Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow Attraction Coming to Disney World
The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow is a new attraction coming to Walt Disney World’s Disney’s Hollywood Studios park in Fall 2012. It was first noticed as being in the Mickey Monitor online newsletter, and is described as a first-of-its-kind immersive sensory experience.
The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow will be a walk-through attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios that replaces the former Narnia attraction, which closed in late 2011. It purportedly will immerse guests in the world of the Pirates of the Caribbean films with never before seen special effects.
All that is known right now is what’s contained in the Mickey Monitor newsletter (which isn’t much). You can read that yourself here. I could embellish it a bit to drag this story out, but to me this sounds like very insignificant news.
UPDATE: Disney Parks Blog has confirmed the leak with new information.
Our Reaction
We never subjected ourselves to the Narnia attraction that was previously in this space, but many people have called it one of the worst attractions at Walt Disney World. Even assuming for the sake of argument that Narnia was good, it wasn’t a big draw nor was it anything overly impressive.
With that in mind, it seems no matter what is done with The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow, it will be an improvement over its predecessor. Given the location and space of the building and the last minute non-announcement nature of the addition, I’m betting it’s nothing spectacular or an attraction for which anyone should get excited. (Why wouldn’t it have been mentioned at the “Summer to Remember” PR event last week if it were notable?)
Disney does use buzzwords to make this sound like some sort of technical marvel with unprecedented special effects, but a Disney press release for a churro cart would try to make it sound revolutionary. I’m not getting my hopes up for this attraction, as I think it will be a blip on the radar. I don’t expect this to feature an interactive Jack Sparrow displayed 2Pac Pepper’s Ghost style, but it could be amusing and a fun time-killer for families with kids who are into the Pirates of the Caribbean craze.
And who knows, maybe it will be a surprise hit for Walt Disney World!
What do you think about this new Walt Disney World attraction? Share your thoughts in the comments!
The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow Attraction has been open this week. I am not sure exactly what the hours were or if it was open everyday, however the day I went, the line took about half an hour. There was little advertising though to say that it was open and the map still says it is opening soon. Overall, I was disappointed and I had been expecting more. I did not like the Narnia attraction before, and was hoping for something way better since Jack Sparrow was going to be involved. Waiting in line for this was not worth the half an hour I could’ve spent elsewhere. I am a huge Disney fan, but I thought Disney could’ve done more. It seemed like it was aimed more towards young kids.
This says Fall 2012 – I was there last month and there was nothing at all in DHS that even alludes to this happening??? Any updates?
Anything is better than that Narnia “Attraction”!!! I’ll look forward to seeing some pics and videos online as I won’t be getting back to WDW until sometime next year!
So the news is now that it’s as good as confermed, disney parks blog has mentioned it coming this fall, not summer. But if you think about it… the narnia attraction was closed in 2011, this has only just immerged, but it must mean they’ve worked on it for quite some time. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.
So that explains why it didn’t make the print Mickey Monitor. Interesting!
Full story for those who didn’t see it: http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/05/the-legend-of-captain-jack-sparrow-to-open-at-disneys-hollywood-studios-this-fall/
This is obviously nothing major, but DHS desperately needs more attractions. And I doubt anything can be as lame as the old Narnia attraction or Sounds Dangerous. I just wish they’d put something permanent there! Maybe even expand the One Man’s Dream exhibit (woefully underrated) and add more concept models, which I love.
Oh, and your line “but a Disney press release for a churro cart would try to make it sound revolutionary” made me literally LOL. Well done.
I think most serious fans (i.e. anyone crazy enough to read a Disney blog) really like One Man’s Dream. If there are people out there who love the parks and rate it lowly, FOR SHAME!!!!
I think what DHS really needs is family-friendly rides. There’s no reason Toy Story Mania should ever have a 120 minute or more wait. At Disney California Adventure, it’s a consistent 30 minute wait. The difference isn’t FastPass, the difference is that the ONLY kid-friendly ride DHS has is TSM.
I think that the biggest problem with the lines for Toy Story at DHS is that the attraction is in the wrong park. It should really be in Magic Kingdom, it fits better over there. I am sad that DHS has become a huge Pixar plug. Not that there’s anything wrong with Pixar, I love their movies, but I remember when DHS was MGM, and I think it was a much better park. I still enjoy it, and maybe it’s just the nostalgia, but it seems like when the park was MGM it was much more about celebrating all movies, and recent changes have started in a direction that is mostly Pixar.
LOVE One Mans Dream. Cry every time!
You’re right, anything would be an improvement over that Narnia attraction. My husband and I accidentally went through it, not knowing what it was, and after realizing it was just a big long preview for the latest movie with nowhere to sit down, we wanted to escape. But you couldn’t leave once it started, so we had to stand there for 15 minutes while cast members yelled at kids to stop climbing on the stone table. Hopefully they will do more with the space for the Jack Sparrow attraction.
Haha, that’s awful!
I am a huge WDW fan but the Narnia experience wasn’t really anything. A stone table and some costumes from the.movie was really all it was. I Would love to see anything with Wall-e in it. That character seems like the perfect mascot for the inoventions section at Epcot. But We couldn’t find anything but some trading pins at.Mission space. That’s one of my family’s favorite movies! 🙂
Where does it say it will be in the old Narnia space? I was thinking it might be in the Sounds Dangerous space since it was described as a “sensory experience” though I can see either one. Is there additional info regarding the location?
It will be in the old Narnia space.