I do feel sorry for all the visitors who don’t remember the park before the year 2000 as the park was so much different. Pirate adventure I went on this in July or August 1990 and the queue was outside the main entrance all day. I went on this 3 years before I went on Disney Worlds version and to it got its Pirate of the Caribbean movie make over pirate adventure in its 1st 10 years was on par with it.
Can’t believe it’s been 10 years since I was rode it.
Agreed. I've never been to the park those years prior since i wasn't even born then, but looking at videos online, there is a stark difference to the park currently, especially in Pirates.
The park back then seemed to value theming and quality more so than the park does currently. Excalibur looked great in its first few years with the fake market stalls near the entrance and the funky medieval parody-like music.
On Pirates, it looked great in its early years with what
Dan Has shown us on this thread a while back. I might have to agree with
Themeparksandy1981 that it did rival Disneyland Paris' Pirates of the Caribbean when it was still relatively new and properly looked after. Sure it was heavily inspired by it, but it was never a 1 on 1 copy. It had its own style, music, tone, and set pieces that were different from Disneys, like the Tavern, the Band playing in the hut, the blacksmith, the iconic woman hitting the man with the broom, etc. Heck, even the queue was quite different. Instead of a cave or a dungeon, it started off as what seemed like a supply room with sails, flags, ammunition and cannons stocked everywhere, there were even figures in the queue, the pirate reading the manual and the drunk pirate sleeping in the haddock above us. Then there was the upstairs part of the queue with the blue brickwork and the many doors and windows with retail signage above them, as well as the flickering lanterns.
What I think made Pirate Adventure stick out from the rest of the other non Disney Pirate boat rides was its music, same with Los Pirates, which was coincidently made by the same people who made Pirate Adventure. It never tried to copy Pirates of The Caribbeans music or sound similar (from what I can remember anyway). While other Pirate rides mostly went for the heavily orchestral/cinematic type of music, Pirates stayed quite simple yet was still well made and memorable. Everyone remembers the chanting in the first scene before the drop. Not every piece of music needs to be on Hollywood levels in terms of awesomeness and as grand. Sometimes, simplicity is just as effective.
