A show in Disney’s Magic Kingdom teaching kids how to act like pirates will shut down later this month as part of rumored cuts to live entertainment across Walt Disney World.
Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Tutorial is scheduled to close on Sept. 29. The interactive show has operated in Adventureland since 2006 just outside Pirates of the Caribbean. The 25-minute presentation features Captain Jack Sparrow and his first mate Mack teaching guests pirate secrets, with some picked out of the audience to learn how to duel with swords. After one child is picked to have a sword fight with Mack, it ends with Captain Jack leading everyone in singing “A Pirate’s Life for Me.”
It’s not the first Jack Sparrow-themed attraction to close at Disney World. The walk-through special effects show The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow ran for only two years at Disney’s Hollywood Studios from 2012 to 2014. Despite featuring footage of Johnny Depp shot exclusively for the attraction, it was marked for closure and its soundstage later was torn down to open an entrance area for Toy Story Land.
Disney did not respond to a request for comment on the closure of the Adventureland show. It may be one of several cutbacks coming to Disney’s live entertainment in the coming weeks.
Theme park blog WDWMagic.com has reported several characters seen at Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be gone by the end of September. These “Citizens of Hollywood” characters, some of which have been present in the park since its opening in 1989, include Dorma Nesmond, Paige Turner, Dara Vamp, and Officer Prime Brody.
These cuts on live entertainment come as the Walt Disney Company wraps up its fiscal year on Sept. 30. In its last quarterly earnings report, the company announced mostly positive results in the parks and resorts division, with guests spending more on merchandise, theme park tickets and food but hotel occupancy slumping slightly.