We got to ride twice last night. Awe were at HOB for Nina Hagen and decided to hit the park at 11:27 pm. Pirates was nearly a walk on the first time and, at 11:56, was definately a walk on. We took advantage.

My thoughts? Eh. Some good, some bad. ISM's going to hate it.

The first Sparrow animatronic is simply amazing. I'd do him. The others, not so much, and I actually HATE the Barbosa. Plus, the whole set- up there doesn't make sense to me. He's attacking the mainland to find Sparrow and the islanders are protecting him? Maybe I'm missing something.

The sound is great but the new soundtrack bugs me. It's so clean and clear some of the mystery and atomsphere is taken away. The new Davy Jones effect is pretty darned cool though.

Maybe I just miss my old familiar Pirates, but the new ride sort of made me sad. I wasn't expecting to have this reaction at all. I figured I'd be rolling with the changes just fine.

Interesting, my experience was just the opposite. I expected the ride to be butchered and figured I would be depressed afterwards. Instead, I thought it was quite tasteful and didn't feel that the original had been compromised enough to bother me.

I would say that Barbarrosa was the only change that I wasn't pleased with. I thought that the soundtrack, while definitely different, worked well.

But yeah, iSm will probably be livid. ;)

Remember, iSm didn't like "Black Pearl" the first time he saw it. :p

Yes, I WILL hold that over his head forever

I felt the same emotions MBC did, pretty much.

I need to ride it some more. Although for the most part I walked away feeling relatively appeased with a tinge of nostalgic diappointment, I'm a bit worried that the "looking for Johnny" syndrome and over-done soundtrack has removed some of the relax-factor from the ride. Only time will tell if that feeling returns once the newness wears off.

OK...I risked it with the Tiki room, so now I'm really risking it.....

Pirates is OK, but eternally repeatable? How many times does one need to see the same treasure filled room or ghostly skeleton at the wheel of a battered ship or wench bride auction or whatever? I don't get it. Once a trip does it for me, and I wasn't heart broken that it was closed while I was there.

I bet you don't know how many bottles of rum are offered for the buxom wench. I bet you're unaware that there's a small row boat tied to the rear of the ship in the battle scene. Have you ever noticed just how detailed and impressive the autcioneer AA is?

I don't mention these to "out geek" you. Just demonstrating that there's a lot to that ride. Detailed to an amazing degree. Something new to look at every time, not to mention 15-20 minutes of relaxation.

You don't have to try to out geek me, GD. As another thread has already demonstrated, you are twice the geek I am.

I admit to not being a Disney Geek. But I like Disneyland not so much for the attractions. Atmosphere. Watching my kids enjoy it. Typically top notch customer service. The attractions? Enjoyable, most certainly. There are two I consider to be highly repeatable, and those are for far different reasons, and I'm sure one of them would cause conniption fits among the Disney Geeks here.

As far as the detail, yeah, cool. Bu an audioanimatronic figure is pretty much the same every time I look at it. Cool, yeah, but how many times do I need to look at it?

...and glorious air-contitioning!

I'm still on the fence, I liked some of the new additions, but the new soundtrack bother's me in places. The Barbossa animatronic's voice just doesn't do it for me. There seems to be a lot less Paul Frees in the ride, and I miss that. Also, the inclusion of the movie soundtrack doesn't work for me as well - it's kind of "there" in places but doesn't really set the mood for me. This could all be nostalgic sentimentality on my part - but I'll have to ride it a few more times to get comfortable to this one.

Agreed on all those points, €. On the one hand, I was glad that at least they kept a good chunk of the battle spiel...but I was very underwhelmed by the performance it was given. The energy is just gone from it.

I thought the movie soundtrack worked in the first scene, after the second drop. But in the battle sequence, it just produced cacophany and an unnecessary chaos.

Bah, I'm talking myself into hating it. Gotta ride it again.