May 26, 2011 by Becky Staudt
Pirates Magic

I had the opportunity to attend the Pirates 4 preview on Easter Sunday during my recent trip to Disneyland. While having this experience I got to witness some Disney magic and this types of magic is what keeps me coming back to Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and the Disney Cruise Line.

My pirate filled evening started with the Magic, Memories, and You on It's a Small World, then we headed to the Hub where we watched Believe, followed by heading over to see Fantasmic! I love the Disneyland Fantasmic! more than the Walt Disney World version, as I love the pirate scene and love seeing the Columbia sail along Pirates Lair. It was our only night that it was playing and I found out the next day that was because they were setting up on Rivers of America for the Pirates 4 Premiere. Had I known that I would have made a point to ride the Columbia this day, but sadly did not get a chance to during this trip.

After Fantasmic! we headed straight into Pirates. We had ridden it earlier that day, but it is one of my favorite attractions. We then headed to Big Thunder Ranch as this was where they were doing the Pirates 4 Previews. When we got there they said it had just started a few minutes before and they were not sure if there was going to be another one this night. They said they needed to check and see if they were running anoter one. It was about 11:15pm and I had heard they ran these until 11:45pm so I figured we had plenty of time. At this point I was hoping that riding Pirates again was not a mistake as this would have been our only chance to see this

There were several other people who were gathered around this area. They had some people dressed as pirates and they had an interactive parrot that was giving people pirate names. My brother and I decided we would wait and see if they were going to do this again. Eventually, they let us know that they were going to do the preview one more time tonight. As we were waiting I overheard a conversation between a Mom and her son. He was about eight. "Do you really want to do this, it's just a preview?" "Yes, I'll take you to the whole movie opening weekend." "But I want to see this now." "I'm really tired and don't want to stay." This conversation continued and I was sure the Mom was going to say they were leaving. I could tell the Mom had her fill of Pixie Dust or so she thought.

The mom and son did stay and we were left to go inside the makeshift outdoor 3D theater in Big Thunder Ranch. Each person was given a double eye patch (aka, 3D glasses) since the preview was in 3D. They led us inside and directed us to sit on the ground. Since we waited a while, my brother and I were in the front row, the mom and her son sat down beside us. We were sitting a bit as the other people filed inside. They had Pirates throughout the Pirate themed area that is Big Thunder Ranch. A pirate soon approached the boy and asked him if he would like to be the first mate and part of the show. He got this huge smile on his face and said, "Yes." Mom agreed to allow him to do so. The Cast Member gave the boy some more instructions and then went off stage to get ready.

The Cast Member came out, invited his first mate up to the stage, and gave him a scroll to read from. He also asked him some other questions and gave him a Pirate name. Mom was smiling from ear to ear, clapping and screaming. She was so excited for her son to be involved. The pirates sent him back to his seat. We were instructed to wear our double eye patches and they started the movie preview. The preview was great and got me super excited for the actual movie.

As we were leaving, Angelica and Cap'n Jack were posing for pictures. I overheard the mom and son talking about how awesome this aws. Had that boy not insisted on staying they would not have this awesome magic filled memory that I am sure they will talk about for years to come. Those memories make the Disney magic and keep me coming back for more time and time again.