You may have heard a hardcore Disney fan point out that the water in Pirates of the Caribbean or Splash Mountain has a unique and memorable smell. It sounds crazy, but it actually isn’t and the reason why requires digging into a bit of science.
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So why do Pirates of the Caribbean and other water-based Disney rides have that “water smell” fans talk about? Well it has to do largely with how the water is cleaned.
You see, when it comes to keeping water disinfected in most pools, chlorine is the popular chemical of choice. It’s the major factor in why pools smell like pools. However Disney uses a different chemical and it’s called Bromine.
They use Bromine because it has a few advantages over chlorine. The main advantage, which ties into Disney’s dedication to guest safety is that it’s not nearly as harsh of a chemical when it comes to contact with skin, eyes, and clothing, which is pretty important for rides like Splash Mountain where guests are sometimes getting covered in the water. And while many people might not have issues with chlorine, guests with sensitive skin might find it irritating, making Bromine the safer bet.
On top of that, while being less irritating of a chemical, it still does a better job at killing bacteria and viruses in water. It also works better in warmer water, which can be a benefit in certain rides like Splash Mountain, or Disneyland’s it’s a small world which each have outdoor elements that are exposed to direct sunlight every day.
Lastly, there’s the issue of shocking. You see, when chlorine is put into pool water, what it essentially does is cling itself onto bacteria and kills it, creating something called chloramines which no longer clean the water. That means it needs to be removed from the water.
To do that, another chemical is introduced to the water that oxidizes the chloramines and turns them into a gas. This process is called shocking the water. When you’re by a pool and smell that chlorine smell? That’s part of what you’re smelling. Then more chlorine is introduced to the water and the process repeats.
Bromine is similar, creating bromamines when it combines with bacteria. The big difference however is that while chlorine loses it’s cleaning power when that happens, bromine does not. On top of that, when water with bromine is shocked, rather than oxidizing the bromamines completely, it only burns off the bacteria, turning the bromamines back into bromine with it’s full cleaning capability.
Think of it like paper towels and cloth towels. When you wipe up a spill with a paper towel you throw the towel away and need a new one for the next spill. When you wipe up a spill with a cloth towel you rinse it off and get to use it again.
And of course, the most notable difference is the smell. While chlorine has a strong chemical odor, bromine does not. It still has a smell, but it’s much more mild and as a result different.
Alright, so I’ve just sung the praises of bromine this whole time. If it’s so great, why aren’t pools everywhere using it instead of chlorine? As is usually the case, the answer is related to money. Bromine is more expensive to use than chlorine. It also tends to be harder to wash off, which is why you might find that the scent from a hot tub lingers longer than the scent from a pool.
With Disney however neither is a major issue. They not only have the money to invest into bromine, but are willing to do so for the benefits of guests. And since nobody should be swimming through Splash Mountain or Pirates of the Caribbean, they’re not as worried about the smell on skin.
Besides if pools everywhere used bromine instead of chlorine then we would get so accustomed to the smell that these rides would stop smelling as unique as they do, and start to just smell like pools, and where’s the fun in that?