"Almost" Wordless Wednesday: Pirates Premiere

We've shown you guys a lot over the last couple of days, but we have just a few more pictures we thought we could share today, and with that we will be done!

We hope you've enjoyed all of our "Pirates" pictures, because we've sure enjoyed sharing them with you!

Even the little duckies wanted to see the Premiere

We loved all of the detail put into the Rivers of America for the viewing

Chad was almost as excited about seeing Sophie Simmons as anything!

A lone mermaid

Johnny Depp's stunt-double in "On Stranger Tides"

Bruno Tonioli - 'Dancing With The Stars'

Eva Longoria was a blur

We assure you that Jerry Bruckheimer is in this picture

The beginning of the Black Carpet

Kermit The Frog Does The "Pirates" Premiere

We started seeing this video going around yesterday afternoon and we loved it so much we just had to include it here!  We wish we could have seen Kermit ourselves, but since we were at the other end of Main Street, USA we didn't.  However, Mark swears he is in the video at the :29 mark (punnage!), and he was in fact sitting in the bleachers behind Johnny Depp.  He's there, but can you see him?

Check it and more great videos out on the MuppetsStudio YouTube page!

"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" World Premiere: The Cast

What would a Premiere be without the ones who had starred in the movie?  Now to be sure there were a lot of actors who were in the movie, and they were all there, but we decided to focus on the ones that we were the most excited to see.  Let's get started!

Movies would go nowhere without crucial members beyond the cast!  One such we got a pretty good picture of on Saturday evening was Rob Marshall, the director of the movie!

Rob Marshall - The Director

Who doesn't like a mermaid?  How about 5 of the beauties?  We can't wait to see just how scary they are in the movie.  They weren't in the least bit scary here.  Beautiful maybe, but not scary in the slightest.

The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Merfolk

If you saw "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," and we hope you did, then you should know who Captain Teague is.  If not, then please go watch the movie and come straight back.  He is played by none other than the rock legend himself, Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones.  Keith was awesome.  He had that, "I'm a rock star, but I still appreciate my fans" look we thought, and he looked like he was having a ball.  We were just happy to be in the presence of awesome.

Keith Richards - Captain Teague

The next actor we saw was Kevin McNally.  Who?  Well to be honest we didn't know his real name by heart either (we do now!), but we did know him as the likeable Mr. Gibbs.  Let's see some hands, who else didn't know his real name?  He was kind enough to stop by to take photos and sign autographs.

Kevin McNally - Mr. Gibbs

Alright, we guess it's time we get to our next star.  He's funny in the movies, and is always running amok.  We're talking about Jack the Monkey.  You simply can't have a Premiere without Barbossa's other half.  In fact, that would be just wrong.  Part of us wanted him to jump on our shoulders.  Then we could say that famous line, "Thank you, Jack.  We named the monkey Jack."

Kimberley Locke and Jack the Monkey

Speaking of Barbossa's pet monkey, maybe it's time we talked about the man himself, Geoffrey Rush.  Let us start by saying that he is Mark's favorite character in the entire series.  From his insane laugh to his cravings for apples, he's a pirate through and through.  Geoffrey was so cool that he even did the laugh for the fans.  Let me tell you something, we went wild for it!

Geoffrey Rush - Captain Barbossa

Barbossa isn't the only terror of the sea anymore.  It's time for some Blackbeard, played by "Deadwood" star, Ian McShane.  Ian worked the crowd like a mad man.  He even said,"Join my crew and together we will stop Jack Sparrow!"  The fans booed, but ate it up.  The man was just great and showed a lot of appreciation for his fans, even signing many autographs on his way down the Carpet.

Ian McShane - Blackbeard

Okay, you may have noticed that we've only been talking about the male actors in the movie, but we think it's time we bring out the lovely Penelope Cruz.  Mark has had the biggest crush on her since forever.  So when he saw her in that stunning dress, he swears he almost passed out from excitement.  Then he thought about you, the readers, and needed to get some pictures.  The crowd loved her, and she was very gracious with everyone she came into contact with, working a zigzag pattern to make sure every side had a chance to get pictures and autographs.  Just at the end of her appearance, a roar went off in the distance!

Penelope Cruz - Angelica

Yes, our friends, the moment we had been waiting for had arrived.  Mr. Johnny Depp was coming.  He was absolutely amazing with the crowd, making sure that everyone had a chance to get a picture of him.  Then out of nowhere he stopped.  He started walking straight to Mark in the bleachers and pointed right at him.  He called him down and asked if he wanted to see the Premiere too!  Okay, maybe that didn't happen, but you have to admit that would have been pretty sweet.  The truth is he was very kind to walk slowly so we all had equal opportunities to snap a shot of him in this perhaps once in a lifetime opportunity.

What Stephanie has lovingly dubbed the NINTH Wonder of the World: The Backside of Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp - CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow

Then as quickly as he came, he was gone.  The Carpet Premiere was over, all the stars wound their way back to the Rivers of America for the movie (which we can only assume was a huge success), and it was time for the two halves of Days In The Park to meet back up.

