A recent incident at Magic Kingdom Park left dozens of guests stuck on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride for nearly an hour. The attraction suddenly stopped, and riders found themselves waiting as cast members scrambled to evacuate everyone safely.
Pirates of the Caribbean has long been a beloved, yet sometimes controversial, fixture at both Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort. Over the years, the ride has seen updates including the addition of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) animatronics and significant changes to the bride auction scene. The formerly objectified female animatronics have been reimagined as strong, independent pirates.
The ride’s evolving content has generated debate. Some Disney Park guests feel the changes sanitize the darker history of piracy, while others argue more updates are needed. A viral video from 2023 showed a guest expressing discomfort with the male pirate animatronics’ leering gaze, describing the ride as “a little bit rapey.” This sparked a broader conversation among female Disney fans, with some sharing similar feelings of unease, saying they felt like “the entertainment for them” and describing the pirates’ stares as “violating.”
On May 21, Reddit user u/Brandodude shared photos from the incident where guests were trapped on the ride. To ease the situation, Disney cast members eventually turned on the overhead lights and powered down the animatronics.
When evacuation became necessary, cast members entered the water wearing waders and carefully moved the boats backward to a safe exit point. Guests were escorted through backstage areas before returning to Adventureland.
“Saw a cool deer next to the raggedy porta potties out back,” the guest wrote.
As a gesture of goodwill, evacuated guests received two Lightning Lane passes each. While these passes didn’t grant access to the park’s most popular rides, like TRON Lightcycle / Run or Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, the guest described the experience positively: “It was cool to experience, I enjoyed. Always wanted to. Makes me want to take a tour! We got two fast passes for the trouble but mediocre ones not even for tron or space mountain or tianas.”
Walt Disney World Resort has not released a formal statement about the cause of the shutdown, but Pirates of the Caribbean was back up and running normally as of this article’s publication.
Do you think Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort should further modernize the Pirates of the Caribbean ride? Let Disney Fanatic know in the comments!
