Flooded POTC boats

[To_Infinity_And_Beyond]

To echo the comments of many other posters, the front row will get you soaked. The water also tends to end up in the bottom boat making it impossible to put your bags on the floor. Hopefully Disney will come up with a permanent solution soon!

 

[sharona]

I am currently on the ride and we're stuck for the second time. Also we are in the 5th row in about 2inch deep water. I honestly thought some of this was exaggerated until I've experienced it first hand.

Ugh, sorry you got stuck. At least it wasn't at midnight!!!!!

 

[labattblue]

Rode PoTC several times earlier this week while there. Did not chance it and always asked to sit in back, but did not notice any boats with standing water in them, or people in front row getting soaked. Maybe problem has been addressed, or I just didn't witness it first hand.

 

[Angel Ariel]

They did a refurb, and that refurb involved "fixing" the drop to be more gentle, and lighter boats. That combined with cramming too many people in the boats during busy times has had the unintended side effect of people in the front row getting soaked, and the boats listing to one side or the other...

They did do a refurb over the summer, but I thought it's been discussed here that they did NOT actually change the drop?

 

[Ursula's Apprentice]

They did do a refurb over the summer, but I thought it's been discussed here that they did NOT actually change the drop?

I was under the impression they did. Pretty sure Disney said as much on the blog. I could be wrong tho...

 

[Angel Ariel]

I was under the impression they did. Pretty sure Disney said as much on the blog. I could be wrong tho...

If this is the blog you're referring to, the one when they reopened the attraction, I don't see anything about the drop..

In addition to the restoration work and new paint inside the attraction, we added some enhanced special effects, including new cannons with water-based smoke and strobes for weather effects. There are also a handful of new scents to experience at different areas of the attraction.

We also took the opportunity to enhance the Audio Animatronic figures in this fan-favorite attraction at Magic Kingdom Park. Each character was rebuilt and fitted with new costumes and now appear even more realistic and authentic, including Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbossa.

You can now experience the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction – with added magic – for yourself at the Walt Disney World Resort. Do you remember the first time you rode Pirates? Let us know in the comments section.

Restoration work, as I understood it from discussions here was not anything having to do with the drop.

 

[Wish_upon_a_cat]

Put our ponchos on to ride today (2nd row). Not a drop of water. Nothing in the bottom of the boat either. Then heard someone in another line say they just as wet on PoC today as they did on Splash Mountain. YMMV.

 

[princesskimberella]

Rode twice the week leading up to Christmas, 1st time say in the front row and my whole face was sprayed and water came up over the side on the left and my whole leg and rear got wet. 2nd time sat in the 3rd row and got a little splash from the cannons.

 

[AngiTN]

We rode on the night of 1/2.
I looked at every boat while we were in line, they were bone dry in the bottom. Not no standing water but no water at all. The mat was dry
Not a single person got wet on our tide and no water was ever in the bottom of the boat

 

[larryz]

42 pages later, we're still at "some people get very wet, some people get a little wet, and some people don't get wet at all."

Clearly, not everyone's having the same experience, but it remains that many, many of us have been riding this attraction since it opened (or shortly thereafter) and NEVER got wet beyond a few drops of water until the last major refurb.

But maybe there's light at the end of the tunnel... Let's hope @AngiTN is reporting a watershed (no pun intended) return to the "new" (old) norm.

I'll be there next week -- I'll follow up with a wetness report as well.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Our third trip sincethe latest refurb. Still have not experienced the new "wet" ride. Bone dry everytime for us and everyone else on our boats. Even the floors have been bone dry on this trip.

 

[jo-jo]

I'm surprised there hasn't pictures posted of the soaked people or standing water.

We skipped the ride in Dec. Went to the gift shop to see if we saw any soaked people, we didn't. We saw a few people that looked very splashed, but not soak.

 

[Cruisin Spartan]

We rode the week between Christmas & New Years at the beginning of the day (possibly during AM EMH). They didn't pack the boats, floor was dry when we got on, and we sat in the 2nd row. I suspect that as some others have said, it has something to do with weight distribution and how much they pack the boats. Did anyone ride it later in the day that week? Wet or not?

 

[mickeyluv'r]

We rode POTC just before New Years. We didn't get wet. nobody on our boat was wet, and no water was in our boat, except maybe a few drops from the cannon.

I noticed one of the new scents, but wondered if it was just coincidence.

They did make changes to the drop area, but I don't think they really changed the drop itself. It is more that OLD POTC ("A" version, pre-Johnny Depp) had the skull and crossbones warning of the drop...the middle version ("B" version) was just very dark with no real markers for the drop area other than the ways neighboring guests reacted, and a little pause. I always thought that must have been scary for small kids.

Now the area leading to the drop has some backlighting. They certainly changed the cave walls to make an opening for the lighting. It also seemed to me that the bottom end of the drop had much more light than the "B" version of the ride. I could not tell if they just added lighting, or reworks the cave walls a bit. Probably some of both.

I think the changes are good, without taking away from the ride.

I also noticed a few other small changes.

It was VERY odd to see NO toy GUNS post-ride. I once thought the pink guns were a strange sight...

 

[ougrad86]

We rode Tuesday. The mat was damp, but no standing water. Couldn't tell if the people in front got wet, we sat in the back and were fine. You could see the front part of the boats had water on them, and I did see people from other rides came in and many of them were various degrees of wetness, though not dripping.

 

[lennon2004]

I was concerned about getting wet after reading this thread but my husband and I rode twice last week and we were OK. We did ask to sit in one of the last two rows, but I checked out boats as they went passed and never saw any standing water. Must've been a good day, for some reason!

 

[fishersman]

We rode Tuesday. The mat was damp, but no standing water. Couldn't tell if the people in front got wet, we sat in the back and were fine. You could see the front part of the boats had water on them, and I did see people from other rides came in and many of them were various degrees of wetness, though not dripping.

We were also there Tuesday. A much bigger crowd than we expected. Rode in the 3rd row. My wife's rear got wet when a wave came over the side on the drop. The man behind us got quite wet from the same wave. It was in the dark, so we really didn't see it coming. Not enough came in to get the floor wet tho. I did not see how the front row made out. I did see the man that was behind us talking to a cast member in the store. He was very upset. Hope it's fixed in time for our next trip.

 

[aliceinvunderland]

We rode three times this week, and asked for back rows each time. Twice we boarded boats with completely dry floors and had no problems. On our only evening ride, we requested a back row and the CM told us she wasn't putting kids in the front rows anyway because it was cold outside and she didn't want them getting wet. (I thought that was interesting since it shows that the CMs clearly know of a water issue.) This was also the only time we had water in the bottom of the boat, and the people in the front row definitely got pretty wet. The other rides we took were earlier in the day, so maybe later in the day really does mean the boats are already wetter & heavier...? I also saw one boat absolutely packed with large adults & wondered about their fate.

 

[rteetz]

Rode it on 12/22 and no water in the boat and just a little spray sitting in the front row.

Exactly what I experienced this past week.

 

[rteetz]

They did a refurb, and that refurb involved "fixing" the drop to be more gentle, and lighter boats. That combined with cramming too many people in the boats during busy times has had the unintended side effect of people in the front row getting soaked, and the boats listing to one side or the other...

The refurb did nothing to the drop. The boats came from Disneyland a while ago they were not part of this refurb either. The recent refurb was strictly for fixing the animatronics and ride affects.