Can anyone tell me if the drop in the Pirates of the Carribean ride is less steep?

[Robo]

Great map. I guess I agree that there are indeed two show buildings with the train tracks running between them. No doubt that's the location of the drop.

I don't really think so.

I'm thinking of the size of the ride and that it could all fit into the building on the left.

I can't see where all of the other building would be needed.
The attraction is not that big, and the angles that you turn in your boat don't
match up with going between those two large buildings.

I wish I could find a "track layout" but I can't.

 

[mmcguire]

Maybe it's a collective hallucination! I also thought the drop was less steep when I rode it last year for the first time after the refub. I've ridden it tons of times before (it's my favorite ride), and always almost screamed (ride wimp, I admit it) going down the drop, but not last time.

Oh, and Robo, if nobody has said it today, you are the BEST!

 

[jamesmommy]

Maybe it's a collective hallucination! I also thought the drop was less steep when I rode it last year for the first time after the refub. I've ridden it tons of times before (it's my favorite ride), and always almost screamed (ride wimp, I admit it) going down the drop, but not last time.

Oh, and Robo, if nobody has said it today, you are the BEST!

Maybe. I think it is less steep too (another ride wimp), but had just figured when they did the rehab they did some preventative maintenance and such, and the ride now was smoother.

And as for the last part of this post......ITA!

 

[Pirate at Heart]

My DD11, who is the world's biggest chicken when it comes to rides barely yelped when we went down the drop a few weeks ago. She agrees that the drop is less steep. Myself, I'm thinking there used to be TWO!

 

[Yacht Club Family]

Maybe it has to do more with many riders having been younger/smaller when they rode it before. The proportion between the rider and the slope of the drop would change as someone got taller, heavier, etc. Hm..I didn't really notice a difference from the previous year, but maybe I just didn't remember it correctly.

Thanks for the pic, ROBO!

 

[btuftee]

I've always believed that POTC is located in two buildings, with the drop passing under the train tracks as the connection point. I've seen that information elsewhere on the internet, I don't have firsthand knowledge of course.

Look at the size of the Haunted Mansion show building, and then remember that POTC has much more expansive sets, in places you have probably 20 feet from the boat to the back wall of the sets, maybe more in some spots. The HM show building looks to be roughly the size of the first POTC building, and that doesn't include the indoor queue that POTC has, let alone the much larger sets.

The second POTC building doesn't appear to have large garage doors that you'd expect from a maintenance/utility building, nor do I see any windows. Looks like a show building to me. Also, Disneyland's POTC is constructed with two show buildings separated by the train, with drops to get under the tracks. It would be a weird coincidence to have the same-looking setup at WDW, but in actuality one building is POTC, and one is for utility.

 

[DarkwingDuck1979]

The second building on the right definitely is part of POTC. On the KTTK tour I was on last year my tour guide pointed that specific building out to us and stated it was part of the ride. So there you go.

Anyone know what the drop part of POTC looks like with the lights on?

 

[LoveGoofy91]

Call me crazy, but I seem to remember right after they added on Davey Jones and jack, the drop was missing. There was a very small one with the lights on, just a dip. Then I came back a few months later and the drop was back again but seemed a little less steep than before.

 

[holden]

I thought the drop was less steep too, but I chalked it up to old age. Like when I revisited the hill we used to sled on when I was about 7. It was like a bump on the lawn!

 

[MNWDWMANIAC]

I honestly don't think they changed the hill or track structure for that matter. I know when Walt Disney was working on the whole idea of the POTC ride he was clear that he didn't want people getting wet. They put a lot of effort and work into testing and designing to get the angle just right at DL and avoid splashes. I don't know if the 21 degree angle is the same as they have the drops at DL but I think just the shear labor and research costs that would be needed to adjust a drop that already works as they intended would be a choice Disney would avoid.

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As to the layout compared to using one or two buildings I have to believe just the size of what this ride takes would key us into how much building space would be needed.

These angles show the sides of the second building which don't really have any warehouse doors or access on the ends of the buildings like I would expect to see for parade storage. There is that side of the second building that does have an overhang which seems to be attached to a smaller separate building (maintenance bay?)

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But the buildings just to the NW have clear openings for floats and such and even the southern most part of these buildings seems to have some sort of access that would allow access etc (big doors).

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All arguments aside I think this little shot helps steer me in the right direction... Notice the two little items sitting outside this building in question?....

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I'm not POTC expert but just looking thinking about the overlay of the ride and how it would fit inside this building makes me recall the idea of just how much room this ride takes up. Note.. these are guesses....