We've had so much fun sharing the experience with you over the last few articles.  It was an amazing day and night and we're so thankful we took advantage of the opportunity to spend a Day In The Park and experience it.  The fun's not quite done yet, either!  We've by no means shared the last of our pictures with you (though we've shared many) and we'll be back tomorrow with our last batch for tomorrow's "Almost" Wordless Wednesday segment for just a few more sights, sounds, and stars from the "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" World Premiere from Disneyland Park.  

"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" World Premiere - The Black Carpet and Celebrities

We know that people love their pictures, so we'll get right to them in a minute, but we'd be remiss if we didn't note that The Park did a fantastic job keeping everyone in the crowds entertained as the minutes to the official beginning of the Black Carpet event crept closer and people began to get fidgety waiting for the stars to arrive.  As Mark noted in his article earlier today, the Pirates who wandered up and down the carpet did a great job of keeping everyone smiling and laughing.  We give them a lot of credit, and the crowds too for that matter for not tearing the place apart!

The camera crews get ready

We think he's tired from rolling around all day on that ball

Everybody sing! Yo Ho, Yo Ho...

As hard as it was to wait all day long though, knowing what was coming, the minutes did tick down and it was eventually time for all of the celebrities to begin walking down the Carpet.  Before the cast of the movie made their appearance (they were the last to come out and Mark will talk about them in our next article) there were tons of other celebrities to see, people who had bought tickets to the event, as well as many of the boys and girls from the Boys and Girls Clubs of America who had come in for the event (100% of the proceeds from the Premiere went to the Clubs).

We know everyone is as excited to see some of the stars as we were so without further ado, we present with you some of our favorite celebrity sightings from the event.  Enjoy!

Eric McCormack - 'Will and Grace'

Martin Short - We loved him in 'Three Amigos!'

Nick Simmons - 'Gene Simmons' Family Jewels'

Sophie Simmons - 'Gene Simmons' Family Jewels'

David Cook - 'American Idol'

Joey Lawrence - "Whoah!"

Andy Garcia

Lorenzo Lamas - 'The Renegade'

Steven Tyler - Aerosmith

Taboo - The Black Eyed Peas

Kirstie Alley - 'Cheers' and 'Dancing With The Stars'

Be sure and check back later today as the Crew and Cast of "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" make their appearance!

"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" World Premiere - Pre Show

It was a cloudy but bright day...

by Mark
Okay, so where does my adventure begin?  Shall I start with the fact that I saw more celebrities than I ever have in my life?  How about the way the fans took leave of their senses when they saw Johnny Depp?  I got it!  Let's start from the beginning; well, my beginning in the stands anyway, before the celebs even showed up.  I did have a pretty full day, and before Mr. Depp was even in the park.  I know!  Let's make this about the ones who entertained me while I waited for hours.  Yes, I said hours.

Chad and I arrived at The Park around 10am to see that the black carpet had already been laid out and the bleachers put up.  We had heard earlier that morning (from Stephanie) about the "crazed" fans (crazier than us, anyways) who had been waiting at The Resort since midnight.  I will admit we were scared about there not being any good spots left.  It didn't help matters when we had to turn around on the way out because Chad had forgotten to change camera lenses on our way out the door.  Thankfully in terms of seating, boy were we wrong.  There were a few people, but not many.  Most of the people who had waited overnight were seated up and down Main Street USA, but there was still plenty of seating at the end of the street and all in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle.  We headed down Main Street to find a bleacher near the end practically empty.  We grabbed the first seat about halfway up the stands (on the end of the aisle no less!) that we saw and commenced to waiting.

I knew that I would be on my own, since Chad was doing the Premiere from the media area (I hate him), but he did wait with me for several hours until one o'clock rolled around.  That time went by fast.  I was going out of my head when he left.  I had to find something to do!  Should buy a book to read?  No, I remembered I couldn't read.  Should I buy a coloring book?  Nope, I didn't have any crayons.  Should I buy crayons?  No coloring book.  Point I'm trying to get across is I had nothing to do for the next few hours, except text Chad every so often and tell him how much I hated him.

Then something miraculous happened; a bunch of silly pirates appeared.  Silly pirates, says you?  Aye, silly pirates says I.  Some were as tall as buildings (outhouses maybe?).  Others loved to juggle.  They even had a pirate band who would play such classical pirate hymns as "Yo-Ho" and "Oh Susanna."  Once in awhile you would get a pirate who would come and make jokes at (and of) the fans who were waiting.  It was awesome!

At one point, one of the tall pirates even climbed up the bleachers to give us quite a show.  How they did that on stilts is beyond me.  Another one was dressed like the Black Pearl, and blasted cannon balls at us.  Where can I buy one of those?  And how many of you can say that you have seen a pirate riding a unicycle?  Well I can!  I wonder how many pirates on Tortuga can ride unicycles and why there weren't featured more in the movies.  Ah well...

If you were curious at all (and who wouldn't be?!) about what the names of the pirates were, well you can consider yourself lucky, because I can name them all.  "Felipe."  That's right, they all had the same name.  I don't know if it was an homage thing or what, but it was pretty darn funny.

I would like to say a hearty "Thank ya, yar!" to all of the pirates who kept me entertained during the day.  You kept me laughing throughout the whole time I was there.  You know what?  Maybe it wasn't so boring after all!

"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!