What Makes Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland Paris Special? You'd Be Surprised!

Did you know that not all Pirates of the Caribbean attractions in Disney Parks are made the same? It’s true — they’re all different!

Pirates of the Caribbean

We’ve ridden the versions in Disney World and Disneyland more times than we can count, but that meant we were totally invested in how different the Disneyland Paris version of the ride would be when we recently got to visit the park. What you may not realize is how different this version of the attraction really is! While you can watch a ride through online to see the changes, it’s super cool to be ON the ride and realizing “wait, a minute, this doesn’t normally look like that in Disney World/Disneyland!”

Beginning before the ride even starts, the queue has a very similar vibe to what you’ll find in Disney World and Disneyland, but the Disneyland Paris queue plays Pirates of the Caribbean movie music, and it’s not just the main theme — you’ll want to listen closely to hear niche songs from the score! You’ll also notice throughout the attraction that, since you’re in Paris, the ride itself is in a mix of English and French.

©Disney

As for the beginning of the ride, the Disneyland Paris version also looks VERY different. You don’t start out in a cave; instead you’re out on “open waters” with land on your right. First, you’ll see trees, then shipwrecks. The restaurant is to your left, which means that yes, you’ll ride right through, just like over in Disneyland.

You can get great views of Pirates of the Caribbean in Blue Bayou at Disneyland

In Disneyland Paris, you’ll also find the Davy Jones mist screen projection on a lift hill at the beginning, whereas our lift hill is at the end, and there’s no Davy Jones for us at Disney World anymore. We LOVED the organ music played at this point in the ride, though — it was probably one of our favorite parts! You’ll then travel through more sequences of dead pirates, which isn’t all that different, but you’ll see that the dog with the key is earlier in this attraction than in Disney World’s.

Time to hop on the ride!

If you’re a big fan of Pirate Redd from the Disney World and Disneyland versions, she IS in the Disneyland Paris version of the ride, but as a much simpler animatronic, and she doesn’t speak at all. Once you head down the hill, you’ll also notice that the pirate captaining the ship shooting at Tortuga isn’t Barbossa; it’s just a random pirate. You also won’t find that first animatronic of Jack peering around the barrels.

Deeper into the ride

Some of the other super unique details that we loved were the pirate swinging on a rope at the beginning of the ride (SUPER neat!), and in that classic scene where the women are chasing the pirates, you’ll notice two animatronics sword fighting, which is pretty impressive. Towards the end of the ride, lightning strikes, and you watch Barbossa turn from human to skeleton, and you’ll notice that the end scene looks a little different — while Jack Sparrow IS still at the end, he sits in a different type of treasure room than what we see in Disney World.

We loved this edition of the ride

You’ll also find that the Disneyland Paris version of Pirates of the Caribbean is two minutes longer than the other versions! This is because the ride has some of the cave and pirate remains scenes in Disneyland, but they’re at the end of the ride instead of the beginning. While we love all versions of this iconic ride, we will say that the Disneyland Paris version seemed a little more intense, so if that’s what you’re looking for, you may enjoy this one the most.

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Which version of Pirates of the Caribbean do you love the most? Tell us in the comments!