DCA rennovation

[Bud Parsley]

I'm in that small minority that thinks DCA was not/has not been a bad park, I guess. Now even Disney itself is admitting DCA was a dud, since they are frantically trying to re-do the whole thing.

I'll admit: the DCA entrance was always kind of lame, but the rest of the park? I rather enjoyed the contemporary feel. I just think it is a young park that needs time to grow and develop, and I thought it had improved in recent years quite a bit. I guess I'm one of the only ones who felt this way.

That's not to say I'm not excited about all the news of the changes...I think they will be great. I'm most excited about the new entrance and the Walt Disney story at the new theater. I'm sure Toy Story and Mermaid will be great, and being a HUGE Cars fan, I'm very excited for Cars Land. However, I'm just not quite sure I buy into the whole "DCA sucks" hype. OK, maybe the entrance sucks.

And I guess I'm sold on Al Lutz being a true insider. I don't worship the ground the guy walks on, but his credibility just went up several notches in my book...

Thoughts?

[skinnyguy]

^The reason why people haven't liked DCA is because first of all everyone thought the park didn't have enough rides, and then when they started adding more stuff, it had nothing to do with California. People see Bug's Land, Monster's Inc., Toy Story, and they think it's dumb that they aren't adding "California" themed attractions.

Me? I don't really care. Sure, they could have put more rides in to start with, but I thought that the stuff that was there was excellent. I'm with skylark in that I don't go to parks to watch shows, so I was never that thrilled with all the shows that were there, but as for rides, Screamin' is one of my favorite coasters of all time, Soarin over California is a really fun ride, and Grizzly River Rapids is the best rafting ride out there. I felt this was a very good start.

With the additions, I think that the Tower of Terror fits California in that it's "Hollywood". The Bug's Land area is really fun to go walk around in, regardless of if you have kids or not. Excellent theming overall. And I really like Monster's, Inc. Of course, the Pixar stuff doesn't really fit, but it is DISNEY'S California Adventure. I think it's safe to put a few Disney-oriented things in it. Besides, they have to have stuff for kids to ride. Honestly, kids are there for Disneyland, and unless there's some rides for them at DCA, they wouldn't want to go. So I think the Pixar stuff was a good move to help round out the selection of rides.

Which is why I am happy about the additions. I'm sad that they're taking down the golden gate bridge for the monorail - I thought that was pretty cool. But I think the face-lift of the entrance will be very cool. Cars was and still is one of my favorite Pixar movies, so I think that will be great. I'm interested on the details of the Indy-style E-ticket that is coming.

Kind of funny...first everyone was mad that they didn't have enough rides and that the California theme was dumb...then they added more rides and everyone was mad that the rides weren't "California" enough...now they're re-vamping the whole park to do more with the California theme and put more attractions in, yet people still complain. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm certainly NOT going to lose any sleep over the fact that adding anamatronic animals to Grizzly River Rapids isn't in the plans for the near future....*sigh*

[wolfblood]

OK, here are my opinions on this.

First off I find it extremely funny people were complaining it didn't have enough rides when it opened. Compare it to the openings of MGM Studios (Which had a grand total of 2 rides.) and Animal Kingdom, DCA had way more attractions!

Now I have to say the park was poorly planned in some areas, while they had great attractions such as Soarin', Grizzly River Run, California Screaming etc. Most of Paradise Pier has attractions that quite frankly you can find at any other park, though I'm not going to bash this too much since they did get a good feel for the boardwalk parks.

One nitpick I have is I just don't get the point of having a California themed park...in California.

The major problem with the parks evolution is they just kept adding "themed up" carnival rides and not enough E-Tickets.

Even though Tower of Terror is a E-Ticket, I can write a whole article on how they screwed up on it.

Now for the new changes, I really don't mind CarLand since it's bringing in a much needed E-Ticket. If I were to nitpick I would have had the name of the land simply be "Radiator Springs"

Now with Toy Story Mania, for me the jury is still out on how good it will be. Because right now it just looks like remake of Buzz Lightyear/MIB Alien Attack, but your shooting at a screen with 3D effects.

To me I prefer shooting dark rides to have animatronics and sets instead of a screen.

