Pirate’s Lair

In case you didn’t know, Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer’s Island will be closing January 11^th when Disney breaks ground on Star Wars Land and will reopen at a later date. This little island is a quiet reprieve from the busy park during the day. The area opened in 1956 but it was rethemed as Pirate’s Lair in 2007 coinciding with the theatrical release of the Pirates of the Caribbean: At the World’s End movie.
I recently made a visit to the little island to run across the barrel bridge, walk on top of the fort, and take a picture of the treasure. It’s quiet here and a nice place to just stop to enjoy. There are bathrooms and drinking water fountains on the island for convenience. The island is accessible via ferry. Just line up by the queue and wait for the CM to ferry you across.

Formerly just Tom Sawyer Island, the Pirate’s Lair was given a new moniker (and a pirate-​themed makeover) a few years back to capitalize on the popularity on the Pirates of the Caribbean movies… and to be honest, it actually worked out quite well. While a bit of a small area, you will get your steps in… especially with all the stair climbing and cave and tunnel exploring you and the kiddos will be doing. (Just be careful going through the caves — as they’re mostly made for little ones, my fool self nearly got his @$$ stuck in one of the openings that was a mite too narrow for me.)
Have fun crossing the pontoon and rope bridges, pumping water out of one of the wrecks to reveal a treasure chest, and turning the turnstile to reveal a skeleton grasping another treasure chest from the depths. And seeing the pirate’s hoard at the end of the trail is definitely worth a picture or two (come to think of it, you can get some great pics while at Pirate’s Lair… especially as the Columbia and Mark Twain are making their rounds).
You can even come across Fort Wilderness — old timers like myself can remember the days when you can go inside and play with the swivel guns on the towers. These days, sadly, it’s used as the cast members’ staging area for Fantasmic; at least one can still see the graveyard outside of the fort.
Still, a worthwhile addition to the park — if anything, to get away from the crowds for a while. It’ll be closing down for some time due to the Star Wars land expansion (along with the Rivers of America attractions, the railroad, and monorail… oh, and Fantasmic also will be taking a hiatus), but looking forward to getting my pic in front of the pirate hoard — with my lightsaber claiming it for the Jedi! — once it reopens.

Ok not used to the name i always called it Tom Sawyer Island and the Tom Sawyer raft ride lol. The Island is a cool place to walk around chill or just kick back away from the crowds the only downside now that I’m not a little kid anymore is being able to go through all the caves and them small entrances. But it brought back memories when i was a kid and my dad would takes us here and let us run wild.

For those with little ones, this is a great place to (mostly) get away from the crowds and let the kiddos have some freedom to run around a bit.
You board a raft in front of The Haunted Mansion to get to the island. Once over there, you can just leisurely explore. My son loved the bridges, tunnels, the telescopes on the shipwreck, and of course the pirates’ hidden treasure.
Again, this is a «ride» I didn’t bother with before I had an annual pass, but now that I do, I find it to be a nice break from the lines for my son. The island could be a bit better — it is a decent amount of land, so making it more of a destination would be nice. Maybe a pirate performance every hour? Or a play area somewhat like the play garden in Toon Town?

Firs time on this attraction, and first time on Tom Sawyer Island. I should be ashamed since I once worked at DL during my formative years. But I digress.
You make your way over from the dock in front of Haunted Mansion by way of raft (you don’t have to row, it’s motor powered). Once on the island you can go left or right. There are all these caves and tunnels to explore — my son and his little friend loved these. There is also a pirate’s chest near the back with piles of gold and treasure that kids can climb on (good photo ops here).
There are also a couple of wooden suspension bridges. One my son called the «wiggly bridge» because it was very wobbly and he and his buddy loved running across.
The boys discovered this large circular turnstile thingy that was attached to ropes in the water, and as the boys turned the spokes, the ropes raised a hidden treasure chest that was underwater, and hanging underneath it was a skeleton. They thought this was the greatest thing ever. Awesome!
Overall a great place for kiddos to run around and play pirates. I doubt I’d find it so interesting if i didn’t have a child with me. And don’t worry about being so far from mainland Disneyland — they have bathrooms on the island.

Finally talked my 10 year old into visiting… I seem to remember this island being a lot more fun when I was 10, LOL!

Ah the Pirate’s Lair… possibly the most underrated part of Disneyland.
The little «island» will bring out your inner child that thirsts for adventure. There is so much to explore. Better for the cooler seasons so you don’t feel drained from the sun beating down on you. I always feel like I am on an adventure on the island.

This is a very fun place. On a super hot day, it might be better to opt for an air-​conditioned ride, but if the weather’s right, you have to stop and check this out, especially if you have kids.

Extremely fun!
This area of Disneyland is right up my alley. You are on the opposite side of the Rivers of America, you take a little motorized raft to get there.
The whole island is done up in a pirates theme, which is very cool.
There caves and paths to explore everywhere!
Plus there are benches, picnic tables and restrooms on the island (and as far as I am aware, no consumerist shops).

I think we would have enjoyed exploring the island more if we were not so tired. Lots of walking in the hot heat. Nice small caves for kiddos to explore. Review from kiddo word for word…“I like it because it has nature walks, and it has great caves to explore for treasure, and most of all, we like to sail in our raft boat.”

