A Pirates League For Us

The Pirates League opened in June 2009 and I couldn't be happier. Finally! An experience for my son and my non-princess daughter! And once I read further and saw that adults could join the Pirates League, well, it became a family affair.

The Pirates League is located near the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction in Magic Kingdom. When you arrive, you can select how you want to receive your experience. We opted for the less expensive First Mate and Empress experience. The Empress is the only female option, but girls can choose one of the First Mate choices if they want to and customize it a bit by leaving off the beard and such.

After your name is called you are taken into a sort of anteroom. There, a pirate directs you to spin the wheel, which actually spins a treasure chest containing a pair of dice. These dice, and information in a secret pirate book, help determine what your pirate name will be. For example, my son's pirate name is Edgar Whalebones.

Once we all received our pirate names, we were directed into a room full of action. There were actually several stations where pirate makeup artists were turning new members of the Pirates League into pirates. You might have sworn you were in a warehouse or ship's hold with all the barrels and chests around. We each waited for our pirate makeup artist to call our pirate name to help make us truly members of the Pirates League.

Pirate Erin was tasked with helping turn me into a Pirate Empress. She applied my Empress make-up, lip gloss, and nail polish. I also was sporting a fabulous empress face jewel. And of course, I had to have my first pirate tattoo to be admitted to the Pirates League. Erin also instructed me that all pirates have to name their first tattoo. Fred became fast friends with my right hand that day. Erin finished off my pirate empress look with a pirate bandanna, an eye patch, and a gold hoop earring clipped on for good measure. My extra face jewels, nail polish, and lip gloss went into the booty bag that we each received.

My son opted for the Multi-Eyed Jack and my husband the Smokey-Eyed Jack. My daughter decided to go the Empress route, but with bolder colors than what I had chosen.

Once we were done with our pirate transformation, we had to recite the pirate oath, which is completely secret and completely something Captain Jack would write!