As for the Little Mermaid dark ride, looking at the concept art of the inside it looks exactly the same as the special feature they have on the DVD set. I just hope they use the proposed suspended ride vehicles, because looking at the concept art they are showing Clam mobiles that have been used for Nemo in Epcot.

[styvx]

well, i'm one of those who thinks disney has completely lost the capability of making a decent theme park with consistency to it. carsland? CARSLAND? first of all the name is stupid, and second, this is totally INCONSISTENT with the rest of the park.

toy story is a stretch for paradise pier.

mermaid looks cool but belongs in fantasyland.

they should just change the name to "disney's toonland" and be done with it. then they can theme the coaster to villians, add ratatouille, and so on and so forth, and at least there will be some sort of consistent message coming out of the park.

[skinnyguy]

Styvx, pure and simply put, you confuse me....

Wolfblood, happy birthday! As to your comments, I agree that the Carsland area should have been named Radiator Springs, but I'm still excited. I also agree that I hope they do the Little Mermaid ride with suspended cars - Peter Pan is one of my favorites because of that idea...although I hope they make it longer than Peter Pan. That ride always seems too short for me, but I digress.

While I see your point about the "themed up" carnival style rides, I think Disney has always been all about theming than the ride itself. Many of the rides in Disneyland would absolutely suck if there were no theming. Take any ride they have (i.e. Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Matterhorn, etc.) and take out the theming. How many people would really want to ride those? As I said though, I do see where you're coming from - some of the additions to DCA were much more carnival-style than the rides I mentioned.

And I gotta ask - why do you not like Tower of Terror? I'll admit, I was expecting more the first time I rode it, but for some reason, ever since my first ride, I've loved it. It's one of my favorite rides at the DLR - especially at night. I take it you've been on the one in Florida as well? I have not, so I guess I have nothing to compare it to.

[styvx]

skinnyguy, i am like a string of complex visualbasic code...difficult to decipher on the surface, but once you do, i make perfect sense.

dca to me is a sorry excuse for a disney park. not to sound too much like a prominent internet disney guru, but we should expect more - A LOT MORE - from disney. typical off the shelf carnival rides, midway games, buildings with nothing in them (san francisco area), a "centerpice" that is about as exciting as innoventions (the stupid sun plaza fountain), cheaper versions of rides from other parks (tower of terror), and worst of all in my opinion, bringing in 10 year old attractions and marketing them as new from other parks (muppets) - all of these things are NOT disney. they aren't the company that made legendary rides like pirates, haunted mansion, splash mountain and indy.

i agree there is such a thing as a park that can be different and still be cool but they went on the cheap with dca and made it different and crap-tacular. and as bud pointed out now they are even admitting it. at least that is a step forward but we'll see if it is just talk as the upcoming months go by.

-styvx

[wolfblood]

^^ Thanks Skinnyguy! ^_^

You do have very nice points on the "Themed up" Carnival rides, even though Dumbo is very simplistic...it's a ride you must take little kids on or they won't be happy the rest of the trip.

Though yes the recent additions in DCA have been too much carnival, not enough E Tickets and dark rides.

As for my opinions with ToT, the first one I've been on was the original in MGM. So experiencing DCA's was a letdown, especially when they were saying it would feature special effects WAY better then the first.

Though I will gladly tell the certain reasons why I'm not a fan of DCA's. Sure some things are nitpicks, but that's just the way I am on this. First off one thing I love about Flordia's is the large garden queue line you go through to enter the hotel, it quickly transports you to it's theme and it works well.

While sadly DCA's is more cement switchbacks then a winding garden.

Another nitpick is a few things in the Boiler room, while I love it's sheer size. There are two things that annoy me, the lighting and what I call "The Boiler Face." In MGM's version the lighting is dim and dark, the bright oranges and blues in DCA's version just doesn't set the mood...in fact I think it makes it more cartoony then creepy. Speaking of cartoony, there is a boiler that resembles a face. But I'm quickly reminded of Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin because of it, while RRCTS is a favorite attraction of mine...the boiler face adds a cartoony element to the Boiler room.

Now for the things that really dissapoint me, the first thing is when you line up at the elevator doors expecting to enter the car...only to walk through a rather plain hallyway with trashcans. A very jarring moment that quite frankly makes no sense to me.

