Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest - 2006

Pirates of the Caribbean is a dark ride at Disneyland, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Park at Disneyland Paris.

The ride tells the story of a band of pirates in the West Indies islands around the Caribbean Sea in the 17th and 18th centuries with the saga of their voyages, troubles, and exploits. The original version of the ride opened at the Disneyland in Anaheim, California, near Los Angeles, in 1967, and was the last ride whose construction was envisioned and personally overseen by Walt Disney, who died three months before it opened. After immense popularity, the ride was replicated six years later at the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World, near Orlando, Florida in 1973. Versions followed at Tokyo Disneyland in 1983, and at Disneyland Paris in 1992. Each of the initial four versions of the ride has a different façade but a similar ride experience.

The Pirates of the Caribbean ride gave rise to the song "A Pirate's Life for Me" written by George Bruns and Xavier Atencio. The ride became the basis for the Pirates of the Caribbean film series, which debuted in 2003. Since 2006, Disney has incorporated characters (most notably Jack Sparrow and Hector Barbossa) from the film series into the Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris versions of the ride. A different ride influenced by visitors' familiarity with the worldwide success of the feature film series, Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure, opened at the Shanghai Disneyland Park in 2016.

Pirates of the Caribbean is a show taking place in the Golden Age of Piracy. While the timeframe is unconfirmed, tne Vacationland magazine said the ride plunges into the 17th-century,[1] while Jason Surrell's book suggested the ride enters the late 1700s.[2]

Opening on March 18, 1967, the Disneyland version of Pirates of the Caribbean was the last ride that Walt Disney himself participated in designing, debuting three months after his death.[3] It is located within the New Orleans Square portion of Disneyland, its facade evoking antebellum era New Orleans, topped by a 31-star United States flag (which would indicate the 1850s).[citation needed] It was originally envisioned as a walk-through wax museum,[4] but with the success of the boat ride concept of It's a Small World at the 1964 New York World's Fair, Disney decided to employ the same ride system on the Pirates of the Caribbean.[5] The ornate initials of Walt Disney and Roy Disney (W.D. and R.D.) can be seen entwined in the wrought iron railings above the ride's entrance at Disneyland. An overhead sign at the boat dock names it for the famous pirate Jean Lafitte (although his name is spelled Laffite as the pirate himself originally spelled it, rather than with the English spelling which has now become standard), who fought alongside the U.S. Army at the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812.[6] The second floor of the facade was originally designed to be a private Disney family apartment, but was later opened in spring 1987 as an art-related retail/museum space called the Disney Gallery and was replaced in late 2007 by the Disneyland Dream Suite.[7]

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