"YOU are all pirates now! And ship mates on the Black Pearl!" Jack Sparrow announces gallantly.
In between sword-fighting lessons and rowdy song sessions, he flicks the thick braids from his face, eyes the audience in a cock-eyed fashion and delicately strokes his unkempt beard with a thumb and index digit.
For a few moments, it seemed like the real mccoy, actor Johnny Depp himself strutting in front of us, eyeing a bunch of recruits for his latest high seas adventures. The rendition was pretty authentic, I had to admit, and to a younger person he or she might have thought this Pirate Boot Camp a real thrill.
Welcome to Hong Kong Disneyland's latest attraction, the Pirate Takeover, which lets you immerse in all things pirate, from taking jungle cruises into pirate infested territories, learning to sing like a "sea dog", sampling a buccaneer's cuisine, to snapping up all sorts of merchandise from plastic rapiers to decorative pins to show off to your folks back home.
As a tie-in to the final instalment of the hugely popular Pirates of the Caribbean movie trilogy, the theme park on Lantau Island has transformed its AdventureLand into Pirateland, and has strewn and decorated the place with skulls, crossbones, bootleg crates, treasures and all manner of pirate paraphernalia.
In addition to the customary wonderment of Disneyland, where cartoon and film characters are brought to life with limitless possibilities in a "smoke and mirrors" fashion, Pirate Takeover delights with an added element of interactivity to the brew.
By interactivity, I refer to being cajoled and coaxed by the many "pirates" to join in their boot camp and the Voodoo Drum Show festivities, and to a more subtle extent, interacting with the decor and design, which draws you in.
In between scheduled programmess in Pirateland, I often caught myself walking around and chuckling in amusement to contraptions like a set of gallows' cross-pieces, which allows you to stick your head through for a photo opportunity, framed by crimson red words of "Scoundrel".
For those with a higher self-esteem, there is always another which reads "Captain of the Black Pearl", with a ship's wheel you can pose behind as though you are charting the next course for the vessel.
Even Mickey and company have gotten into the act; photo opportunities abound at various nooks and crannies of Adventureland when Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto make special appearances in their pirate garb.
The infamous mouse also appears in iconic fashion, like atop a pole of directions near the entrance, on a proto-typical skull and crossbones flag, except that this skull has a set of Mickey ears.
It's all ingeniously incorporated and never overwhelming. Essentially the place has become "pirated" (for lack of a better descriptive), but it's the uncanny references to movie and Walt Disney characters alike that resonate bemusedly with the park visitor.
If the fun seems too mild, the "The Doctors of Soul" Voodoo Drum Show and Jungle Cruise are highlights for a more boisterous manner of interactivity. The former is a rhythmic fiesta stomp-style for visitors who are game enough to lend their voices to the drumming concoction, while the latter is a journey through a jungle wilderness of water spraying animals and a steam-spewing volcanic rock.
If scurvy is many a pirate's nutritional downfall, then the specially designed Pirate's Table menu at the Pirate View Café ensures you are generously fed and nourished. For drinks, a sweet refreshing Island Sangria is served, a grape mocktail mixed with tiny helpings of fresh fruits - a great way to simmer-down in the current warm Hong Kong weather.
This is followed by aptly-named courses like "Pokokgai" the Forgotten Island, a mild curried coconut broth with white chicken; Davy Jones' Seafood Jambalaya, a rich and tangy fried rice not unlike the Spanish paella; and Captain Cheung Junior's Vegetarian Feast, a dish of sauteed leafy vegetables with spicy shrimp paste.
Unlike the typical "pizza, pasta and hot-dog" fare visitors get at most amusement parks, lunch at the Pirate Café was a sumptuous experience.
As tacky as everything in Pirateland sounds on paper, it all translates better in reality. There's a down-to-earth sincerity in how everything is conceptualised and presented. Even the least enthusiastic of visitors is charmed by the way visitors participate and revel unbridled in Pirateland's rides and activities.
And somehow at the end of the day, even I caught myself humming to a "silly" song motif which Jack Sparrow taught at Pirate's Boot Camp.
"Yo ho yo ho, a pirate's life for me; yo ho yo ho, a pirate's life for me!"
» Check out AsiaOne's vodcast of the main highlights at Pirate Takeover.
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*Pirates Takeover is exclusive to the Hong Kong Disneyland, and runs for a limited period from May 4 to June 30, 2007. Visit www.hongkongdisneyland.com for more details.
