Pirates of the Caribbean Disneyland Vs. Disney World


Captain Redd Pirates of the Caribbean Ride

Its time for the next in this series and this time we're going at a classic Walt era attraction. Now I'm going to warn you, this one isn't even close, unlike the last entry in this series Space Mountain. One of these is so clearly the winner that we're going to start by saying which is the better attraction and then spend the rest of the article explaining why.

So which won?

Disneyland

Now if you have ridden both you likely know exactly why it is still the definitive version of the ride over 50 years later, but in case you haven't here's all the reasons it towers over the Disney World version.

First, there are two drops, not just one. It has double the drops because it needed to travel beneath the Disneyland Railroad to reach its main show building. This gave us extra thrills to enjoy as part of this classic attraction

The next reason the Disneyland attraction better than it's Disney World cousin is the Disneyland version features numerous extra scenes that are just missing from the Magic Kingdom. First would be the Bayou scene, featuring the Blue Bayou, a great restaurant with views of the ride. This alone is a major plus on the Disneyland version.

Skeleton Pirate Captain Pirates of the Caribbean Disneyland

Next, you have the lengthened cave scene which serves the dual purpose of building anticipation and providing great vignettes to look at.

Drunk Pirate with Gun Pirates of the Caribbean Disneyland Ride

Then after all of the town scenes, you have an extra scene following the classic prisoners with the dog scene. It features drunk pirates playing with guns surrounded by explosives.

After that, you go up the waterfall and go back to the station.

The only additional scene Disney World has ever had was the mermaid section, but even that has been gradually removed and made just a part of the cave scene due to malfunctioning special effects.

But by far the part that puts Disneylands version of this classic ride ahead of the Magic Kingdom attraction is the cohesive storyline throughout the ride. Disneyland recently confirmed a longstanding fan theory on the storyline of Pirates of the Caribbean, that it tells the life of a pirate in reverse.

Pirates of the Caribbean New Pirate Disneyland 2018

While you are in the caves you travel backward in time, exemplified by the new pirate that transforms from a skeleton back to life before your eyes. Then you see the pirates in their heyday, before seeing their untimely demise in the explosion scene. This storyline, even with multiple changes to the attraction over the years from the addition of Jack Sparrow to the alteration of the bride auction, has been maintained and Disney has even put effort into making sure guests understand it.

Disney World's version of Pirates of the Caribbean was never supposed to exist. It was built quickly after fan backlash and still feels half-finished if you have ever ridden any other version of the ride. The scenes that are there are a lot of fun, but there is so much missing that had it been a part of the ride, could have made the Magic Kingdom's Pirates of the Caribbean on par with the original Disneyland version.

Comments