"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" World Premiere - We've Arrived!

Looking back on it now, we're honestly not sure exactly when the idea of going out to The Park for the World Premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides occurred to us.  We've known it was coming for quite some time of course, and we've talked about it and mentioned it here quite a bit, but as of two weeks ago I don't think the idea that we could go had even dawned on us.  Then it did (of course) so Friday evening saw us crashing at Chad's place after watching "Killer Klowns From Outer Space" in preparation for the event; a movie so awesomely bad you should Netflix it immediately.

Saturday morning dawned foggy and chilly.  We have to admit though that this wasn't actually a bad thing.  As someone mentioned to us on Twitter later in the morning, the day had a distinctively "Pirate-y" feel to it.  After a quick cup of coffee we hopped in the car and took off for The Park around 8:30 or so.  We made it about 10 minutes into the trip when Chad realized he had forgotten to change out a lens on his camera, so back we went!  Once that little issue had been taken care of, it was a quick drive out to The Park to see what we could see.

Special maps were printed for the occasion

It was clear pretty quickly on just how important a day this was to The Park.  When they change up the maps for a one day event (thanks for the collectible!), you know it's important.  We got our map and quickly boarded the bus in the Toy Story Lot, anxious to get over and see what kind of place we could find to sit ourselves down for the rest of the day.  People were obviously coming in from all over the place, but we had high hopes!

Once we got into The Park, there was tons to see!  Even down at the end of Main Street, USA you could see the decorations and setup running all the way down to Sleeping Beauty Castle.  It was totally decked out and got us extremely excited, and we hadn't even really gone in very far yet!

Where all the cool cats played

There was so much to see!  We spent quite a bit of time at the end of Main Street just taking it all in.  We knew we wouldn't be anywhere near this area once all of the festivities began so we wanted to get it out of our system while we could.

We even got to walk across a section of the Black Carpet as we made our way up the street. Thinking about walking where all of the celebrities would be in just a few short hours was really something.

It was really neat walking down the street and checking out all of the people who were already in attendance.  We heard later on that people had been camping out in The Esplanade (outside the Main Gates) overnight so they could be the first to their seats, and we have to say having seen it later in the evening, they definitely got exactly what they wanted when the stars came down the street.  More on that in a later article, though.

We're not sure what it is exactly, but we REALLY like Angelica

We had been a little concerned about seating ourselves, but as of 10 o'clock that morning (and even into the mid-afternoon) there were plenty of seats and some great spots down on the end of Main Street so we had no trouble at all finding some that suited us.

It was fantastic being able to look down the street and continue to see all of the people (fans and Cast Members) continue to file in as the excitement mounted.  And it wasn't even noon yet!

Our view from the bleachers

Mark shows off his free copy of lyrics for that seminal pirate hymn: "Yo Ho"

Seating all around the Hub, and a pretty darn cool picture of the "Partners" to boot

Chad decided after a while that we needed to get some pictures of the viewing area for the Premiere over at Rivers of America so we did some of that too!  It had been a few days since we had been back there (amazing how quickly they can get this stuff up!) and it was pretty awesome and mind-blowing to finally get a look at the finished product.

We would have loved to have had the money ourselves to buy a ticket to the actual show (ah, to dream!) but at $1,000.00 a pop, it was just out of the question.  Maybe someday... but we think it was for a really great cause (all the proceeds went to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America) and that's what's important.  They really did a bang-up job in the area, though, and as happy as we will be to have New Orleans Square back to normal now, we stand amazed and bow to everyone who had a hand in transforming the area for the show.

The big (and we mean BIG) screen and seats

We also have to throw up massive props to everyone who had a hand in the decorations and creating the atmosphere for the fans inside The Park.  If there's anything they are good at, it's creating atmosphere and like so many other times when we're inside The Parks, it's all of the little details that make such a big difference in our enjoyment.  We've included some photos to show you just what we mean that we hope that you enjoy.

Loads of "Pirates" themed decor added to all the fun throughout the day

We hope that you've enjoyed strolling around with us during our early morning hours.  We'll be back tomorrow as Mark talks all about the pre-show entertainment, and then it's on to all of the celebrities.  Did we see Johnny Depp?  Was he tall?  Was he short?  Did he look like he does in the movies?  Stay tuned!