Walt Disney's original ride The following is a detailed summary of what appears in the original Disneyland version of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, from 1967 to 2006. An episode of ''
Walt Disney's Wonderful World Of Color'' shows Walt Disney during the conception stage as well as presenting footage of the ride's opening day. Further details of the history and behind the scenes of the attraction were chronicled in the 2005 book,
Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies by
Jason Surrell. The ride begins amid glimmering
fireflies during an evening in a
Louisiana bayou. Guests board their boats at
Laffite's Landing and are at once afloat in the heart of bayou country.
Banjo melodies (including "
Oh! Susanna" and "
Camptown Races") can be heard as guests pass by
houseboats, one of whose porches features an old man calmly rocking back and forth in his rocking chair and smoking a pipe. Above a stone archway, a talking
skull with crossed swords (voiced by
Xavier Atencio) provides words of warning before the guests' boat takes a plunge down a waterfall into a dimly lit cavernous passage, where voices can be heard singing the theme song. where cannonballs whistle overhead and explosions throw water into the air – a fierce battle in the Caribbean between a marauding pirate galleon, the
Wicked Wench, and a Spanish fortress is in full swing. From the deck of the
Wicked Wench, the Pirate Captain (modeled on
Blackbeard's appearance and voiced by
Paul Frees) leads the assault as colonial defenders can be seen manning the fort's cannons, barking orders to each other in
English and
Spanish and shouting threats at the invading pirates. The village of Puerto Dorado on Isla Tesoro is overrun with pirates in search of treasure. The first sight is the town square, where some pirates have kidnapped the mayor, Carlos (voiced by
Paul Frees), and threaten to drown him in a well if he does not divulge the location of the treasure. Carlos' wife (voiced by
June Foray) peeks out of an upstairs window, telling him to be brave and not talk; she is shot at as Carlos is repeatedly dunked in the water while a line of other captive city officials look on. An auction scene follows, where an auctioneer pirate (voiced by
Paul Frees) tries to sell off the local women with the banner, "Take a Wench for a Bride!" The bidders yell out for the "redhead", a flirtatious woman in a red dress. In the next scene, women are being chased through town by pirates. The "Pooped Pirate" (voiced by
Paul Frees) reminisces about the "lively lassie" he wished to "hoist his colors" upon. Holding her slip as he prattles on, the woman peers out from inside a barrel that sat right behind the pirate's back as he keeps boasting, unaware. The queue winds through the fort, passing supplies and cannons, and a pair of pirate skeletons sit at a chessboard. The chess-playing skeletons gag was specifically designed for the Magic Kingdom by Imagineer Marc Davis, who was tasked with designing the ride. There are two queues designed to evoke a different atmosphere, one is the "Soldier" side (the left) and the other is the "Pirate" side (the right, which is now the Lightning Lane queue). Both these queues converge with the loading area known as Pirate's Cove. At the load area of Pirates' Cove, guests board boats to escape the fortress under siege through a series of tunnels leading out to the bay. A pirate ship can be seen floating out in the distance from the load area. Only two of the skeleton scenes from Disneyland were brought to the Magic Kingdom: The Treasure Chest Beach and Hurricane Beach. A talking skull on the wall delivers a brief safety warning before flashing its eyes, taking a photo of guests in the process. The boat then heads down a 14-foot drop, passing under the Walt Disney World Railroad in the process and dropping down to ground level (the ride actually begins on a second level, and the surrounding Caribbean Plaza is graded to match the rest of the park). At the bottom, guests pass through a dark passage and pass a battle between a pirate ship and an
island fortress. The ride continues as guests pass through a town being ransacked and see a woman shouting down to her husband who is being dunked multiple times into a well in an attempt to get information from him on the location of Captain Jack Sparrow and the treasure. Guests then see Jack hiding behind some women's clothing looking back over his shoulder at the pirates who are searching for him. The boat next passes a scene where guests see townspeople forced to surrender their loot for an
auction. Pirates can be heard yelling, "We wants the rum!" Guests go under a bridge and see pirates stealing a treasure chest, and being chased by angry women. A pirate sitting beside his dog holding a key and a treasure map saying that Jack will not be able to find the treasure without his map and key. Guests then see that Jack is behind him hiding in a barrel and looking right at him. On the right is a drunk pirate drinking rum and talking to cats. Guests then pass under another bridge and see that the town is on
fire. There are three pirates (one is singing and the others are playing an
accordion and a
mandolin) who are singing along to the song with a
donkey and a
dog. Guests see more pirates stealing treasure, singing, and carrying the
torches which set the city alight. Guests then begin to pass under a
bridge. On the right, there is a pirate on the right passed out and surrounded by pigs and above a pirate dangles his hairy, dirty leg down. As in the Disneyland version, guests see prisoners trying to escape from their
jail cell by attempting to lure a dog who has keys in his mouth over to them. Leaving the jail, guests enter the town's treasure room. Jack Sparrow, having used the key stolen from the Pooped Pirate to open the door, drinks
rum and sings "Yo Ho" in victory. The ride then ends as the guests exit by going left, taking a speed-ramp back up to the surface.
Disneyland Paris The Pirates of the Caribbean ride at
Disneyland Paris is housed in a battle-scarred fortress at the back of the park. Many of the original scenes are seen in the ride while some new ones were included such as two swordsmen dueling for a woman in the town scene.
Shanghai Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure is a separate ride that uses a storyline based on the
eponymous film series. It blends digital large-screen projection technology with traditional set pieces and audio animatronics.
Walt Disney Imagineering designed the ride and
Industrial Light & Magic created the computer-generated visual effects. ==Modifications==