March 18 - Pirates of the Caribbean

Image copyright Disney

On this day, in 1967, the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction began operating in the New Orleans Square area of Disneyland. Opening three months and three days after his passing, Pirates is the last ride that Walt Disney himself had a hand in designing (While Walt was integral to the concept of The Haunted Mansion, which opened two years later, that ride was almost completely redesigned after his death). On the original coming soon map of New Orleans square, Pirates was listed as a walk through wax museum attraction. After the huge success of It's a Small World at the 1964 World's Fair, it was decided to use the same boat system to carry guests through the Caribbean and to incorporate Audio Animatronics instead of wax figures.

Image copyright Disney

When Walt Disney World was being planned, it was decided that Pirates would not be one of the attractions that was replicated from Disneyland. Why? Because Florida already had a rich culture of real pirates, no one would want any fake pirates, right? Wrong. When the Magic Kingdom opened in October 1971, one of the biggest complaints from guests was the lack of a Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Disney had to then scramble to put one together. It wasn't until December 1973 that the Florida version opened. While it has a lot of similarities, it isn't the same ride. Version two is several minutes shorter and doesn't have the thrilling drops that version one has (it can't because of the high water tables in the Sunshine State), but it remains one of the most popular and treasured rides in the park. As the Disney empire expanded worldwide, executives did not repeat their 1971 mistake. There is a version of Pirates in Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Shanghai Disneyland.

Image copyright Disney

Pirates is a fairly unique attraction in the Disney family. There are plenty of rides that are based on movies in the parks, but Pirates is a ride that spawned not only a movie but a whole franchise (and while it's fine to mention Tower of Terror here, please don't embarrass yourself by bringing up the Haunted Mansion). While there are plenty of homages to the attraction in the original film, no one really knew how big the series would become. As the world of Pirates expanded and new characters and situations became beloved, it was increasingly obvious that the ride was out of synch with the new reality. So the ride that inspired a movie was in turn inspired by the movie and changed itself. In 2006, Animatronics of Jack Sparrow, a character created for the movie, were added into the California and Florida versions. Paris got Jack, as well as a Captain Barbossa figure, in 2017.

Image copyright Disney

Other modifications to the attraction have been made over the years to make it more politically correct. While those changes aren't historically accurate, they are entertaining and that's really what the ride is all about. X Atencio, one of the attractions original developers and the man who wrote its theme song, A Pirates Life for Me, once groused that his attraction was being turned into The Boy Scouts of the Caribbean, but I think that was just because no one likes to see their work changed (even if it no longer belongs to you once you've released it into the world). In spite of (or just as likely because of) all the changes Pirates of the Caribbean has gone through over the last four decades, it remains a must see in my book (and based on its wait times, millions of other books as well).