This is a nice place to chill out. It’s the one area in the park where you can explore on your own instead of having your experience prescribed for you. If you’re trippin’ a little too hard on the crowds and over-​stimulation of Disneyland (and possibly other things), you can get away to this quiet oasis and recharge.

Because you haven’t walked enough at the park. Here is some more walking.
Ever wonder how the island looks that Mickey from Fantasmic performs on? We’ll look no further this is the place to go.
Although they call this the Pirates Lair. I think it’s more like shipwreck island. You walk around the island through little caverns to get to different areas of the boat. There is also a rickety bridge. Several points of interest such as a pirates golden fortune and graveyard.
This is a great place to see Disneyland from another view (Mickey’s Fantasmic View).
Lots if shade from the sun and also a couple of bathrooms are located around the island.
First time seeing this place. It’s a cool experience but I probably would pass. Nothing to spectacular. Plus your shoes gets dirty from all the dirt.

Surprisingly a nice place to get away from the crowds at Disneyland. If you feel like wandering away from the lines and bustle for a bit, definitely swing by Tom Sawyer Island.

I’ve been going to DL for years, but it took a 60 minute wait for Pirates of the Caribbean to push me across the water.
I wish my parents brought me here as a child. It’s a fairly small, but plenty of room to run and explore the caves, rocks, and the discolored treasure in the rear.
Special notes: there are 2 locations for bathrooms on this island. It was pretty clean.

I’ve been going to DL for most of my life and a lot if you know what I mean! While I’m now pretty desensitized to most experiences that this resort has to offer I still get giddy and child-​like whenever I visit the island where you take a cool little motorized raft over to.
Disney updated the looks of this famous island a couple of times since I first started visiting, but rather than ever complain about any changes I’ve always chosen to embrace whatever changes they’ve made. The last major change came when the first Pirates of the Caribbean came out and Disney converted TSI to the new Pirate’s Lair where they themed the island more toward an island that’s been overrun by Pirates. I actually loved this change because while vastly different this change added significant change to the décor which was actually really cool.
I’d say my favorite part to this day is still the Suspension Bridge, but you can explore this «island» and figure out which part is your favorite too!
Since there are many narrow walkways here then I’d keep an eye on your little one/​ones for safety reasons of course.

What a huge surprise and we loved this place!
My boys are 7 and 4! They loved this island. Checking out the hidden caves, treaures and especially just running around chasing each other acting like they were pirates. I don’t recall this place when I was a kid and definitely don’t recall all the rope bridges and climbing caves. But what a wonderful oasis from the crowd. I like it that it also has quiet areas for parents to just sit and cool down while the kids are playing. My daughter who is 2 loved all the hills and hiking but was definitely tough for her to climb some of the steps to the towers and stuff.
I would recommend this place to anybody that has young children.

A nice get away from the rest of the park

Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer’s Island is an artificial island located in Disneyland, which is surrounded by a large river that is only accessible by a motorized raft caught from Frontierland near the Haunted Mansion.
Once you arrive at the small dock, you are on your own investigating a small sailing vessel ship wreck including working bilge pumps and a suspension bridge, along with many large rock sculptures filled with narrow walkways, ladders and steps through sandy caves. There is also a large mound of treasure to be found at the furthest end of the pathways accessible to guests. My daughter had a lot of fun climbing onto the mounds of treasure and pretending to be a pirate.
There were many older kids whipping through the caves and stairways at full speed making it a little dangerous taking a toddler through the narrow walkways. We saw two separate instances where wild children got scratched up pretty good from running around through the slippery sand /​gravel walkways at full speed. Parents need to keep better tabs of their children and not let them amuck here.
This is a cute idea for some sun and getaway from the Disneyland crowds, but I think we’ll be skipping this attraction for a while. At least we can say that we’ve been there and tried it at least once.

Not my favorite place to go… but it is most definitely my kids favorite… the 4 stars is my opinion… my kids would say 5 stars all the way… ok…i think i’ll give it a 5 star.
the good…
–you get to take a raft to the island
–it’s away from the crowds
–it has cool caves and tunnels to explore (if ur a big person… watch your head!)
–there is a treehouse for the kids to place (and benches for me to sit on)…but you have to climb some steep steps to get there
–2 super cool bridges to walk across… you may not think that this is a plus, but check out the bridges. they are so much fun!!!
–a giant ball for the kids to climb/​play in (the one from pirates of the Caribbean movie)
–a huge mound of treasure for the kids to climb on/​great photo opp!
–best place for a picnic lunch in the park
the bad…
–closes early (this is where they set up the pyro for Fantasmic)
–there are no rides
–2 bathrooms… one is teeny tiny… the other is up a big hill
–is even hotter than the rest of the park (i’m talking on a warm day)
ok…i’m really struggling to find anything bad… those were a far reach. the only real bad is that there are no rides and I’m a ride junky. I actually really like the Island.

In the middle of the Rivers of America’s lies Pirate’s Liar, or as I grew up knowing it, Tom Sawyers Island.
To get access the island find the small dock closest to the Haunted Mansion, there you will board a raft that’ll that take you to the island.
This is a great place for kids to explore and run off some sugar! As an adult the island seems so tiny now, none-​the-​less still cool today!