Will Shanghaî Disneyland Pirates of Caribbean Ride Use This New "Omnimover Boat Ride" Technology ?

This week-end a member of WDWMagic forum has posted the complete list of the names of all Shanghaî Disneyland rides, shows, shops, restaurants, etc... everything. You can have a look at all this HERE and among the list is the title of the awaited SDL Pirates of Caribbean ride: "Battle for the Sunken Treasure". It is rumored since a long time that the SDL POTC ride will be a brand new version, not using that many audio-animatronics but a lot of projection effects probably with the same technology currently used in the Disney Hollywood Studios POTC show. 

There is also a strong rumor saying that the ride technology will be different than usual, may be using a new patent showing a different kind of boat with a kind of "simulation" system located under the boat which might allow the boat to move or shake suddenly depending of what's happening in the scenes. I already talked about this one and you can read my previous article and see patent images HERE.

But another WDI patent was discovered recently and this one is showing an "Omnimover boat ride" technology. As you know the Omnimover is the technology used for instance in the Haunted Mansion with cars all linked one to another by a hidden track moving at a constant speed. As the cars never stop it allows to have a huge ride capacity per hour and so far it has been a pretty reliable technology since it was introduced by WED in the late 60's.

This new patent describes the same principle, applied to boats, all linked together as you can see on the patent drawing above, and "not guided by and do not contact nearby sidewalls" at least for a part of the ride. The patent description mentions too a wave machine which could be used to propel the boats. Also mentioned in the description: "in the open bay or free-floating portion, the boats or vehicles may even be caused to traverse overland or out of water by placing ramps in the path of boats and providing pads or rollers/wheels on the bottom of the boat hulls/bodies", which for sure could make a very unique boat ride like you've never seen before.  

But will WDI use this "Omnimover boat ride" technology for POTC "Battle for the Sunken Treasure"? Even if you can see on the patent sketch above a sunken galleon it doesn't mean necessarily that it will be the case. Also, something else that we don't know is if this Omnimover boat ride will allow to have a boat slide during the ride. And a POTC ride without any slide would be really disappointing, wouldn't it? But if the boats are not really attached all together then it might be possible... As for the answer i'm afraid that we'll have to wait till 2015 to know which boat ride technology will be used in this awaited SDL POTC ride. 

Pictures: copyright Disney Enterprises