Animal Kingdom vs California Adventure

[TP2000]

You should vote 20 more times for DCA, then the vote for DCA vs DAK will officially be tied

Can you actually vote more than once? That seems shady.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

This is a hard question because we really enjoy DCA and we still consider AK a 1/2 to 3/4 day park, there’s simply not enough to do for us to spend a full 12 hours there… despite that I’d still rather spend 8 hours in AK than 12 hours at DCA so I voted AK.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I think that’s my thing.. we all agree DAK needs more and is underdeveloped. But I also don’t want that more to be DCA quality. I enjoy DCA, but if someone told me, “tomorrow, you can go to either DCA or DAK”, I’d spend the day at DAK.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

Remember when there was just « Disney quality »?

 

[BalooChicago]

Depends on what your criteria is. Animal Kingdom is more cohesive. It has one of our top three rides (which until recently was our #1) and one of our favorite restaurants (I could eat Satu’li Bowls every day and not tire of them). However, AK is, at best, a half day park. In our last trip my wife didn’t even go to AK with us, and my son and I did Everest, FoP, and Navi and left. We’ve only done Navi once before, and swore we never would do Navi again, but Dinosaur was down, and it was raining. We should have just left after FoP.

We can easily spend a full day plus at DCA.

 

[Phroobar]

At DAK there just isn't much to do. There isn't enough of a mix of rides. It feels like you walk forever to get to anything. A bugs life isn't a draw anymore and should be replaced. The theming is almost too good in sections. Do you really want to spend time in the poverty areas of Africa? It is like if DCA had an East LA section. It would have been great to have the magical creatures area though.

 

[PiratesMansion]

I had some sushi tonight as an appetizer, and I thought of my trips to Japan, then I thought of this thread.

Lest we think DAK is not a rare unloved anomaly, there's a theme park as old as DCA that does a much better job at being a theme park than DAK does. Here's a comparison of another Disney theme park that is not DCA but that opened just a couple years after Animal Kingdom.

Disney's Animal Kingdom opened 1998 = 8 Rides, 4 Theaters, 2 Interactive Playgrounds
5 E Tickets = Kilimanjaro Safari, Kali River Run, Flight of Passage, Expedition Everest, Dinosaur
2 D Tickets = Train to Conservation Station, Navi River Journey
1 C Ticket = Triceratops Spin
4 Theaters = Tough To Be A Bug, Festival of the Lion King, Feathered Friends, Finding Nemo
2 Interactive Playgrounds = Conservation Station, The Boneyard

Tokyo Disney Sea opened 2001 = 25 Rides, 5 Theaters, 2 Interactive Playgrounds, 3 Spectaculars/Fireworks
9 E Tickets = Nemo, Tower of Terror, Soaring, 20K Leagues, Journey TTCOT Earth, Sinbad, Indy, Never Land, Frozen Journey
4 D Tickets = Toy Story Mania, Raging Spirits, Rapunzel's Lantern FesAtival, Transit Steamer Line
6 C Tickets = Electric Railway, Aquatopia, Venetian Gondolas, Caravan Carousel, Flying Fish Coaster, Tinker Bell's Buggies
6 B Tickets = Big City Vehicles, Flying Carpets, Jumpin' Jellyfish, Scuttle's Scooters, Blowfish Balloon Race, The Whirlpool
5 Theaters = Turtle Talk, Broadway Music Theatre, Hangar Stage, Magic Lamp Theater, Mermaid Lagoon Theater
2 Interactive Playgrounds = Fortress Explorations, Ariel's Playground
3 Water Spectaculars/Fireworks = Big Band Beat (daytime), Believe; Sea of Dreams (nighttime), Sky Full Of Colors

Tokyo DisneySea has more than triple the number of rides Animal Kingdom does, more theaters, and actually does two different water spectaculars per day, plus fireworks. But Animal Kingdom sure is landscaped nice, isn't it?

Alas, this isn't a DAK vs. TDS thread.

If you look, I'm sure one has been made somewhere.

 

[Professortango1]

I don't think I can spend a full day at DCA or DAK. I look at my must do's though.

DCA Must Do's
Radiator Spring Racers
Midway Mania
Mission BO by default

DAK Must Do's
Expedition Everest
Dinosaur
Flight of Passage
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Tough to be a Bug

Add in the fact that DAK is an entire park where I can enjoy the scenery and DCA has the abbreviated Grizzly Peak and Buena Vista Street being the only lands that feel immersive, and with Grizzly Peak that is compromised by the monorail and hotel combined with the smallness of the land.

 

[TP2000]

Alas, this isn't a DAK vs. TDS thread.

If you look, I'm sure one has been made somewhere.

