Rog...since I haven't seen POTC out there since '94...have they blocked off the restaurant near the start, or does it still look into the ride? I miss the longer Louisiana version - wish we had the longer one here!!
Nope, you can still visit the Blue Bayou and partake of some yummy Monte Cristo sandwiches at lunch, or other fine entrees for dinner. ADRs recommended (I remember when you couldn't do that in advance beyond the current day!) ; And people watch just like the Mexico pavilion. You still travel though the bayou on the way to the first waterfall, past the fireflies and an unseen banjo playing past a gentlemen rocking slowly in front of his house.
Ah yes...the banjo guy! ; Doesn't he play "Oh Susanna" or something of the like? ; And you guys get two waterfalls. ; And the extended cannon-room scene at the end. ; I think just about the only thing we have over you guys is the Goodyear speed belt escalator. ;
Yepper! Ahem. ; WD: Now you got into this mess by going down a waterfall. ; How do you suppose you'd get out of that? JR: By going...up a waterfall? WD: That's right. ; Anything's possible at Disneyland. (sorry, the good neighbor hotel was playing the 10th Anniv. Special on a continuous loop while we were there.) And the treasure room/pirate cave before the city. ; That's the HM exit past Little Leota! ; Anyway, we also have the bats/rats staring at you up the waterfall plus the new map/parrot at the end of the ride, which is visible from the queue...
disneyland's POTC is incredible. ; makes the WDW version look like the ugly-stepsister by comparison. ; it's THAT good.
Disneyland's POTC rocks. ; I thought I heard or read somewhere that the WDW version is so small because when they built the Magic Kingdom they thought noone wanted to partake of an attraction about Pirates since they are so close to the Caribbean. ; Once they realized their mistake, they didn't have room to put in an attraction the size it needed to be
That's what I heard too. ; They were supposed to put in some cowboys-and-indians thing...figuring that might be more interesting to folks living in Florida, where there really were pirates and swamps. ; But alot of folks were unhappy, so they rushed it over a few years after the opening. I was there in 1971...but I can't confess to remembering, since I was only 3!
ray and justin are correct. when the MK opened in 1971, the overwhelming question is "where are the pirates?". wdw had to scramble and build "POTC-lite"[nb]roger-speak for a smaller, less detailed version of the same attraction[/nb][nb]see also "terror, tower of"[/nb] due to the lack of space. ; interestingly enough, POTC-lite cost WDW the Western River Expedition attraction.
That was Disney 1971. Disney 2001[nb]Okay they thought of it before then, but that's when it opened.[/nb]: Let's build a theme park about California, in California, next to a park that mostly Californians visit! Hey, no one is visiting our California Park in California, so let's spend $1.5 billion to fix it![nb]Total excludes ToT-Lite, the cost to bring the Electrical Parade back from glowing out forever, to add Millionaire, or to transform a Limo ride into a Monsters Inc ride, or the cost to create an Aladdin stage show. ; Offer only valid in the continental U.S. ; Expires 4/29/2009.[/nb]
the problem is not imagineering but engineering, how do we shoehorn a larger attraction into a limited size entrance without losing the parade route into frontierland, plus the marshalling area that's behind those walls, plus having a major attraction down for a year or more while we redo it all
Well my ingenious plan would be: ; Start clearing out space in the underground to designate a 3rd level for the ride. ; They could actually construct the entire water portion, displays, guide barriers, propulsion jets, etc. without closing the ride above. ; Have the 2nd waterfall that drops you down to that level constructed as an offshoot from the current ride's track, and also an 'upwards' waterfall to bring you back to level 2. ; Once everything underneath has been constructed, close the ride only to reroute the track to and from the down and up waterfalls, which might close the ride only for a month or two. ; The ride could then start on level 1, drop down the falls to level 2, wind past the pirate ship, then drop again to level 3, negotiate a few hundred feet of new track and displays, before heading 'up' the waterfall back to level 2 to finish out the rest of the ride there. ; Exit would remain where it is, and bring you back to level 1 on the speedramp. ; The new level 3 wouldn't need the high roof - it could maybe take you through the beached hull of a pirate ship, then into a pirate's lair cave, before wending back to the burning town then through the fort castle for the end. OK...just a crazy idea! ; Cool, but crazy. ; Anything to give us a longer Pirates...I could even cope with having it be down for a few months if that's what it took. ; But i still love it, even our abbreviated version.
