My husband has long been known to dress up as a pirate, so you would have thought we would have been to Pirates Voyage, which opened about a year ago. As with all good things, we were saving it for when we had a couple more friends to go with. Luckily, Rick and Tara decided to pay us a visit.
Let me give you a bit more background before I dive into the show itself. Mark used to dress up as a pirate and entertain children at Fazoli's when we were in college. My mother is a wonderful seamstress who has frequently sewn costumes for us. Rick has never seemed to be into dressing up, and the wonderful Tara is up for pretty much anything. We decided the best way to experience Pirates Voyage would be dressed as pirates. Mark and I re-purposed some steam punk costumes, so we were handily set up. For Rick and Tara, we visited the Salvation Army and the Imaginations costume shop. After some handy work, we had some pretty great pirate costumes. You can actually see a picture on Tara's facebook page.
The cost of the show was about $200 for the four of us. One of the nice things about Pirates Voyage was that when we called on Monday to make a reservation, we actually got to discuss where we wanted to sit. We ended up in the front row of the crimson section, filed under letter "I". While we made the reservation on Monday, we didn't actually have to pay until noon today, which was the day of the show. There was fine print on the tickets, letting us know they could be swapped for another show if needs be. Considering the policies of some theater shows, that seems pretty generous.
Dressed as awesome pirates, we arrived to the theater around 4:45. Upon entering, they took a group picture of all of us, followed by individual couple photos. Rick and Tara went with a true pirate look, while Mark and I look like we're at our pirate prom. We were then ushered into the gift shop! Showing up Disney, you both enter AND exit through the gift shop at Pirates Voyage. Look for Disney to implement this idea promptly.
We wandered around the gift shop, visited the bar for grog, and took some pictures. By the time we arrived, the downstairs tables were already filled, so we headed upstairs. There was entertainment that seemed appropriate, but we didn't really watch it, as there was no good vantage point. The upstairs was quite nice, with wanted banners for different pirates. You could also step outside onto a balcony, which was nice as pirate costumes are quite warm.
Now, at this point in time, we had been approached multiple times by people asking us where the restrooms were, where the show would take place, and where was an elevator. It turns out that four grown adults dressed like pirates at a pirate show are assumed to be employees. This makes sense, as our costumes were amazing. After informing them we were just dorks, we tried to help them anyway. We had a total of seven strangers approach us, so we felt pretty proud of our costumes.
Around 5:40, they began seating everyone. We were already upstairs, so it wasn't too hard on us. We just had to walk around to the right doors. Unfortunately, everyone from downstairs had to file up the stairs to the same doors we were using. It's a common problem with shows of this type, and I eagerly await the day they find a solution. I'm hoping for transporter technology.
Once we found our seats, Chelsea, the wonderful swabby who was taking care of us, took our drink orders, which were unfortunately Pepsi products. To keep track of what you're drinking, they fold your ticket different ways. It's pretty ingenious, but I'm sure most dinner shows probably do that. I just never noticed. The place was packed, which I'm guessing is why we were so packed into the seats. Poor Rick had to eat with his left hand because there wasn't a whole lot of room. Luckily, the show was entertaining enough that the lack of space fell out of mind once the show started.
I don't want to spoil the show, but there are some aspects they do wonderfully. The acrobatics are amazing, as are the majority of the animal acts. Our front row seats allowed us a close up view of Salty the Sea-lion, as he passed a few feet from where we were eating. I'm pretty sure he winked at Tara, realizing how excited she was to see him. I'm pretty sure that each of us reverted to five years old during some part of the show. For Tara, that moment was when she saw Salty. For me, it was the sequence with the mermaids. Yeah, there were freaking mermaids! Mark was five the whole time we were there, and I'm sure Rick was feeling that way too. It's hard to not feel like a kid when you're dressed like a pirate.
While the show was 90% awesome, it did have one huge flaw: the songs. There was not a single song in there that was good. I know they are songs written and produced for the stage show, so they don't have to be Grammy award winning quality, but every time they started singing, I just felt sorry for them. They sang for what seemed like an eternity about our dinner. At one point, they were singing about the life of a pirate, but they couldn't use the Disney song for obvious reasons. It was like those movies you can rent that are direct to DVD that rip off a popular franchise, like Transmorphers, instead of Transformers.
Even though the songs were abominable, the show was well worth attending. There were no other adult patrons dressed like pirates, but we had a lot of fun doing that. If you're adventurous, dress up and go see the show. We had many of the employees complimenting our costumes, as well as other patrons. The show is a fun time, the food isn't too bad, and it's a show only found in Myrtle Beach. If you're in town, check it out at least once. You won't need to go every year, but pick up the experience points while you can.
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