There are 64 human and 55 animal Audio-Animatronics in the attraction.
Back in the days when there were two channels at the load area, the boats went through an automatic switch gate in staging. That was the source of many downtimes.
The first drop is 52 feet, at an angle of 21 degrees, and the second is 37 feet, also at 21 degrees. This was necessary to get the boats under the Railroad tracks, as the main show building is actually outside the tracks. Guests also get to go *up* a 90 foot waterfall at a 16 degree angle.
Near the end of the ride, the white haired prisoner is actually a replica of a janitor who worked there.
The fire effect: There is one peace of fabric hanging from a bar. Onto it is projected orange and red and yellow blinking light. Finally a Fan is added to blow the fabric slightly and it creates the fire effect. The fire marshal had Disney install an automatic shutoff in case of a real fire because the fake ones in the burning city looked so real.
The fog that drifts out from behind the boat in the "Battle" area. It is the Mee Fog effect. Water is shot through a small hole at 1000PSI, the hole is smaller than a hair from your head. Because it forced out so fast, the water condenses, just like real fog does. Hence the Mee Fog, slogan, "Real Fog"
The name of the ship in the battle scene is Wicked Wench
The effect of the cannon ball hitting the water. It is done with a air cannon. Just compressed air under the water.
750,000 gallons of water are used; and the two main lift pumps can circulate 20,000 gallons per minute.
Pirates was originally planed to be a wax museum.
When the ride first opened, passengers regularly got soaked. When their boat hit the bottom of the first ramp, the water, with no place else to go, came back at the guests in a wave. The Imagineers finally thought to build a false wall that the water could rise up behind.
The location that the show building is sitting on was Holidayland
Click Here to see the location of the show building
Voices:
Pirates - J. Pat O'Malley, Paul Frees, Thurl Ravenscroft
Jolly Roger skull - X Atencio
Original sets built at Grosh Studios
From Disneyland Report To Anaheim And Orange County 1958:
The Wax Museum will portray the story of famous pirates of the Caribbean region, through the medium of wax figures. Dramatic staging effects will tell the story of such fabled events as the seige of New Orleans by the pirate LaFitte.
From New Attraction Profiles: 1966
It's high tide, and time to set sail for an exciting adventure with the meanest crew of blackhearted swashbucklers who ever terrified the Spanish Main. Come aboard for a voyage you'll never forget!
It's the 1700's again, and every port is easy prey for The Pirates of the Caribbean, Walt Disney's thrilling. new ride opening this summer in Disneyland.
And, as usual, Walt doesn't waste a moment before bringing on the action. Boat-borne guests begin their memorable voyage by splashing down a waterfall right into an eerie cavern, home-base of the ne'er-do-wells.
Throughout the cavern voyage, which sets the mood and atmosphere for things to come, guests are constantly reminded that "Dead men tell no tales", an ominous warning issued by a ghostly voice from out of nowhere.
After passing the crew's quarters, pirate treasury and the elegant "apartment-" for the captain, boats move right into battle between a pirate ship and a fortress. Guests cringe as cannon balls whistle a few inches over their heads, spewing geysers of water as they hit within a foot or two of each boat.
From then on, to port and to starboard, scene after scene takes modern-day voyagers deeper into the often humorous conflict. The entire 15-minute adventure (which will be the longest in Disneyland) takes place in a full-size Caribbean port, authentic to the smallest detail.
In the first village scene, Pirates dunk the local magistrate in the town well to wake him talk. ("Speak up, ye bilge rat ... where be the treasure?''). From an upstairs window, his shrewish wife warns him not to tell, regardless of his fate. Off to the side, a quartet of other civic leaders -- knees knocking, teeth chattering in terror await their turn.
Steps leading to a bridge make a perfect auction block for the town's maidens -- the fair ones and the ones not so fair. But the auctioning procedure has floundered; the captain auctioneer is finding it more than difficult to find buyers for a 3OO-pound damsel. The surrounding pirates show bug-eyed attention to a lovely redhead coquette, next in line. Off to port, a courtyard has become the scene for the chase. Some of the womenfolk are happily pursued by pirates and some of the pirates are not so happily pursued by the womenfolk.
Ahead, everything's ablaze. The whole town has been set to the torch by the salty crewmen, who are now headed for treasure-laden boats.
Even though they glide into a tunnel beneath the town, guests can't escape the flames, nor can a group of imprisoned pirates locked in their subterranean cells. A dog has the key, but neither a tasty bone nor the plea of the prisoners will lure it from him.
