Mermaid Skeleton in Pirates of the Caribbean

[beck00]

My girls weren't upset by it for too long, but there were definitely some worried frowns and questioning looks. They both definitely noticed it...I think it's a pretty prominent display. I think they were ages 2 and 5 first time, and even the last trip (ages 3 and 8) they both mentioned their dislike of it, and wanted to get away from it pretty quickly. My niece & nephew saw it for the first time last trip @ ages 2 and 4, and neither were fans.

 

[bumbershoot]

I think this is an important time to explain to a child that some things are "make believe". I never pushed my children to go onto anything that scared them but I would always explain the difference of "real" and "make believe".

Kids are funny creatures.

My guy was perfectly fine with Jack Sparrow and pirate zombies as make believe. But haunted mansion was a nearly violent NO until we found the halloweentime version at DL, and on tower of terror he was firmly convinced that "we died and are blue ghosts" on it. The latter two went on for years.

 

[greg9x]

The ride has incorporated a lot of elements from the Pirate's of the Caribbean movies at this point. I would, kind of, assume there would be skeletons in it. I think Disney crosses age-appropriate lines all the time (case in point, marketing PG-13 Star Wars movies to much younger children through ads and merchandising). At some point, doesn't the parent have to take responsibility for the choices they make for their children? My DS9 has been going to WDW since he was 1 and just rode HM this past summer because he said he felt he could now handle it. I don't mean to sound like a Disney apologist here, but, I don't rely on Disney to tell me what is and isn't appropriate for my kid. A little research prior to exposing your child to something can go a long way.

The skeletons were there before the movies... not the mermaid one, but still....
A few elements from the movies are in the ride now... but it is still 95% what it was before them.


People have the incorrect vision of Disney being 'safe' and happy all the time. Yet, almost every Disney movie plot centers around some tragedy or another and/or characters being in scary situations. Some of the stuff in Disney World reflects that. Sometimes it scares little kids.. that's ok, they'll grow out of it.

 

[CinderDuffy]

The characters ARE real!

I agree with the poster above who said that she was amazed that a 2 year old could be that observant! I was impressed too that she put 2 and 2 together that not only was it a skeleton, meaning that it was a dead person, but that it was a MERMAID! Wowzers!

Really not surprising that a 2yo would see this and think it was Ariel! I am sure there have been many.

 

[Bullseye]

If I remember correctly, Ariel ended up with legs ....so it couldn't be her.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

The skeletons were there before the movies... not the mermaid one, but still....
A few elements from the movies are in the ride now... but it is still 95% what it was before them.


People have the incorrect vision of Disney being 'safe' and happy all the time. Yet, almost every Disney movie plot centers around some tragedy or another and/or characters being in scary situations. Some of the stuff in Disney World reflects that. Sometimes it scares little kids.. that's ok, they'll grow out of it.

Yes, definitely, the skeletons were there before the movies. With the beginning and end of the ride, however, and the addition of movie characters in the scenes, I don't know if I would go with 95% of the ride being original, but I won't nit pick with you! Disney incorporated many of the scenes into the movies, so it feels almost a seamless blend at this point, IMHO. I guess my point is, we have a lot of resource material at our fingertips - the movies and youtube - to educate ourselves before we go onto many of these rides. And I completely agree with you, I think many people have the idea that Disney is "safe" and happy and they can relinquish some of their parenting to them when they are consuming Disney products or visiting their theme parks. I'm definitely not on that bandwagon!

 

[DisneyOma]

I thought it was pretty questionable to put that in a no-height-req ride given the Disney mermaid franchise. Few 2 year olds will have seen the Pirates with the evil mermaids, after all.

ETA: I feel like I should mention that my kid saw POTC years before we showed him Little Mermaid. His personality is funny, and he dealt with the stuff in POTC better than the emotional stuff and Ursula etc in LM. Crazy kid. (As in, DS was 3 when we showed him Pirates 1)

So I wouldn't judge anyone for showing Pirates 3 or whichever one it was to a bitty kid, or taking a bitty on pirates, but I do judge Disney for adding the skeleton. They should have thought about it for 2 seconds.

