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    Pirates Cove, Disneyland Paris
  Pirates of the Caribbean ka
 

Opening in 1967, Pirates of the Caribbean was Disneyland's largest audio-animatronics project to date and was the last attraction that Walt Disney was involved in designing. It was originally envisioned in the late 1950s as a walk-through “pirate museum” but Disney’s advances in theme park technologies made it possible to transform the attraction into a boat ride filled with complex show scenes of audio-animatronic pirates sacking a Caribbean seaport. The attraction is one of the most famous and best-loved theme park rides of all time and inspired the highly successful trio of films with the same name.

The ride, which lasts over fourteen minutes, begins with guests boarding small boats and floating amid glimmering fireflies and rickety houseboats through a quaint Louisiana Bayou. The dreamy atmosphere is shattered when guests plunge down two waterfalls and enter an underground grotto, where the skeletal remains of a band of pirates guard their treasure. They glide through a haunted pirate ship tossing in a storm and come upon a fierce battle between a pirate galleon and a Caribbean fortress. There is scene after scene of skullduggery and pandemonium culminating in a raging fire in an ammunition warehouse. Finally, Captain Jack Sparrow is seen in his room of hidden treasure as the boats are lifted to dry land.

MLA was engaged as part of Disney’s upgrade of the audio and acoustics of their theme park attractions to work on the interior acoustics of the ride buildings at Pirates. Part of this effort was to develop absorptive materials which could be effective in a humid environment while not detracting from the show elements. We also contributed to the design of the AA figures to make them quieter and less intrusive.