Pirates of the Caribbean Skeletons

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

J.H. is a female Dartmouth student in the class of 2019. She is majoring in Neuroscience and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. She intends on pursuing a career in public health or medicine and is a licensed Emergency Medical Technician. She grew up in Ohio. She has two younger siblings, one brother two years younger than her and one sister four years younger than her. She visited Disney World in Orlando, Florida with her family one time in the mid-2000s.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: The Pirates of the Caribbean is a ride in the Magic Kingdom park at Disney World. It places its riders in a raft-like vehicle and maneuvers them along a fake river as they pass animatronic pirates who tell tales of their exploits. The pirates stand upon various intricate sets that depict their seafaring lifestyle. Some of these sets include skeletons. The ride actually opened at the Magic Kingdom in 1973, modeled after a similar ride at Disneyland. The ride served as inspiration for the extremely successful Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise of the 2000s.
Social Context: The informant first heard of this legend from her mother during her only trip to Disney World in the mid-2000s. She does not know from whom or how her mother learned of the legend, but assumes her mother likely heard it from a friend. The informant retells this legend in social situations with friends during which someone brings up the Pirates movie franchise or the ride at the Disney parks.

Item:

This legend alleges that the skeletons within the sets of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride are real human bones, and not fake moldings. This constitutes a legend since it is grounded in presumed historical fact, takes place in the contemporary human world, and features human characters (both dead and alive).
The following is a transcript of the legend as it was told to the collector in February 2018. Some words and phrases have been omitted from the original to allow for easy reading.

Transcript:

“So when we went to Disney [World] my little brother really wanted to go on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride since it was sometime after the first movie came out. He loved Jack Sparrow. So we were on the ride and passing this weird sort of grotto and my mother leaned over and told me, ‘You know I once heard that those skeletons are from real humans.’ And I had to agree with her – I was young, but the skeletons looked scary real. That’s just a fun and freaky tidbit I like to bring up when my friends talk about the parks.”

Informant’s Comments:

Collector’s Comments:

My inspiration for this project topic came from seeing online lists of alleged dark Disney park secrets, but I’d actually never heard of this one before!

Collector’s Name: Karina Korsh

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive