After being released 40 years ago, the Disney ride Pirates of the Caribbean continues to blow people away. From haunted caverns to a pirate galleon, there have been no Disney rides as successful as this since the opening. With additions to the ride and the success of the Walt Disney Pictures movie, the ride has a bright future of setting sail for years to come.

It all started in 1961 when Walt Disney assigned imagineer Walt Davis to design a pirate-themed wax museum. Sadly, Walt Disney passed on December 15, 1966 before getting to see the finished product. With the drive to finish the product he had started, Walt Davis released “Pirates of the Caribbean” in New Orleans Square on March 18, 1967.

With all of the sounds, sights, and dazzling features to the ride, it is no surprise that Pirates of the Caribbean has been the most popular Disney ride at Disney. Since the release in 1967, there have been nearly 315 million guests who have ridden the ride.

On March 7, 1997 the ride was redesigned to incorporate some new scenes to make the ride more appealing. There was also added technology to spice up the ride for its 30th anniversary in 1997. As the ride continued to have success, interest for a movie was sparked. After many years of talk and creation, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was released on July 9, 2003 based on the Disney’s ride.

Every delicacy of the ride was taken into serious consideration to give it a realistic feel. Blain Gibson, who sculpted the pirates, often found himself staring at people in restaurants and at church to get his ideas for characters. Harriet Burns, who helped Gibson, changed the hair color or added an eye patch to several characters to ensure that not one looked similar to another.

While first being envisioned as a wax museum by Walt Disney, he later changed his mind to have it be a walk-through adventure. Finally, the ride’s creators turned it into the same boat system that is used for It’s a Small World.

After the extremely successful opening of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in the summer of 2003 and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, there is much anticipation for the last part to the trilogy coming this summer titled Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Because of the ongoing success of the movies, on June 6, 2006 the Disney opened a redesigned ride. The new ride incorporates the voices and similarities of the movie’s actors Johnny Depp, Bill Nighy and Geoffrey Rush, as well as a revised music track.

Although there have been revisions to the original Disney ride, after 40 years Pirates of the Caribbean continues to be the most popular and most successful ride at Disney theme parks around the world.