Report: Pirates of the Caribbean Special Event
Page 16 of 20

30th Anniversary Plaque

O'Day: In 1997 there was a big 30th anniversary celebration for the Pirates here, which I believe everyone here attended. It was also during this time that the Pirate attraction underwent its most extensive and elaborate rehab.

(Harpsichord plays Yo Ho At this point a wench runs around the stage being chased by a Pirate as the audience laughs and cheers. As she returns to the front of the stage she gets a loaf of bread and circles again as the audience boos)

 
A recreation of the old pirate chasing woman scene ...

... turns into a recreation of the current pirate chases woman with food scene
as Bob Baranick hides from the boos.

O'Day: Well let's chat about this. The attraction is 30 years old and is in need of technological advancements and little nuances so tell us about this rehab that occurred?

Bob Baranick: Well I would say one of the biggest surprises to me during the course of the rehab was the fact it became such a media event. Swear to God (raises right hand) we didn’t start it as a political correct Pirates of the Caribbean. But somebody got hold of that and because we were coincidentally working in the chase we thought that was the scene where some of these gags would work real well and as mentioned earlier we borrowed some figures from World of Motion in Epcot and they were perfect fits and it allowed to create some of those elements that Marc had always wanted to put into the show. And one of my favorite ones is actually the leaking barrel of rum, which was originally, I believe, was designed to go across the river from the auction scene. And our guys at WDI came up with a great little effect that I think is really marvelous that shows the rum stream coming out of the barrel. So that was a natural to go in that scene. So we were able, what was very exciting for me, was to pull one of the figures from the very end of the ride and put him up on top wiggling back and forth on the barrel, and that allowed us to come up with a whole new tag to the show with the pirates that are too greedy pulling the treasure bag, that will never succeed because right behind them is the omen of dead men tell no tales and it’s a nice little tag to the ride.

O'Day: But also didn’t you bring back some of the nuances that had been lost throughout the years back to the attraction. Tell us about that Kim?

Kim Irvine-Alison: Well I think, that although this was the most extensive modification we’ve made through the years the Design Studio has slowly been adding more and more things, enhancements to the ride, to Walt’s word that the attraction would always be improving and things would be added to it. We’ve added fiber optics and special effects to the treasure scene through the years. The pirate map, treasure chest and obnoxious parrot in the beginning - the opening scene there. And so it has been important to us to continue to try to add things as technology brings us new things.