Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirate's Life For Me!! (Disneyland Resort Paris - Attraction Pirates of the Caribbean)

Member Name: Whizz11

Product:	Disneyland Resort Paris - Attraction Pirates of the Caribbean
Date:	16/09/09 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great ride, pirate theme, well done

Disadvantages: None

Yo ho yo ho a Pirate's Life for me.

The Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland Paris is probably one of my favourite rides. I have also been to the park in California and been on the ride there too and enjoy it in both places.

I think the main reason why it's such a great ride is because it really has a theme running the whole way through the ride, from queuing up, to the ride itself to the gift shop at the end of the ride. The decorations, the costumes, the music, all of these aspects add to a great pirate experience.

According to an article I read, this was the last attraction in which Walt Disney himself participated in designing. The Paris ride was opened on April 12th 1992, when the park itself opened.

As with any Disneyland ride or attraction the ride itself is quite tame, you will not really find any scary death-defying rollercoasters in the park but in my opinion this just adds to the charm and the magical experience of Disney.

The Pirates ride is a water based ride and you go through the scenes on a boat, very befitting of a pirate theme. The boat is quite a wide long boat and fits I would say about 20 plus people in it. You sit on benches inside the boat and there are no safety restraints as you do not go fast enough for that. The boat moves quite slowly to allow you to see all the attractions around you. It is also an inside ride and is quite dark, adding to the mystery and suspense of being a pirate. It is inside a kind of fortress and you pass shipwrecks, pirates shooting each other, wild animals, flames and pirates locked in battle.
The staff inside the ride you help you onto the boats are brilliant as they really get into the characters. All their costumes are perfect pirate costumes and I think if I worked at Disneyland I would want to work on this ride just so I could wear the pirate costumes.

The song you hear constantly as you go around the ride and that will get into your head is called Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life For Me). It was written in 1967 by George Bruns. Apparently according to an article I read, its origins are loosely derived from Robert Louis Stevenson's sea-shanty "Dead Man's Chest" found in his 1881 novel Treasure Island. It's definitely very fitting to call it a sea-shanty as it has a very catchy tune and lyrics that you will repeat over and over again in your head.
A few statistics about the ride:

* Grand opening: April 12, 1992
* Audio-Animatronics: 119
o 64 humans
o 55 animals
* Drops: 2
* Number of levels: 3
o Blue Lagoon
o Main show on second floor
o caverns (ground level)
* Show length: 10 minutes
* Ride system: Flume

Summary: Pirate's of the Caribbean Ride