News, rumors and any sort of interesting discussion has been rather light so let’s talk about one of our favorite subjects… fixing DCA. I’m not sure the main issue of the park just feeling like a collection of lands with no real connection to one another can be fixed. With that said, they’ re never going to blow it up and start over so come up with the three things you think they could add to make DCA a well rounded full day park.
DCA has some beautiful spaces with Grizzly Peak and the Cadillac Mountain range/ RSR exterior. It’s has a good amount of kinetic energy with Pixar Pier. It has nice variety of dining options. Plenty of thrill rides and exclusive ones at that. Here are the 3 rides I’d add….
1. Long indoor boat ride: DCA is desperately missing E ticket level indoor dark rides. Particularly one that the whole family from babies to grandma can ride. I’d like to see a nice 12-15 minute ride but I’d settle for 8-10 minutes. Because Im trying try to stay realistic I’d say this would probably have to be a Moana boat ride or a beefed up Frozen Ever After from WDW. The only issue with these IP is that I don’t think they necessarily lend themselves to be a long ride. Jungle Book live action I feel would be too redundant with Jungle Cruise across the esplanade. Little Mermaid could have been this ride for DCA but that boat has sailed. Princess and the Frog could have also been great. I’d say Coco but I’m saving that for #2. This would obviously come with at least a mini land and would have to go in the Hollywood backlot or the Eastern Gateway expansion.
2. D ticket level dark ride for Pixar Pier: My choice would be a modern suspended Peter Pan style ride but themed to Coco. We jump into different colored Alebrijes and soar over the Land of the Dead while hearing some of the great songs from the movie. DCA doesn’t have enough attractions with the spirit of adventure like POTC, Indy and basically the whole West side of Disneyland. This doesn’t completely fill the void but it scratches the itch, gives Pixar Pier some depth and could go in the apparent expansion area behind the coaster.
3. Something with some heart: The only place I feel anything at DCA is in the Animation Building lobby with the classic Disney songs or Soarin Over California when it comes back every few years. Ideally DCA would get it’s own version of Fantasyland like Fantasy Springs in Tokyo and maybe get a mix of some classic IP based dark rides like Sleeping Beauty, Adventures of Ichabod, Cinderella, Mary Poppins, BATB etc but since I have one ride left I’ll say… an indoor roller coaster at Avengers Campus. Lol. I don’t see anywhere within DCA where these rides could be executed properly or realistically (until Disneyland Forward) so I’m going with my honorable mention: an indoor coaster. Even though it isn’t needed as much as something with some heart (like Casey Junior, the FL dark rides, Snow whites Wishing well, hearing “when you wish upon a star” as you walk through the castle) we know the expansion pad is behind Avengers Campus and the land desperately needs it. And it would prevent another screen ride from infiltrating DCA. So bring on the Avengers Coaster. Another idea and this is only if there is enough room or if the Hyperion gets Demo’d and they connect the land to Eastern Gateway expansion area - I think a sprawling Hagrids style outdoor coaster based on Shang Chi or Wakanda/ Black Panther would also be really cool.
What three rides would you add? Please try to be realistic and use IP or concepts that actually have shot in hell and also use DCAs current real estate + the Eastern Gateway which is foregone conclusion to happen at some point in the not so distant future. For example I don’t think Grizzly Peak, the Pier or Cars Land will ever be demolished but YMMV. In my mind we’re really just working with the expansion pad behind Avengers Campus, the Eastern Gateway expansion area, the Hollywood Backlot, the Pixar Pier expansion pad and maybe the Hyperion and Animation Building.
I'll even take an internship.
