Pirates of the Caribbean (theme park ride) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Pirates of the Caribbean is a dark ride at the Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris theme parks. The last attraction of which Walt Disney himself participated in the design, it is one of the most popular and well-known Disney attractions. Walt Disney never experienced the finished attraction, as it was opened three months after his death. It is located within the New Orleans Square portion of Disneyland, its facade evoking pre-Civil War-era New Orleans, normally topped by a 31-star United States flag (which would indicate the 1850s). An overhead sign at the boat dock names it for the famous pirate Jean Lafitte (although his name is misspelled Laffitte), who fought alongside the U.S. Army at the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. The second floor of the facade was originally designed to be a private Disney family apartment, and for many years was an art-related retail/museum space called the Disney Gallery. In late 2007 the Disney Gallery was closed, and it has been replaced by the Disney Dream Suite. During the course of the indoor boat ride, guests float through an immersive, larger-than-life pirate adventure featuring gunshots, cannon blasts, and burning buildings, all set to pirates carousing and pillaging while accompanied by "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)" written by George Bruns and Xavier Atencio. Development   Walt Disney uses a maquette to demonstrate the planned action of an Audio-Animatronics pirate, as seen in this screen shot from the "Disneyland 10th Anniversary" episode of the Walt Disney anthology series.Originally envisioned in the late 1950s as a walk-through wax museum featuring pirates from history, the attraction evolved into a boat ride through complex show scenes filled with Audio-Animatronics characters after the 1964 New York World's Fair, which brought about several advances in Disney's theme park technologies. Instead, humorous sketches of fictional pirates by Imagineer Marc Davis inspired the animatronic diorama seen throughout the final attraction. Opening on March 18, 1967, Pirates of the Caribbean was Disneyland's largest Audio-Animatronics project to date and was the last attraction Walt Disney was involved in designing. The ride never was intended to be part of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort because of concerns that it would not be exotic enough due to Florida's geographic proximity to the Caribbean and New Orleans, the settings of the Disneyland attraction. Instead, Imagineers developed plans for a similar attraction called the Western River Expedition, which would have featured cowboys and Indians instead as well as banditos, coyotes, miners, and a climatic drop bigger than Pirates. After many Walt Disney World guests complained about the lack of Disney's celebrated pirate attraction, an abbreviated version opened in Florida on December 15, 1973. At the Magic Kingdom The attraction is housed in a golden Spanish fort called Castillo Del Morro. Inside the Blue Bayou has been replaced by Pirate's Bay and into a short grotto with Davy Jones, dead skeletons, and the hurricane lagoon. Following the plunge down one waterfall the remainder of the ride is identical to Tokyo and California, the only scene missing is the arsenal. Additional Facts Grand opening: December 15, 1973 Audio-Animatronics: 125 65 pirates & villagers 60 animals Number of levels: 2 Upper caverns Main show in basement Total amount of water: 155,000 gallons Drop length: 52' Drop height: 14' Drops: 1 Show length: 8:30 Required ticket: "E" (discontinued) Ride system: Flume The article above is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Pirates of the Carribean (theme park ride)".