Here's my review from my book, "The Other Orlando":
If there were Academy Awards for Orlando dinner shows, Pirates Dinner Adventure would have to get the best set award. This cheerful melange of old-time Technicolor pirate movie, Broadway musical, and big top circus unfolds in a fog-shrouded domed arena dominated by a towering and ghostly pirate vessel a-sail on the watery deep (into which not a few of the performers take some spectacular falls).
The fun starts in a large antechamber where a Festival, celebrating the arrival of Princess Anita, welcomes arriving guests with Gypsy fortune tellers, face painting for kids, hors doeuvres, and a cash bar. Theres even a tiny arcade for die-hard video game freaks. The show proper gets under way with the explosive entrance of a band of oddly friendly pirates who kidnap the princess and a comely gypsy wench. For good measure, they shanghai the entire audience, shepherding us to their outlaw realm.
We know these pirates can't be all bad when they announce that they will serve us a sumptuous meal, just to prepare us for the torture, maiming, and certain death that will follow shortly. The meal, served by the pirate crew, is a hearty one. Yellow rice with sliced beef and spicy chicken barbecued to a turn on pirate swords.
Then we settle back for a celebration of swashbuckling derring do on the high seas. In a plot that defies rational explication, we find ourselves caught up in a story that involves crew rivalries, the love of a young pirate lad for a princess, long dead pirates, trampolines, basketball, and would you believe? a circus aerial act. There is also a delightfully droll and smarmy pirate captain, complete with black beard and a wig of cascading ringlets; his wife is a brassy blonde with a voice like cannon fire. They make a highly entertaining couple.
Punctuated by song, the fast and furious action moves left and right, up and down, comes from behind us, and soars high over our heads. The "Golden Gypsy" dances high above, the pirates compete in wacky games of skill, and kids from the audience are taken aboard to be sworn in as swashbuckling buccaneers. All too soon it seems, the King's army arrives to save the day. There will probably be times during all this when you don't know what the heck is going on, but you'll probably be enjoying yourself too much to care.
All of this cheerfully chaotic mayhem is carried forward by a game and talented young cast. The male pirate chorus is especially fine. Don't be surprised if your find yourself singing along to the refrain of "Drink, Drink, Drink." And speaking of drinking, beer, wine, and soda flow freely during the meal and afterwards.
For those who care to linger after the show, there is a "Pirates' Buccaneer Bash" where crew members lead the crowd (kids mostly) in silly song and dance routines.