Guests move on, and the fire creeps closer to their boats.If chaos has been the order of the day before, sheer bedlam lies ahead. The town arsenal, full of powder kegs, is burning furiously. Adding to the danger, several pirates have had a disagreement and are firing their flintlock at each other -- right· across the heads of the voyagers.
How do terrified visitors escape? Walt lets them "fall up" a waterfall!
Designed by WED Enterprises, Inc. Disney's "Imagineering" firm, the show will feature 130 lifesize, three-dimensional figures -- 76 humans and 54 animals. They will be brought to life by Audio Animatronics",WED's remarkable electronic system of animation.
Guests will visit the Pirates of the Caribbean aboard "bateaux", flat-bottom boats used in the Louisiana. swamps. Each boat will accommodate 20 guests. During a 10-hour day, as many as 36,000 voyagers will glide through the show.
In 1967, Pirates of the Caribbean used real human skeletons as props. Imagineer Jason Surrell says, "Because the original Imagineering team felt that the faux skeletons of the period were just too unconvincing, the grotto sequence originally featured real human remains obtained from the UCLA Medical Center. The skeletons were later returned to their countries of origin and given a proper burial."
From WED Disneyland Dictionary 1968
Is Disneyland's exciting new "Audio-Animatronics" adventure where guests journey back to the days of pirateering on the Spanish Main. Guests board bateaux (small boats) in the enchanting Blue Bayou for a water-borne journey through the swampland beneath moss-hung oaks, past alligators and trappers' musty boathouses. Plunging down a roaring waterfall, visitors pass through pirate caves and into the waterfront of a Caribbean port under attack by a salty crew of buccaneers. As cannon balls fly between the fort and the pirate galleon, narrowly missing the guests' bateaux, passengers see "Audio-Animatronics" pirates looting the port town, chasing villagers, auctioning off their captives, fighting and plundering. As the looters set fire to the port, Disneyland guests escape into the town dungeon only to be trapped in the arsenal where careless pillagers are exchanging gunfire and ignoring the black powder kegs nearby. Guests then "fall up" a water-fall and return to the peaceful Blue Bayou Lagoon.
From Steve Birnbaum brings you the best of Disneyland 1982:
The last attraction that Walt Disney worked on seriously himself, this boat trip through a series of sets portraying a pirate raid on a Caribbean village offers one of Disney- land's best adventures. But unlike the Walt Disney World version, which remains strangely uncrowded during the afternoons, the California incarnation at- tracts so many guests throughout the day that waits sometimes exceed an hour when the park is busy. If you're visiting during a peak period, stop here right after opening. The experience is well worth getting up early. Beginning with a short cruise through a swamp where will-o'-the-wisps glow just above the grasses, and fireflies twinkle nearby while stars spangle the twilight-blue sky overhead, the attention to detail nearly boggles the mind. There are flowerpots that explode and mend themselves-and a cast of 64 human figures and 55 animals: drunken pigs whose legs actually twitch in their soporific contentment, chickens so realistic looking that even a farmer might at first mistake them for the real thing, and a piccolo-playing pirate whose fingers move and cheeks puff as he toots out his little ditty. The keen-eyed will note the hairs on the leg of one swashbuckler perched atop a bridge overhead. The attraction's theme song, "Yo-Ho, Yo-Ho-a Pirate's Life for Me," man- ages to transform what is actually a picture of some fairly savage buccaneering into a great good time for all. A must-again and again.
The Premier for the
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl movie was held at Disneyland on June 28, 2003 in front of the Pirates Of The Caribbean Attraction. The longest red carpet in history at the time, stretching 900 feet down Main Street to New Orleans Square. A screen was set up on Tom Sawyers Island for the viewing of the premier.
Fastpass machines were removed in November 2004
Ride closes March 2006 for retrofit.
Ride reopens June 26,2006 after a retrofit to add Captain Jack Sparrow and the evil Barbossa, along with a plot twist and new special effects, from the hit 2003 movie and its sequel
The Premier for the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest movie was held at Disneyland on June 24, 2006 in front of the Pirates Of The Caribbean Attraction. A screen was set up on Tom Sawyers Island for the viewing of the premier.
MSN Video will broadcast live the world premiere of Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" on June 24, 2006 from 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m. PT to a worldwide audience on MSN
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest released in July 7, 2006
Disneyland celebrated Pirates Of The Caribbean 40th Anniversary on March 18,2007.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End released in May 25, 2007
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is released in May 20, 2011
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is released in May 26, 2017
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