Alas, DAK is a 26 year old theme park that still only has 8 rides, 4 theaters, and no parades or spectaculars, and no new animal exhibits built or added for 25 years. Whereas Tokyo DisneySea is a 24 year old theme park that has 25 rides, 5 theaters, and 3 spectaculars.

Why is that do you think?

 

[PiratesMansion]

Alas, DAK is a 26 year old theme park that still only has 8 rides, 4 theaters, and no parades or spectaculars, and no new animal exhibits built or added for 25 years. Whereas Tokyo DisneySea is a 24 year old theme park that has 25 rides, 5 theaters, and 3 spectaculars.

Why is that do you think?

Cuz Disney's cheap.

Not new information to you, me, or anyone else here.

Anyway, this thread remains Animal Kingdom vs. California Adventure, which notably has nothing to do with TDS.

 

[mlayton144]

Cuz Disney's cheap.

Not new information to you, me, or anyone else here.

Anyway, this thread remains Animal Kingdom vs. California Adventure, which notably has nothing to do with TDS.

Yeah kind of a weird diversion from TP2000, he seems miffed at the results of the poll

 

[TP2000]

Yeah kind of a weird diversion from TP2000, he seems miffed at the results of the poll

I forgot there was a poll. It's currently 35 people voting for DAK, and 13 people voting for DCA.

I'm not sure that's good data to give to TDO or Burbank though. Somewhere in Lake Buena Vista there's a conference room with an executive saying...

"You guys, look at this! These idiots like a zoo park that only has 8 rides and hasn't had a new animal exhibit added since Bill Clinton was in office! And we're charging 'em $149 to get in there for the day! We can totally keep scamming them for at least another decade, maybe two!!!"

 

[DavidDL]

Does the quantity of the rides really matter? I will take what limited options DAK has over the mess DCA has become any day. If this were around 2012, I'd of voted differently, though. DCA has since become little more than a joke for me.

I mean, I'd rather pay $149 to enter a Disneyland that only had Pirates and Mansion operating over a fully operational DCA. It's just gotten that bad.

 

[mickEblu]

Does DCA pale in comparison to Disneyland? Of Course.

Is it in the bottom 2-3 of all Disney parks worldwide? Yes.

Do I get bored if I'm stuck there for a day with family who didn't buy park hoppers? Yes.

Do I hate the changes they've made since 2016? Yes

Is it still way better than people around here make it out to be? Yes

 

[Professortango1]

Alas, DAK is a 26 year old theme park that still only has 8 rides, 4 theaters, and no parades or spectaculars, and no new animal exhibits built or added for 25 years. Whereas Tokyo DisneySea is a 24 year old theme park that has 25 rides, 5 theaters, and 3 spectaculars.

Why is that do you think?

Let's not forget that DAK was the subject of budget cuts, so the first expansion it received was just getting the park to where it should have been day 1. We are now looking at another big update with adding more exhibits and several new attractions. TDS only very recently received their first expansion with Fantasy Springs and the 4 new attractions that brought. Which Disney didn't have to pay for.

The Orlando parks have always been a victim of the resort, meaning that any one of the parks by themselves has always felt less than what we are used to out here. EPCOT was great, but a lot of that full-day aspect was just due to the size of that park and how long it took to explore, not necessarily a huge attraction roster like DL.

Does AK need more attractions? Yes. But I will also argue that all of the attractions they have beat DCA's attractions, with the exception of GRR (by a thin hair because Kali is GARBAGE) and RSR. DCA is mostly carnival attractions, two lackluster darkrides where they don't fit, and a once-great E-Ticket being uglified into a USH retheme of a USO attraction. DCA isn't aesthetically pleasing and lacks identity and Disney magic. Its better than the Paris studio park, but only barely.

 

[TP2000]

Let's not forget that DAK was the subject of budget cuts, so the first expansion it received was just getting the park to where it should have been day 1.

Have you met DCA circa 2001-2007? That was the epitome of budget cuts and scaled back plans. Gawd, it was just horrible!

We are now looking at another big update with adding more exhibits and several new attractions.

Which it has desperately needed for over 20 years now. It's 2024. If they announce new stuff for DAK at D23 Expo next month, it won't open until the late 2020's, maybe 2030 or later in phases. That's not acceptable, but here we are, and the fans at WDW accept it as if it's a legitimate entertainment roster for a 26 year old theme park, when it's really not.

TDS only very recently received their first expansion with Fantasy Springs and the 4 new attractions that brought.

To be fair once DisneySea opened in 2001, from 2002 to 2020, TDS opened 2 new E Tickets (Tower of Terror, Soaring), 2 new D Tickets (Midway Mania, Raging Spirits), 2 major revamps to opening day E Tickets (Sinbad, Finding Nemo), and a long list of huge new water spectaculars and large scale stage shows every year or two.

