Pirates of the Caribbean was the last Disneyland attraction personally supervised by Walt Disney. The attraction was originally envisioned as a New Orleans-themed Blue Bayou Mart featuring a Pirate Wax Museum, housed in a 70-foot deep basement. The basement now serves as the grotto section of the attraction.

The water in the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland Park in Anaheim is surprisingly shallow, averaging only 3 to 4 feet deep throughout most of the ride's 15-minute duration. The flume is designed to hold approximately 750,000 gallons of water, which is treated with bromine to maintain clarity and prevent the growth of algae. While the water looks deep and dark due to the black-painted floor of the concrete channel and the low-light theatrical effects, it is essentially a shallow "river" that allows the flat-bottomed boats to glide along a hidden guide rail. There are, however, two "drops" early in the ride—one 52 feet long and another 37 feet long—that move the boats from the New Orleans Square station level down into the massive subterranean show building located outside the park's original perimeter. Despite the intensity of these drops, the water at the bottom remains the same shallow depth, as the boats are designed for buoyancy and displacement rather than deep-sea navigation.