I like these kinds of threads

 

[MNWDWMANIAC]

Here is the overlay for the POTC in DL.

 

[MNWDWMANIAC]

Now while in no means to a perfect scale nor taking into account the fact that the layout is slightly different for each park.... (and the fact that you ride back uphill in the boat at DL ) ... here are the two parks compared side by side... MK building area up top and DL with overlay on the bottom.

 

[MNWDWMANIAC]

Again just guessing but if the maintenance bay was somewhere in this outside track as it is in the DL version that would make sense. Towards the end of the ride I recall seeing access ways in the channel for boats to move off the main river into what I would think was the maintenance bay.

Of course we have to keep in mind that the ride time for these two rides are different too which leads me to wonder how much the ride size compares to the amount of space needed.

None of this info is confirmed as fact as I only gathered it from various sources stating the same information

DL show time: 16:30
MK show time: 8:30

DL has 3 levels: Blue Bayou, Upper caverns and Main show.
MK only has 2: Upper caverns and the Main show.

DL has 2 drops and 1 lift.
MK has 1 drop and we don't get to see the lift.

DL has 750,000 gallons of water.
The MK has 155,000 gallons of water.

 

[My Gal Minnie]

I've been to WDW many times and on POTC ride dozens of times and I only thought the drop wasn't as steep only after the refurbishment. So I don't think it has to do with thinking it was bigger as a child. But again it could be that I'm wrong. But the information that I am getting on this thread is great I didn't realize so much about the technical side of the ride. Very interesting. Thanks.

 

[wdwfreeksince88]

Again just guessing but if the maintenance bay was somewhere in this outside track as it is in the DL version that would make sense. Towards the end of the ride I recall seeing access ways in the channel for boats to move off the main river into what I would think was the maintenance bay.

Of course we have to keep in mind that the ride time for these two rides are different too which leads me to wonder how much the ride size compares to the amount of space needed.

None of this info is confirmed as fact as I only gathered it from various sources stating the same information

DL show time: 16:30
MK show time: 8:30

DL has 3 levels: Blue Bayou, Upper caverns and Main show.
MK only has 2: Upper caverns and the Main show.

DL has 2 drops and 1 lift.
MK has 1 drop and we don't get to see the lift.

DL has 750,000 gallons of water.
The MK has 155,000 gallons of water.

You say in the mk you don't get to see the lift but in a way you do. you ride a conveyor belt back up on your exit from the attraction

 

[MNWDWMANIAC]

You say in the mk you don't get to see the lift but in a way you do. you ride a conveyor belt back up on your exit from the attraction

I'm not referring to seeing the "lift" in elevation. I'm referring to the actual device (Boat lift) that brings the boats back up to ground level. In the DL version of POTC you are in the boats when they go back up to the level you started on. In the MK you get out of the boat prior to them returning to the main level hence the reason you are on the conveyor. So you don't ever see the lift.

In the context of that post, not being in the boat during it's return to the upper level would contribute to a shorter ride time in comparison to the ride time in DL.

 

[btuftee]

I've read elsewhere that after the drop, both DL and WDW have the same show scenes. If you look at the overlay of DL, you can see how it could fit approximately into the second building at WDW, though there is a "bite" taken out of one corner - perhaps the boat storage is taken off differently at WDW?

I am surprised to read above that DL has 750k gallons of water to WDW's 155k gallons, but that could be explained by having shallower pools of water, slightly less water between the boat and show scenes, the extra water in the beginning of the ride by the Blue Bayou, and by having a somewhat longer ride altogether. But WDW's POTC clearly uses both buildings!

 

[MNWDWMANIAC]

Just bumping this in the hopes someone might have something more to add. All the digging I've done and I can't seem to find to much more on it. I know last year I ran across actual 3D renderings of both buildings but I can't seem to find those anywhere now.

 

[goofyernmost]

Believe me when I tell you that I wouldn't usually question anything that Robo tells us, however, I believe that both those buildings are part of POTC. I also took the Keys tour and was told that it was. Looking at it, it makes sense. The first building has the Q and the first part of the ride, the drop goes under that track into the second building and the unloading would be in the transition area between the two buildings. One has a downhill drop and the other has an uphill pull for the boats. Neither one is very steep. The drop may be a little steeper with the unload more gradual. There might be a steeper uphill beyond the unloading area but we wouldn't know that because we have to get off before that happens.

As for the original observation...no, I don't believe that the drop is any more or any less then the original. The DL drop is divided into two separate events, but the WDW one is pretty minor.

 

[Gotta Love Eeyore]

This has to be one of my favorite threads!