What’s not to like?
Honestly, pirates aren’t the first thing I think of when it comes to Christmas—or the third, fourth, or twenty-seventh. But the year-round Pirates Voyage Dinner & Show in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, needed something to roll out during the holiday season, so the giant dinner theater, complete with pirate ship in a pool of water, becomes Christmas-bedecked from November through January 3.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I went, although I’d already been informed the dinner would include Voyager Creamy Vegetable Soup, a Buccaneer Biscuit, Half ‘O Roasted Cackler (Chicken), Swashbucklin’ Sugar-Cured Ham, Cob O’ Buttery Corn, Matey’s Mac ‘n’ Cheese, a choice of desserts, and unlimited Coke, tea, or coffee. Dietary restrictions can be accommodated with advance notice.
There was a crowd-warming pre-show before visitors were led into the theatre (more of an arena, really) and shown to our tables for more pre-show, which involved brightly colored parrots flying in circles around the arena (no word on whether they’re trained not to relieve themselves while flying over dinner tables, or if the choice to bring out the parrots before the lights come down and the food comes out is strategic).
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It’s clear, though, that many families make this into an annual event; several of those arriving are sharing their experiences with the show the previous year, and are already equipped with their red or green pirate flags, fully aware that the two sides of the arena are about to be divided into opposite cheering squads.
Unsure that what was to come next was meant to be experienced entirely sober, I, like a good pirate, ordered a double cocktail, which came in a skull-shaped souvenir mug. Rather charmingly, the mug appeared to be free with the order of a double. It arrived just in time for the acrobat pirates to come out, doing flips and jumps before we’re introduced to Salty the Sea Lion, who swims out to dance and slap his fins for the audience.
Before the performance was over, we’d seen plenty of swashbuckling, a moment where the pirate ship was seemingly set on fire, and plenty of acrobatic pirates in grey sweatpants being catapulted into the water. But perhaps the crowning moment of the show—which appeared to be loosely based on Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol—has the pirate Scrooge shown the true meaning of Christmas by a manger that appeared from the middle of the pirate ship, before Mary and Joseph walked on water to welcome their baby Jesus and accept the gifts from the three kings. Naturally, an angel appeared from the heavens to watch over it all, and at one point, she caught a live dove.
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With the true meaning of Christmas reviewed (Baby Jesus received the evening’s biggest round of applause) and the pirate Scrooge redeemed, we had time for a few more tricks from Salty, including a moment where he seems to bark along to Jingle Bells.
Myrtle Beach’s Pirate History
While it might seem rather incongruous to coastal South Carolina (the Pirate’s Voyage show also has productions in Panama City Beach, Florida, and at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee), there is actually a rich pirate history in the region.
Over brunch at the golf clubhouse at Pine Lakes, local historian and tour guide Kathryn Hedgepath shares some of the pirate history of the region. Drunken Jack’s in Murrell’s Inlet, where I had dined the night before, she said, was the setting for a pirate legend eerily similar to the one recounted in the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean. In it, a pirate called Jack is marooned on an island off the coast—some say forgotten by the crew after a night of drinking rum for both. South Carolina’s Drunken Jack had a less Hollywood ending—in his case, the legend ends with his skeleton being found some years later, surrounded by several empty cases of rum, with a smile on its bony face.
Murrell’s Inlet, says Hedgepath, was popular with pirates because the natural change of the tides provided a natural dry dock for them to repair their ships when needed. Today, it’s the site of a lively boardwalk of bars, restaurants, and shops.
Family Fun Abounds
Myrtle Beach is a prime spot for affordable family entertainment and a surprising number of pancake houses. I counted 14 of them in the five miles between my hotel Ellie Beach Resort, and the Pirate’s Voyage—and that’s excluding Waffle House or other breakfast restaurants that didn’t have “pancake” right in the name.
Visit Myrtle Beach
Myrtle Beach is also the world capital of mini golf, with themes ranging from pirates to dinosaurs. For a lark, I popped into the Asian-themed Red Dragon Cove to play a quick round, and I spent more time than I’d like to admit trying to figure out the “expert” level Par 2 on the floating junk ship.
History in Plain Sight
Perhaps my favorite stop, however, was Hobcaw Barony. Tours are available on the former rice plantation, and I joined one with an informative local guide who explained why rice was a favored crop in the South Carolina Low Country (it was immensely profitable), and that production there was so extensive that the nearby port of Georgetown was the second largest rice-exporting port in the world after Calcutta, India right up until the Civil War. The Gullah people, who were enslaved on the plantation, had brought expertise in cultivating rice from West Africa, and our guide demonstrated how they would have used a large wood mortar and pestle to husk the harvested grains of rice before packing.
We peered into the remains of cabins that once housed the enslaved people on the plantation, and the guide explained that many of the cabins remained occupied well into the 20th century because once freed, the residents preferred the relative safety of the community. When Bernard Baruch, the son of a Prussian immigrant to South Carolina, bought the estate in 1905, he allowed them to stay on, providing building materials to improve their cabins (the whitewash and porches onto the cabins were 20th-century additions), medical care, wage-paying jobs on the estate, and education through college for children. The one condition was that if they left to live somewhere else, they couldn’t return. The population of the cabins eventually dropped to zero, but the descendants of the residents still have access to the property for heritage reunions at the local church, which is still serviced by local clergy.
The estate was later bought by Belle Baruch from her father, who, in addition to her inheritance had made a fortune in horse breeding, and she returned to the property as a refuge from the discrimination she often faced as a lesbian. She willed the property to a conservation trust after her death, and today, numerous universities operate environmental science research facilities on the site. On the tour, we poked around the estate home that Bernard had bought for a winter hunting retreat. A close advisor to several presidents, Baruch welcomed several to the estate, most often Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who spent much time in retreat on the property during the Second World War.
I found myself pleasantly surprised by Myrtle Beach. I found it a fine mix of pirate and beach kitsch, more restaurants than I could have imagined, and plenty of natural and historic attractions along a fine stretch of white sand beach.
In fact, I almost found myself curious about the pirate show when it’s not Christmas.
Editor’s Note: Fodor’s has reviewed the animal care specifications provided by the Pirates Voyage and Dinner Show and is pleased to provide full details here.
