The Making of Shanghaî Disneyland Pirates of Caribbean : Battle for the Sunken Treasure

When Shanghaî Disneyland opened last year the Pirates of Caribbean : Battle for the Sunken Treasure attraction at Treasure Cove was praised by everyone, and for good reasons: this new version of Disney parks beloved ride was such a wonder of technology and staging that every Disney fan knew that it would get the next THEA Award, and it did.

Now, thanks to the Themed Entertainment Association and the presentation of WDI Imagineers Luc Mayrand and Nancy Seruto during a recent TEA Summit we can discover never seen before pictures of the whole creation process of this unbelievable attraction. Before watching the video of the full presentation i did for you screen captures of the most interesting shots and i suggest that we begin by the beginning, i.e the original renderings for SDL POTC, including early concepts for the ride. Make sure to click on each picture to see them in big size, and Luc Mayrand will give you more info on each of these pics in the video!






Then come pictures of the model, ride layouts, digital renderings and timing.


























As usual at WDI a computer generated Animatic was created to visualize the full ride before being built.














Luc Mayrand also shown during the TEA presentation some great construction shots!













The Davy Jones Audio-Animatronic is one of the most sophisticated ever created by WDI and the presentation also included some shots of it during its programming.






The wizards of ILM are the ones who created the fantastic underwater sequences like the one below that SDL POTC guests discover when their boat is supposed to go "under water".












There is a ritual when Imagineers build a new POTC attraction which is to pour some water coming from each other Pirates of Caribbean rides in the water of the new ride. And this is what the team of Imagineers of SDL POTC did before the attraction opening during a "water ceremony"!

Last but not least two pictures showing for the first Luc Mayrand, Nancy Seruto and others Imagineers in Pirates costume and the other show the full team who built SDL POTC!





Before watching the presentation video the best is probably to watch again - or to discover - the video of the full POTC ride, and here is an excellent one filmed in 4K by SoCal Attractions 360.




Time to watch the video of this TEA Summit in which there is much much more to discover! However, recently, TEA who uploaded on Youtube the video disabled the viewing on others sites, so jump to Youtube to watch it HERE, and don't miss it as it is rare to have such a great Imagineering insight in the making of an attraction!



Pictures: copyright Disney, TEA

Shanghaî Disneyland Pirates of Caribbean Battle for the Sunken Treasure Update

Here is a short Shanghaî Disneyland update as new pictures linked to the Pirates of Caribbean " Battle for the Sunken Treasure" ride appeared on the web, and these three pictures are showing both the two pirate ships decor as well as the Imagineers crew who are building the ride!

The first picture above shows clearly the two pirate ships ready for battle and guests in the ride boat will move right between the two galions so SDL guests will have the feeling to be caught "under fire" from these two ships. Also note that water is now present. Talking about the ride boat, the next picture below is the very first one showing it - here with the WDI crew standing on it. Now, as you can see the boat doesn't look at all like the usual POTC boats and this might confirm that they'll use a new technology allowing the boat to turn left or right to be right in front of some scenes if needed. The picture is not sharp because the original pic that i've found was in really small size and i didn't succeeded to find the source and get it in bigger size. So, i've upscaled the picture a bit so you can see the boat a bit more clearly, if i can say.

This last picture showing all the SDL POTC Imagineers crew standing between the two ships is also interesting as if you look behind them you'll see that the track is turning left, which seems to confirm that the boat will move inside the pirate ship on the left.

I'll have more about SDL Treasure Cove for you very soon, so make sure to check D&M each day!

Pictures : copyright Disney - Shendi

Will Shanghaî Disneyland Pirates of Caribbean Ride Use This New "Omnimover Boat Ride" Technology ?

This week-end a member of WDWMagic forum has posted the complete list of the names of all Shanghaî Disneyland rides, shows, shops, restaurants, etc... everything. You can have a look at all this HERE and among the list is the title of the awaited SDL Pirates of Caribbean ride: "Battle for the Sunken Treasure". It is rumored since a long time that the SDL POTC ride will be a brand new version, not using that many audio-animatronics but a lot of projection effects probably with the same technology currently used in the Disney Hollywood Studios POTC show. 

There is also a strong rumor saying that the ride technology will be different than usual, may be using a new patent showing a different kind of boat with a kind of "simulation" system located under the boat which might allow the boat to move or shake suddenly depending of what's happening in the scenes. I already talked about this one and you can read my previous article and see patent images HERE.

But another WDI patent was discovered recently and this one is showing an "Omnimover boat ride" technology. As you know the Omnimover is the technology used for instance in the Haunted Mansion with cars all linked one to another by a hidden track moving at a constant speed. As the cars never stop it allows to have a huge ride capacity per hour and so far it has been a pretty reliable technology since it was introduced by WED in the late 60's.

This new patent describes the same principle, applied to boats, all linked together as you can see on the patent drawing above, and "not guided by and do not contact nearby sidewalls" at least for a part of the ride. The patent description mentions too a wave machine which could be used to propel the boats. Also mentioned in the description: "in the open bay or free-floating portion, the boats or vehicles may even be caused to traverse overland or out of water by placing ramps in the path of boats and providing pads or rollers/wheels on the bottom of the boat hulls/bodies", which for sure could make a very unique boat ride like you've never seen before.  

But will WDI use this "Omnimover boat ride" technology for POTC "Battle for the Sunken Treasure"? Even if you can see on the patent sketch above a sunken galleon it doesn't mean necessarily that it will be the case. Also, something else that we don't know is if this Omnimover boat ride will allow to have a boat slide during the ride. And a POTC ride without any slide would be really disappointing, wouldn't it? But if the boats are not really attached all together then it might be possible... As for the answer i'm afraid that we'll have to wait till 2015 to know which boat ride technology will be used in this awaited SDL POTC ride. 

Pictures: copyright Disney Enterprises