Johnny Depp Surprises 'Pirates' Riders As Captain Jack Sparrow

Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean ride can only be improved one way: IRL Johnny Depp

Disneyland is already the most magical place on Earth. No need to improve upon perfection. But, if it must be improved, there is but one way to do it: Replace the animatronic Jack Sparrow on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride with the real thing.

Some Disneyland visitors this week got the best surprise ever when that actually happened. To promote the newest Pirates installment, Dead Men Tell No Tales, Johnny Depp donned his iconic Jack Sparrow duds and hung out at the ride, staggering around as endlessly entertained parkgoers looked on.

Luckily for those of us who weren’t at Disneyland that day, social media exists, and basically everyone who saw it posted proof, because, you know, pics or it didn’t happen.

Much to the delight of Pirates fans, Depp has made something of a habit out of reprising his role as Jack Sparrow off-screen. Most famously, he’s donned the costume to visit children’s hospitals all over the world, bringing a little joy to the kids being treated there. Just last month, he visited a hospital in Brisband, Australia, where he was filming the latest Pirates installment.

“It was really beautiful. Everyone kept on trying to move [Depp] on, but he kept on coming back,” the mom of one sick kid told ABC Australia. “He came on the condition that he wasn’t pushed along and crowded by adults and he could spend as much time as he wanted with the kids.”

Sorry to everyone who missed out on seeing Depp in the flesh at Disneyland, but you can still catch Dead Men Tell No Tales when it opens in theaters May 26.