Designing interactive theme park rides

Pirates of the Caribbean-Battle for the Buccaneer Gold is an interactive theme park ride based on the classic Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland. With themes and inspiration taken from the ride, this virtual interactive experience treats four guests to an overwhelming immersive adventure on the high seas. One guest steers at a real helm while the other three guests man six real cannons to defeat virtual enemy pirate ships, forts, sea monsters, and ghostly skeletons to collect and defend as much gold as possible in the five-minute experience. Pirates uses wraparound 3D screens, 3D surround sound, and a motion platform boat to fully engage the guest as a pirate. The design of Pirates was driven by the need to balance between letting the guests have control over their adventure and making sure that each adventure is a great one. We discuss the solutions we found to some of the problems created by this balancing act.