Disneyland Park · New Orleans Square
Pirates of the Caribbean
The original 1967 version and still the best: fifteen minutes of bayou, caverns, and a burning town, roughly twice the length of Florida's.
Ride facts
- Type
- Boat ride
- Height
- Any height
- Intensity
- Gentle
- Motion sickness
- Low motion risk
- Getting wet
- You may get splashed
- Indoor / outdoor
- Indoor
- Air conditioned
- Yes
- Rider Switch
- Not offered
Last verified July 2026
What it is
Pirates of the Caribbean was the last attraction Walt Disney personally worked on, opening in March 1967, three months after his death. The Disneyland version is the long one — around fifteen minutes against roughly eight and a half at Magic Kingdom — and the extra time is not padding. It buys you the Blue Bayou stretch at the start, a second drop, and a longer, better-developed sequence in the burning town.
The ride was built into a show building outside the berm, under the Disneyland Railroad tracks, which is why it starts by taking you downhill. That engineering decision is why New Orleans Square smells like a restaurant and a swamp at the same time and why the queue is where it is.
Scenes have changed over the decades — most visibly the 2018 rework of the auction sequence and the addition of characters from the film series in the 2000s — but the bones are 1967 and the animatronic staging in the battle scene remains among the best work Disney has ever done in the medium.
What riding it is actually like
The queue winds along a covered walkway and down into a stone-walled hold. You board a flat-bottomed boat and drift out into the Blue Bayou: fireflies, a distant banjo, a shack on stilts, and the Blue Bayou Restaurant's diners eating twenty feet to your left in a permanent artificial dusk. This opening is the single most atmospheric two minutes in either American Disney park.
Then a talking skull warns you off, and you take two short drops in the dark into the caverns. What follows is a skeleton crew, a treasure grotto, and then the set piece: a full-scale galleon exchanging cannon fire with a fort across the water, both sides animated, water bursting where the shots land. The town sequence follows — a well dunking, a chase, and a burning building with heat you can feel on your face.
The end is an uphill conveyor back to the load area, which is why you finish at the same level you started. Sit on the left side of the boat for the better view into the Blue Bayou at the start and the better angle on the galleon; the right side gets a slightly better look at the jail scene near the end. Neither side is bad.
Is Pirates of the Caribbean scary?
Two short drops in the dark, a grotto full of skeletons, and a battle sequence with cannon fire and real heat effects. Children under five who dislike darkness struggle with the opening ten minutes; the drops themselves are small and taken slowly. The talking skull before the first drop is the moment most often cited by parents as the tipping point.
Scores are editorial, on a 1–5 scale, judged against what frightens a typical four- to seven-year-old rather than an adult.
Accessibility
- Wheelchair
- Must transfer to the ride vehicle
- Audio description
- Available
- Handheld captioning
- Not offered
- Assistive listening
- Available
- Sign language
- Not offered
- Service animals
- Must use a kennel or wait with a companion
You step down into a boat on a moving belt; cast members can stop the belt on request. The boats sit low and the step down is significant. Service animals are not permitted, and there is a kennel-style relief area near the front of the park.
Tips that actually help
- Sit on the left for the best view of the Blue Bayou and the ship battle. Front row gets the most spray on the drops.
- You will get lightly damp, mostly from the drops. It is never enough to need a poncho, but a phone in an open shirt pocket is a bad idea.
- The queue is fully shaded and partly indoors — a genuinely comfortable place to wait, unlike most of the park in summer.
- Eating at the Blue Bayou puts you inside the ride's opening scene. It is expensive and the food is fine rather than great, but the room is unmatched and reservations open sixty days out.
- Waits fall off sharply after the fireworks let out. The last hour of the night is the best time to ride, and the boats keep loading until the park closes.
- If your child is nervous, the scary part is the front half — caves and skeletons in the dark. The back half is bright, loud, and much less upsetting.
Timing
- Best time to ride
- The last hour before closing, or during the daytime parade. Avoid the block right after the fireworks when everyone floods New Orleans Square.
- Typical wait
- 25 to 50 minutes midday; often 10 to 20 late at night. It loads fast, so a long-looking line moves.
- Lightning Lane
- Lightning Lane Multi Pass
Pirates of the Caribbean: common questions
Is Pirates of the Caribbean scary for kids?
The first half can be. It is dark, there are skeletons at close range, there is a talking skull that warns you off, and two drops happen with no visual warning. The second half — the town, the fire, the jail — is bright and comic and rarely bothers anyone. Most parents report children under five being uneasy for the opening five minutes and fine afterward.
How big are the drops?
Small. Two short, gentle plunges of a few feet each, taken at low speed in the dark. They produce a splash and a brief stomach drop, nothing like a log flume. Children who cannot handle Big Thunder are usually fine with these.
Is Disneyland's Pirates better than the one at Magic Kingdom?
Yes, and it is not particularly close. Disneyland's runs about fifteen minutes to Florida's eight and a half, includes the Blue Bayou opening and a second drop, and has a substantially more developed burning-town sequence. If you have only ridden the Florida version, ride this one.
Do you get wet on Pirates?
Lightly. Spray from the two drops reaches the front rows most, and there is occasional splash during the cannon battle. You will be dry in ten minutes and nobody wears a poncho for this.
Can I eat at the Blue Bayou without riding?
Yes — the restaurant has its own entrance in New Orleans Square and no ride is involved. Reservations are effectively required and open sixty days ahead. You are paying for the room, which is dark, cool, and looks out on the ride's opening scene all day long.