Meet Jack Sparrow (in Disneyland)

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Right from the forum comes an interesting look at a few theme park related issues concerning Pirates of the Caribbean. Thanks for worldwide renowned Depptologist 'The Collector' for this!

"Disney is updating the PotC rides in both Disney Land and Walt Disney World for the release of the second movie this summer. They completed Phase 1 last month, which mostly entailed refurbishing various audio-animatronics (I noticed that the dog in the jail scene, for instance, had had all its fur replaced). They reopened the ride briefly for the Spring Break rush, and closed it again on May 1st to start Phase 2, which will bring about much larger changes. Eavesdropping in the Mouseketeeria (the sad thing is that I didn't make that up--that's really the name of the employee cafeteria under Fantasyland) has led me to understand that they have drained the entire ride for this stage.

According to the various announcements, the ride will remain closed through July 6. According to these same announcements, the new story of the ride will be Jack and Barbossa "racing to be the first ones to the treasure"--though I doubt this information due to the fact that a press release months ago said that it would be about Jack hiding from angry pirates who want to...I dunno, kill him or something. On characters from the new movie all it says is "Davey Jones will also be making an appearance." It goes on to say something about how "new characters will only be the beginning" and they're adding a bunch of new effects. No idea what those are. I know that they're adding some new scenery somewhere, because I saw the rebar frames for it out back next to the production center. Couldn't figure out what they were frames for, though, since at that stage it's a bit hard to see what the shapes make if you don't already know. They're keeping the ride's giftshop open all this time, but who didn't see that one coming?

Jack Sparrow is also going to be a meet-and-greet character starting in July, and will be found near the ride. His height range is 5'9"-6'0", and they have already picked the first guys who will play him."