Disney has five versions of its Pirates of the Caribbean ride in its theme parks around the world. So which one is the best?
This question is pretty easy for many dedicated theme park fans. Year after year since it opened, Shanghai Disneyland's version has placed highest in our annual survey of Theme Park Insider readers. But Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure tells a different story than the other four Disney Pirates rides.
The original Pirates of the Caribbean opened in Disneyland's New Orleans Square in 1967. An abbreviated version of the ride opened at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in 1973, with a near-identical copy of the Disneyland original opening with Tokyo Disneyland a decade later. In 1992, Pirates came to Europe with the debut of EuroDisneyland, now Disneyland Paris.
But when Disney opened Shanghai Disneyland in 2016, it based that park's Pirates ride not on the previous versions, but on the wildly popular film series that the rides had inspired. Disney has added Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow into its Pirates rides in the U.S. and Paris after the films debuted, but in China, it based it the entire story around Sparrow - utilizing new ride and show systems to do it.
The result is one of the finest theme park rides in the world.
So which Pirates comes second? It's tempting for me to consider the Paris installation for that honor. The Paris version of Pirates flips the script from the Anaheim original, portraying the story in a more linear fashion as opposed to the "flashback" that I (and other fans) have read into the Disneyland narrative. But I suspect that the main reason why I am drawn by the Paris version is my familiarity with the California one.
Anaheim's Disneyland is my home park these days, and I go on its Pirates nearly every time I visit. To me, therefore, the Paris version is fresher... and more compelling. But I recognize that I should not penalize Anaheim just because I have ridden it more often. If anything, as the original that inspired this enduring franchise, the Anaheim version should get extra credit for its longevity, not a demerit. So let's give Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean the silver medal.
Disneyland Paris can take the bronze and complete the podium.
I mentioned above that Tokyo Disneyland's version is nearly identical to Disneyland's. So why would it not tie with Anaheim? The only substantial difference between the two is that Tokyo - like Orlando - exits riders before the lift that returns the boats to the load level.
In Anaheim, the show building for most of the Pirates ride is located outside the berm for the Disneyland Railroad, necessitating a drop in the ride for the boats to get under the train tracks. In both Anaheim and Paris, Pirates exits its riders at the loading platform by bringing riders up a lift during the ride. But Tokyo and Orlando exits its riders before that lift, making them travel up a moving sidewalk ramp to return to park level.
Paris places its lift in the middle of the ride, but Anaheim's is at the end. That makes it feel like a "return to consciousness" for me that the Orlando version lacks with its abrupt conclusion. So I prefer Anaheim to Tokyo for that reason. But there's another reason that I prefer Anaheim now, as well.
Tokyo has not installed the new Auction and Chase scenes found in the other three iterations of the original Pirates ride. The Redhead is still getting sold into slavery in Tokyo, and the Pirates are still chasing the women. While many fans have said that they prefer the original depiction of "lust" among the seven deadly sins portrayed in the ride, I find the Tokyo version cringey now after seeing the rather nifty "promotion" to pirate that Red enjoys in the U.S. and France. So I score Tokyo as fourth in this ranking of Disney Pirates rides.
That leaves Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom to claim fifth place. Typing that makes me wince, as Orlando's was the version where I worked. Located in the world's most-visited theme park, the WDW Pirates likely is the one that more people have seen than any other around the world. So it hurts a bit to consider that this is actually the weakest of Disney's Pirates rides.
But it is. Missing several scenes from the others, and with that abrupt ending, Walt Disney World's Pirates is an appetizer for the main course served in the other Pirates rides. If you are a Pirates of the Caribbean fan who only has been to Walt Disney World, consider this my pitch for you to consider a trip to one of the other Disney theme parks to enjoy a superior version of this classic Disney theme park attraction.
Just don't bother with Hong Kong Disneyland. Walt Disney World might come fifth here, but it's Hong Kong that scores last, as it is the only Disney theme park resort without a Pirates of the Caribbean ride. But Hong Kong Disneyland fans can take comfort in that park scoring well with some of the other classic Disney rides that I will be examining this month.
Next up? Let's talk haunted houses, er, mansions.
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The Shanghai version looks amazing. Interesting to think that initially the Chinese Government censors banned the movie.