Then they opened the Fantasy Springs expansion this year with 4 additional rides in a new land.

The Orlando parks have always been a victim of the resort, meaning that any one of the parks by themselves has always felt less than what we are used to out here. EPCOT was great, but a lot of that full-day aspect was just due to the size of that park and how long it took to explore, not necessarily a huge attraction roster like DL.

Well, it also helped that most Epcot attractions built in the 1980's were at least 15 minutes long. Some of the individual rides, like the Exxon pavilion and Kraft Foods boat ride, were 30 to 45 minutes long. And not a single 90 second spinner ride in the bunch.

DCA isn't aesthetically pleasing and lacks identity and Disney magic.

See, this is where I scratch my head and think "Did they really tear down the Billion dollars worth of stuff they built for DCA circa 2012???" Then I think, and tally, and realize all of this fabulous stuff from the 2012 relaunch we all raved about is all still there. And some stuff, like the removal of Condor Flats in 2015 to be remade into Grizzly Peak Airfield, was a big improvement over what was there in 2012.

All this stuff is still at DCA. I just double checked.

 

[TP2000]

For those unfamiliar with DCA's changes since 2012, here's a summary of the main changes since the Billion dollar relaunch of that park in 2012.

In 2012, there was A Bug's Land (which was added in a panic in 2003 after the park flopped hard upon its '01 opening)

Then in 2022 it was replaced by Avenger's Campus. 3 of Bug's Lands kiddy rides were removed, one was rethemed and moved to the Pier, and the It's Tough To Be A Bug show was replaced with a Spiderman D Ticket. A Bug's Land was done fast and cheap, but Avenger's Campus was done less fast and less cheap and yet looks like a business park for superheroes. Overall, probably a wash for DCA, as Avenger's Campus does seem to be popular with folks when new Marvel characters are introduced there.

In 2012, the Soarin' ride was still placed in Condor Flats from opening day; a high desert airfield.

This entire area was rethemed and repurposed a bit when they switched over to digital HD projectors for Soarin', and they rechristened it Grizzly Peak Airfield and made it an extension of the Grizzly Peak area that got rethemed and spruced up for the 2015 relaunch. The theme was reset to circa 1960 in a California State Park. This was a definite improvement for DCA from 2012 and one of it signature E Tickets that launched a Soarin' franchise worldwide.

This is how Paradise Pier looked in 2012. It had received a Victorian retheme in stages starting with Midway Mania in 2008, but some of the area remained untouched from 2001.

Then in 2019, the utterly clueless and talentless Parks Chairman Bob Chapek redid the core area of this land into PIxar Pier. The Victorian architecture remained, but places that hadn't been touched since 2001 (like Screamin', the Carousel, the western boardwalk, etc.) were rethemed to Pixar characters. This was a dumb and tacky downgrade for DCA. But then it was Bob Chapek's era, so how could it not be dumb and tacky?

 

[PiratesMansion]

@TP2000, I assure you we were all here for the last decade plus of evolution/devolution, as the case may be, for both DCA and Disney Parks as a whole. For all of the text and images contained within your last few posts, I don't believe that there's any new information contained within it that we haven't heard from you or others countless times, OR that we haven't experienced for ourselves many times over.

I'm sorry that you were personally victimized by DAK in some unspecified way, but that doesn't mean that many of us can't find DAK to be a superior park over DCA anyway.

 

[TP2000]

There are two other major changes to DCA since 2012, such as the change from Tower of Terror circa 2012...

Into an all new ride based on Guardians Of The Galaxy. A wash? A downgrade? An improvement? Since the DCA Tower of Terror was the cheaper and far less grand version of the rides found in Orlando or Tokyo that was built in a panic in 2004 after DCA flopped (see A Bug's Land above), and since the new ride plays music from my generation, I actually like the Mission: Breakout ride better than Tower of Terror. It's far more themed and, dare I say it, immersive than the cheap Tower version DCA had before. But I know others who absolutely hate Mission: Breakout, so who knows?

And then finally, we get to what used to be known as Pacific Wharf. This was the food court area that was part of DCA since opening day. The original Mission Tortilla factory tour was replaced by Ghirardelli's ice cream parlor in 2012, otherwise it pretty much stayed the same since 2001.

In 2023 it was rethemed into San Fransokyo Square, based on the Big Hero 6 franchise. This change seems to be a wash, but some people love it and some people hate it. For me, it's just sort of a questionable retheme of a rather modest food court area, and I never really ate there anyway, so who knows?

Other than those 5 projects, major rethemes or modest updates of varying quality, I can't think of anything at DCA in 2024 that has been changed since 2012. Can anyone else?

 

[PiratesMansion]