In honor of the opening of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, it’s Pirate Week at Babes in Disneyland. Sail on over and drop anchor to see what treasures await ye. Argh!!

While I’m not likely to run out to the theater to see this new movie, I’ll be very interested to watch it as soon as it becomes available on DVD. It looks fantastically exciting and I do love me some Captain Jack!

My post is about the ride that inspired the movies…that inspired the ride.

I first encountered the Pirates at Walt Disney World back in late 1975. I was there with my family on our first real vacation. At twelve, I was the oldest of four daughters (parents added a fifth in 1976).

I can honestly say we were bowled over by the pirate animatronics. They were nothing short of amazing for that time period. I remember how we were all so impressed we couldn’t stop talking about it.

I’m still really fascinated actually and I catch myself staring closely to see if perhaps there’s a live pirate filling in…spying on us. The details are amazing…right down to the hair on their dirty swinging legs.

The attraction left a lasting impression on me and this is part of the reason that it’s often our first adventure when we visit the Magic Kingdom.

I don’t have any great POTC photos (no flash photography on this ride folks!)…so I’m sharing a short video of me and my daughter after her first pirate adventure. She’s only six months old in the clip…(she’s almost seven now). She really seemed to like it.