Did you know that there is a Pirates of the Caribbean Suite at the Disneyland Hotel? I was working at Disney when they opened the suite. In fact I got to meet the designer who dreamed it up and shocked her when a Disney engineer and I took readings and found out that some of the brass fixtures in the new suite had too much lead content.
But the real shocker was finding out that there was once a portrait of Johnny Depp, as Captain Sparrow, in this suite. Why it was removed is quite a tale. Apparently Depp stayed in the suite one night and he called the front desk the next morning in a bit of a fury. He was not happy that the painting of him had been hung in the suite without his permission – and it had to be removed!
But that’s not all.
Keith Richards, the famous member of the Rolling Stones, also starred in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. And he too stayed at the Disneyland Hotel’s fabulously expensive Pirates of the Caribbean suite, when he was there to watch the premiere of his movie. As the story goes, he called the front desk that night and asked for an ash tray. He was of course denied – Disney does not allow smoking in their hotel rooms. So what did he do? He smoked anyway and the hotel staff had to deodorize his room after he checked out!
Photo courtesy of the Disney Company
If you ever get a chance to check out Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean suite do so – it has wooden beams, Spanish colonial-style furnishings and decorative artwork inspired by elements of the famous attraction, the Pirates of the Caribbean. It is of course very expensive…
In related news, “The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow is the new walk-through attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios where guests follow in the footsteps of Jack Sparrow to see if they have what it takes to join his rowdy and daring pirate crew. In this video from Walt Disney Imagineering, Imagineers Jason Surrell, Laura Mitchell, Charita Carter and Jason Roberts take us behind the scenes of the making of this new experience. As you can tell, creating an entirely new attraction based on the “Pirates of the Caribbean” film franchise was a dream come true, as was working with the film’s lead actor, Johnny Depp, who reprised his role as Captain Jack Sparrow for the attraction’s film elements,” according to the Disney Blog.
OC Disney Blog 