SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANNA KNOW PIRATES CHANGES!!!
That being said, this is a brief recap of what I saw today for the cast memeber preview of Pirates!
First off, no can do on the pictures! There were cm's standing around inside the attarction looking for fellow cm's with cams of any sort. Also, they were definitely keeping an eye from above with the 13 infra-red cams throught the attraction as well. Yes, there are 13 infra-red cams, but under normal circumstances, they do not really enforce the no camera rule. Most of the time.
So, now for the few changes:
When you come thru the doors, notice the new map and scene on the lil isle the boats go around. Also, upon boarding, it was much darker than it used to be. Not sure if it was just for cm's and not fully lit or if it will stay that way. The night time scene in the bayou is now purple also, not the deep blue. And being as dark as it was, it's much more difficult to see a lot of the details from the launch to the skull and bones talkiing. Listen also to some dialogue changes.
After the drops, it should be easy to notice minor details, like shiny new swords where the skeles are and such. The noticable change at first to me was the change in music. It's still the same tune, but not the original track.
New treasure is in the treasure room, including the chest from the first pirates movie, with the cursed coins. Then comes the first truly noticable addition/change.
The long dark tunnel with the ghostly voice is still there, but it's not quite so long anymore! Not because they shortened it, but because in the middle of that dark passage they added a mist screen, where a water fall is projected onto it. Cool effect, but not the highlight! Upon a que from the ghostly voice, such as on the part I heard, "Dead men tell no tales!," the ghostly image of Davy Jones appears on the mist screen, saying, "Dead men do tell tales!" It looked great to me! Nice effect!
Next up, the pirate cap't. on the ship is now Barbossa. Pretty noticable change, but also in my opinion, un-neccessary. Another thing that caught my attention were some big ballons, which probably are there for the movie premiere only, but we'll see. I say that only because they were darkened in the background. They also sharpened and relit the shadow fighting pirates on the top left city wall. Looked good.
The dunking scene has a big change if you listen to the new dialogue (again I reitterate lotta new dialogue throughout and easily noticable) and then come upon Cap't. Jack Sparrow hiding/peeking around boxes and stuff. It looks so much like him it's scary! The animation is a lot better on him than the others also, you can tell it's a new animatronic.
Most of the next scenes were about the same, saw another balloon up high and almost hidden, and then you get to the priates chasing/being chased scene. One change for the better in that scene: no more food! The pirates now have loot or are trying to get the loot! Also, no more cat in the barrel with the dog barking, but now the dog barking at , yes you guessed it, a hiding Jack Sparrow, who pops up every now and then to look over the shoulder of the sitting drunk pirate. Again, new dialogue, and he's holding a treasure map.
Minor changes for the next scenes until you get to the end. Gone are the 2 pirates pushing and pulling the bag full of loot where the pirates are shooting at each other. What's there you ask? A new room filled with treasure with Jack again, this time sitting holding some loot and singing drunkenly the main theme, with comments here and there. This animatronic for some reason didn't look quite much like him as the other 2 do. No matter. The animation on him is great!
Well, that about does it I think. I forgot the actual opening for guests, but it's probably this week, or just before the movie comes out. You'll have to make a trip before my blackout days start up in July!
Krudd
MousePlanet had a pretty good review of the updated Pirates attraction at Disneyland, complete with an edited video of the changes.
