Last year I made of model of Pirates of the Caribbean. My friend, retired Imagineer, Tom Morris gave the suggestion to model the entire New Orleans Square complex is you can see the different levels and understand how the greatest attraction of all time is laid out. I can’t thank Tom enough for his assistance in getting all the details right and visualizing the layout.

The model shows each level of the ride complex and lifts apart so you can see into each basement of the ride. The model is made of laser cut acrylic that was traced from the attraction’s blueprints. I added in lighting gels to help show each level of the facility.

The bayou section at the being of the ride is one of my favorite parts of any ride. As you are twisting thru the space, you end up facing towards the Rivers of America. When you go down the first drop of the ride, to the left of you is the Court of Angles and above you is the original entrance to Club 33. The run out section of the first drop is located on the first basement of the ride. Directly to the left of the track is the New Orleans Square kitchen. This is where all the food is cooked for the restaurants in the land. Elevators lift the food up to each respective restaurant. Once you go down the second drop, your are now under the loading platform for the attraction. The caverns that you twist thru are under the Blue Bayou and  start of the ride. The twisting track layout and unique footprint of the building help make the ride disorienting and loose reference of your true location. As your boat goes past the pile of treasure, the ceiling closes on you. This is because of the utilidor that connects the kitchen to the loading door backstage. After you pass the utilidor, you go under the Disneyland Railroad’s tracks and enter the second show building. This is where you see the bombing of the town, dunking the mayor and the auction scenes. The jail scene is the last scene you see in this building. As you return to the main building, you pass under the railroad and utilidor one last time and proceed up the lift hill.

Exterior paint elevations of New Orleans Square by Dorothea Redmond.

See the boat down in the basement? They are under the Blue Bayou and in the caverns below.

The green area is the first basement, the large area on the right is the central kitchen for New Orleans Square. The smaller space on the left is a stock room for the gift shops. These spaces are accessed from a Utildoor that crosses the ride at the top of the image.

On the far left, you can see the cavern at the start of the ride, center is a boat riding up the lift back to the ground floor. On the right is a boat on the run out from the first drop. Far right is the kitchen basement for the land.

This a screen grab of the Illustrator file I used to create the model. Lots of layers for each level of the ride. The small rectangles that outline the model’s frame are the cuts for the registration marks so the model can properly line up.