The other thing is the 5th Dimension, a mirror that turns you into a ghost is quite pale compared to a empty room that your car moves into and is presented with Twilight Zone images...only to have a starfield form into a white line and part like elevator doors. Sending you into a pitch black shaft where you have no idea if your going to rise or drop. (Thanks to the random ride sequences, you have no idea what's comming up.)

[skinnyguy]

styvx said:

skinnyguy, i am like a string of complex visualbasic code...difficult to decipher on the surface, but once you do, i make perfect sense.

complex visualbasic code...sounds like an oxymoron... ;D

[styvx]

i was hoping to hear skylarks thoughts on this.

skylark? where you at?

-styvx

[65skylark]

^ I have been out of town for just over three weeks. But, never fear, I am back and trying to get all caught up. So, I'm going to lay it all out for you styvx. Hope you're in a reading mood

Along with my own takes, I am going to paraphrase a little of what Robb Alvey from Them Park Review said about the rennovation because I totally agree with him and he makes some very good points.

Let me start by saying that I have never personally had as much of a problem with the park as a lot of people. I have always kind of liked the laid back atmosphere of DCA and I have always liked that it was very different from Disneyland. What they seem to be doing now is trying to make it more like Disneyland, and that, IMO, will never work.

For starters, re-doing the entrance with the addition of a main street? Looks and sounds like the main street to WDW/MGM studio's with a different theater at the end. And having two main streets back to back just seems odd. I am not attached to the entrance they have now but at least it isn't anything like the entrance that is 200 yards away. It is like they are trying to make people think that DCA has the same amount of charm as the park across the street. I don't know about the rest of you, but I am not fooled. And, again, that is one of the things I kind of liked about DCA. It was never trying to be Disneyland. Now, it seems, that has changed.

The addition of yet two more dark rides is a little too much, IMO. How many dark rides is DLR going to add. Just in the last few years we have.....Pooh, Monsters, Buzz, Nemo, Toy Story Mania, Mermaid. I like dark rides as much as the next guy but enough is enough.

The new 4D movie is another transplant from WDW. So they are going to replace one old WDW movie with another old WDW movie. Um.......OK.

Re-theming Mulholland Madness. Now, instead of a poorly themed, average wild mouse coaster, there will be a more highly themed, average wild mouse coaster. Plus, in that general area, there are rumors flying that Maliboomer and Orange Stinger are going to be removed, but nothing is slated to take their place. Not a great way to increase the ride count if you ask me.

Adding trolleys is another Disneyland idea that may add some eye candy type charm, but really won't do much for me. Sure they look kind of nice but I don't ride any of the transportation they have down main street at Disneyland, and I am sure I won't ride these either.

On a positive note, I do really like the addition of Carsland. I just got to ride Test Track for the first time at EPCOT and it was great. This will truly be a much needed "E-ticket" attraction on the same level as Indy or Splash Mountain.

The lagoon show. Let me just say this. It had better be even better than Fantasmic! if they don't want people to walk away saying "it wasn't as good as Fantasmic!......another DCA letdown". We'll just have to wait and see on that one.

I agree with some of you that they have lost touch with the California theme. And, really, that is an easy fix. You change the name. There, fixed! I think they should be focusing on adding more to the park over time (like Carsland) and not dumping billions into trying to make it more like Disneyland, which it will never, ever, be. Heck, even the Magic Kingdom at WDW is lackluster compared with Disneyland and it IS a copy!

On a side note, I agree with you who have a problem with ToT. I also rode the one in Florida first and it is far superior! If you are going to add a ride to one of your parks that you already have in another park, at least make it just as impressive. I can't even hardly stand to ride Pirates of the Caribbean at WDW because of the fact that it is just so scaled down compared with the original. Same thing with ToT at DCA. It is a good ride, if you haven't been on the one in Florida.

So there you have it. My opinion in a nut shell. Basically, I really don't think DCA will ever draw the amount of people they originally hoped it would, no matter what they do to it. It will always be "the park next door". If people have time, they'll visit it along with Disneyland. Otherwise, they'll skip it. And that's fine. Knott's, Universal, SFMM, Lego Land, and Seaworld are all in the same boat. People go on vacation to SoCal for Disneyland, and if they have time to squeeze in other things that are close by, they will. It is that simple.