures and effects that they can't keep it up better. Disneyland has better maintenance for a longer ride in a bigger facility, and Disneyland is a park with many more rides than Magic Kingdom has to worry about. Rather interesting how that works, I've always thought.

Yeah you're right, WDW is the no.1 theme park in the world but it's treated like no.2, plus it's twice as big and there is half as much stuff just like the 2 versions of PotC. But I understand that certain rides are bigger because they have more room in different areas of each park, like Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and Haunted Mansion are bigger in WDW because hey have more available space, and "it's a small world" is bigger in DL for the same reason.

With PotC, in DL the first show building has more ride scenes with the Blue Bayou and the caves, but the main show building with the pirate figures are pretty much identical, at least up until the auction scene. From there on all the sets are the same size but for some reason there are half as many figures in each of them, there's room WDW to add the additional figures from the DL... they just never did. Mean while they keep adding stuff in DL, in 97 they added the World of Motion figures... which GM paid for back in 1982... and then with the movies in 2006 they added the end scene from WDW into DL... they've added things to DL that they subtracted from WDW

 

[TP2000]

they've added things to DL that they subtracted from WDW

While the extra Animatronics from Disneyland's version would be nice, the one thing that hurts the most for me personally is the loss of the talking skull that was replaced with the Davy Jones projection at WDW.

At Disneyland they got to keep their talking skull plus they got the addition of the Davy Jones projection a few minutes later in the ride.

 

[fngoofy]

So what was the reason for reworking the queue? When we went in Feb I was puzzled what that did for them. They already had two discrete lines with no chance of hopping between. Why close up that one section of the right line and then the pseudo merger near load?

 

[marni1971]

So what was the reason for reworking the queue? When we went in Feb I was puzzled what that did for them. They already had two discrete lines with no chance of hopping between. Why close up that one section of the right line and then the pseudo merger near load?

FP+.

 

[fngoofy]

FP+.

Yes, but why the changes to the line, they already had two lines and still do. Why the slight changes to the right side and the semi merge near load?

And BTW, I do wish as part of FP+ they would give Johnny Depp an extra million or two so he would record a PSA for in-line that told kids to throw their parents cameras in the water if they take flash photos.

 

[katiekinzakat]

Yes, but why the changes to the line, they already had two lines and still do. Why the slight changes to the right side and the semi merge near load?

It elongated the stand-by queue while shortening the Fastpass queue meaning that they can fit more people inside the building as they wait. The two queues used to be roughly the same length to make it fair for everyone, but with the change in distribution of guests they had to change the proportions of line.

Merge is there because you have to have a merge for Fastpass and it's not like they could just take out one loading dock and funnel both lines into one for a true merge, nor could they starve one side if there is no Fastpass demand because capacity would basically be halved.

 

[NearTheEars]

Yes, but why the changes to the line, they already had two lines and still do. Why the slight changes to the right side and the semi merge near load?

And BTW, I do wish as part of FP+ they would give Johnny Depp an extra million or two so he would record a PSA for in-line that told kids to throw their parents cameras in the water if they take flash photos.

Amen on the cameras. My last 2 rides have been nearly ruined by people snapping photos. Maybe they should drop the pirate talk schtick and plainly say NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY!

But people would probably still ignore it.