All a parent has to do is say "no,that's not Ariel, it was a bad mermaid who hung out with the pirates." I mean really, if a parent makes the choice to bring a small child on Pirates (where they are burning down homes, torturing the guy in the well, etc) that parent better have some quick, calming answers to hand over in the first place. It's not on Disney to make those choices, so I don't put any judgement on the mermaid on them at all. It's 100% on the parents.

 

[igrsod]

All a parent has to do is say "no,that's not Ariel, it was a bad mermaid who hung out with the pirates." I mean really, if a parent makes the choice to bring a small child on Pirates (where they are burning down homes, torturing the guy in the well, etc) that parent better have some quick, calming answers to hand over in the first place. It's not on Disney to make those choices, so I don't put any judgement on the mermaid on them at all. It's 100% on the parents.

You are correct here. As a parent, you need to be aware and make appropriate choices for your kids. My kids are now young adults, but when they were young, I didn't shelter them from very much. I welcomed conversation and learning in any situation. They are now fully functioning, kind, accepting, independent adults, who will talk to me about pretty much anything. Having said that, I might avoid POTC an HM with very little ones. My kids didn't go to WDW until they are 9 and 7. By that time, they were ready to ride anything. My daughter didn't want to ride TT for many years, we never forced her. When she finally did, she loved it and was annoyed that we hadn't pushed her to ride it sooner, as she had missed out for so many years.

 

[smallworldnh]

Or it could be a merman!!

 

[SmallWorld71]

A simple explanation from the parent is all that's needed. And, if that doesn't work or the child is upset, Ariel meets in her fins in Fantasyland. Very easy to show her that wasn't Ariel.

 

[bumbershoot]

All a parent has to do is say "no,that's not Ariel, it was a bad mermaid who hung out with the pirates.

I sure do wish some of y'all had complicated children...

It's just NOT that easy with some kids.


And my 2 year old would never have gotten that it was a mermaid (bc he didn't know of Ariel then) and barely noticed the Pirates surroundings other than the mainly fun music. HM however...

 

[Lilylogan]

I must be a bad parent because now I can't wait to point out Ariel's skeleton to my kids on our next trip! lol I've never even noticed it before

 

[InkspressYourself]

I always enjoy that ride, but I never noticed it. Maybe I'm always looking at the other side???

 

[StageTek]

He was worried that if HM scared her a lot, she wouldn't want to go on anything else.

I think he's right to worry about his 2 year old. There are many rides that may frighten a 2 year old. In many cases it's better to hold off until the child is a bit older.

I remember taking my 5 year old niece to Disneyland (CA) for the first time. We rode Peter Pan first and she was scared, but liked it. Next was Pinocchio because that was her favorite movie. Big mistake! She was terrified. The rest of the day was a bust - she refused to go on anything. And my sister was staying on site and had three full days planned. Each child is different, aren't they?

 

[JerseyJanice]

Bumping up my thread here to say that the mermaid skeleton is gone from the Pirates ride. I guess my little Maddy and her parents were not the only ones who found it upsetting.

We rode it our first day in the MK. We put Maddy on the left side of the boat so she would miss it, but we didn’t see it at all.

I rode two more times and checked out the scene carefully both times to see if it was moved, but it’s nowhere to be found.

 

[Jennasis]

I still can't figure out why they've left the emaciated dog in the cemetery scene of HM all these years. THAT has always upset me.

 

[Liljo22]

Bumping up my thread here to say that the mermaid skeleton is gone from the Pirates ride. I guess my little Maddy and her parents were not the only ones who found it upsetting.

We rode it our first day in the MK. We put Maddy on the left side of the boat so she would miss it, but we didn’t see it at all.

I rode two more times and checked out the scene carefully both times to see if it was moved, but it’s nowhere to be found.

I don't know if its because people found it upsetting. The mermaid effect they added to the water never worked so they took the store line out completely.

 

[AngiTN]

.

 

[CAS239]

I miss the mermaid skeleton and the mermaids/sirens . It was a very cool feature that just showed how visual and in-depth Disney goes.

It's no worse than the 2 skeletons playing chess or ghosts in the haunted Mansion

 

[ChanduTail]

I thought the skeleton was a great addition to an eerie scene. It looks really cool. There are plenty of other skeletons there... one of which I'm pretty sure was killed by an arrow to the heart, and another at the ship's wheel just before the drop. I don't know why they would remove this one in particular & leave the others. It might be a temporary thing.