Shanghai Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean to be Amazing

[cbconglom]

screamscape-

Park News
- (5/21/12) Remember that last rumor about the all new version of
Pirates of the Caribbean being planned for Shanghai Disneyland? You
know… the one where they would use of magnetic LIMs underwater to not
only control the speed of the boats, but give them the ability to make
the boats move backwards as if pushed by an otherworldly force?
Well, that rumor just took another big step towards reality this week, with the discovery of a new Disney technology patent
filed just last year for an “Amusement Park Ride With
Underwater-Controlled Boats”. According to the patent, the technology
would allow for “a boat ride with precise speed and orientation
control.” The technology gets even more interesting than I had imagined,
as describes the boats having two independent bogies (front and back)
that are “operable to independently propel, with linear motors, the
front and rear bogies at the same or differing first and second
velocities by applying a magnetic force to reaction plates on the
bogies. The track assembly includes a joined section and a divided
section, which includes a primary track on which the front bogie travels
and a secondary track, spaced apart from the primary track, on which
the rear bogie travels. The boat may be rotated to any orientation in
the divided track section.”
Translation: Not only can the boats
move forward and back, but the back of the boat will be on a second
“track”, allowing for the back to speed up faster than the front, thus
spinning the boat AROUND. Even better… the patent exposes another
interesting use for this technology on the 4th page where it shows the
boat turning sideways to rotate around a central “show scene” like the
hands on a clock. If this looks familiar, this very same concept was
used in a few rides at Epcot, such as the original Journey Into
Imagination dark ride (where you were introduced to Dreamfinder) and is
still in use today at the summit of Spaceship Earth where all the cars
rotate to view the projection on the domed ceiling.
This
actually ties into another common and generally assumed fact… that this
new version of Pirates will be themed entirely to the film series and
not themed around the concepts and scenes from the previous rides. The
Chinese culture was not raised over the last few decades to have a
general knowledge of what to expect from Disney’s Pirates of the
Caribbean rides, but is aware of the new feature film series. This
brings to light another popular rumor claiming that this new version of
the ride may heavily favor projection based show scenes rather than rely
on animatronics. After all, why spend the money to make a Captain Jack
animatronic figure try to lip sync to a soundtrack when you can just
film Johnny Depp himself performing as Captain Jack?
While this
new concept is not the same as the more action oriented flume ride
version envisioned for Hong Kong Disneyland, I’m hearing that they may
opt to keep the same iconic finale scene, which would involve an outdoor
Splash Mountain style plunge, with the boats exiting out of the mouth
of “Skull Rock” and plunging down through the wreckage of a doomed
pirate ship impaled upon the rocky shoreline (standing in for the same
visual effect as the Briar Patch on Splash Mountain.) Sounds wonderful,
doesn’t it? Now how can we get one of these here in the US somehow?

[mratigan]

Can't wait

[gonzabar77]

It sounds great. I'm waiting for some draws or renders. I can wait to see how it will look like.

[mratigan]

I was talking to an imagineer for it and was saying you it will be like Indy (EMV)and the boats together

[CupcakeTerror]

So very excited to see the news releases and photos of construction. This project is going to prove to be the place where new and fun technologies will be explored!