California Adventure vs Universal Studios Hollywood

[October82]

A distinction that seems to describe both DCA and USH is between theming and decoration. Decorated attractions are things like Batman coasters at Six Flags where you throw up a batman logo and it's now a batman ride. Themed attractions are more like Pirates of the Caribbean, telling a story by playing on emotions, archetypes, and senses beyond the visual.

Both DCA and USH have themed lands and attractions. The Wizarding World, Super Nintendo World, or Grizzly Peak. Radiator Springs Racers or Jurassic World. But both also have decorated attractions and areas in abundance. Pixar Pier in all its incarnations (the current being a major step back), Avengers Campus, San Fransokyo Square, and the lower lot.

The major difference is that USH attempts to isolate its themed lands from the decorated areas of the park, while Disney sells DCA as a themed park while delivering a (sometimes lavishly) decorated one. Avengers campus is the Disney Spiderman equivalent of the Six Flags batman rides, slapping avengers logos on the side of buildings that are meant to evoke warehouses and industrial parks. USH's decorated areas, in contrast, are mostly in service to the realities of a location at a working movie studio. I don't mind seeing decorated soundstages if they're real rather than fictitious ones. Which is where DCA's Hollywoodland fell flat (literally) from day one. San Fransokyo Square is guilty of much the same by slapping text and logos on what were reasonably well themed spaces, connecting to specific and emotionally resonant historical buildings, and turning them from themed to decorated spaces.

By contrast, USH has mostly gone the other way. While the execution isn't perfect, attempts have been made to isolate themed and decorated spaces in the Wizarding World, Super Nintendo World, and even the Simpsons Land. The latter in the same grey area much of DCA exists in between theming and decoration, but with a more sincere attempt to tie into the themes of its source material.

So on balance, I would say DCA in its peak theme park era (~2012-2015) was a better theme park that USH has ever been. DCA today, as a mostly decorated space, is less successful in its decorations that USH, and more successful in the remaining themed spaces (RSR, specifically, Grizzly Peak, Buena Vista Street), but I don't think USH is far behind. USH on the whole is a more consistent and (IMO) much superior experience. Which mostly speaks to how badly Disney has mismanaged DCA. USH has clearly always been a key competitor for the Disney vacation destination marketing, and in so much as DCA is meant to extend stays and keep people from going up the road after a day at Disneyland, it should be concerning that DCA and USH are on, what seems to me, opposite trajectories.

 

[mickEblu]

A distinction that seems to describe both DCA and USH is between theming and decoration. Decorated attractions are things like Batman coasters at Six Flags where you throw up a batman logo and it's now a batman ride. Themed attractions are more like Pirates of the Caribbean, telling a story by playing on emotions, archetypes, and senses beyond the visual.

Both DCA and USH have themed lands and attractions. The Wizarding World, Super Nintendo World, or Grizzly Peak. Radiator Springs Racers or Jurassic World. But both also have decorated attractions and areas in abundance. Pixar Pier in all its incarnations (the current being a major step back), Avengers Campus, San Fransokyo Square, and the lower lot.

The major difference is that USH attempts to isolate its themed lands from the decorated areas of the park, while Disney sells DCA as a themed park while delivering a (sometimes lavishly) decorated one. Avengers campus is the Disney Spiderman equivalent of the Six Flags batman rides, slapping avengers logos on the side of buildings that are meant to evoke warehouses and industrial parks. USH's decorated areas, in contrast, are mostly in service to the realities of a location at a working movie studio. I don't mind seeing decorated soundstages if they're real rather than fictitious ones. Which is where DCA's Hollywoodland fell flat (literally) from day one. San Fransokyo Square is guilty of much the same by slapping text and logos on what were reasonably well themed spaces, connecting to specific and emotionally resonant historical buildings, and turning them from themed to decorated spaces.

By contrast, USH has mostly gone the other way. While the execution isn't perfect, attempts have been made to isolate themed and decorated spaces in the Wizarding World, Super Nintendo World, and even the Simpsons Land. The latter in the same grey area much of DCA exists in between theming and decoration, but with a more sincere attempt to tie into the themes of its source material.

So on balance, I would say DCA in its peak theme park era (~2012-2015) was a better theme park that USH has ever been. DCA today, as a mostly decorated space, is less successful in its decorations that USH, and more successful in the remaining themed spaces (RSR, specifically, Grizzly Peak, Buena Vista Street), but I don't think USH is far behind. USH on the whole is a more consistent and (IMO) much superior experience. Which mostly speaks to how badly Disney has mismanaged DCA. USH has clearly always been a key competitor for the Disney vacation destination marketing, and in so much as DCA is meant to extend stays and keep people from going up the road after a day at Disneyland, it should be concerning that DCA and USH are on, what seems to me, opposite trajectories.

Welcome Back!

I’m not sure you can call Avengers Campus and San Fransokyo Square decorated spaces. They’re no Batman logo on a coaster with a couple props thrown in the queue. I’d say they are poorly themed and poor concepts. The Hollywood Backlot isn’t a decorated space. So what’s left? Pixar Pier is the only one that could fit the definition. But even then it’s not like Paradise Pier was Mysterious Island. It never really evoked a time and place and the atmosphere is the same. I think Pixar Pier was a lateral move with mostly aesthetic upgrades (with the exceptions being the red straw scream tunnels and the Chicken Shack) but a thematic downgrade.

 

[October82]

Welcome Back!

I’m not sure you can call Avengers Campus and San Fransokyo Square decorated spaces. They’re no Batman logo on a coaster with a couple props thrown in the queue. I’d say they are poorly themed and poor concepts. The Hollywood Backlot isn’t a decorated space.

Avengers campus has elements of decoration and theming, but on balance more the former than the latter, and in a rather meta-way. Building fake warehouses to slap logos on is very expensive approach to decoration but still decoration. If the thing that makes you identify something as belonging to a space is the presence of a logo, writing, or the veneer, that's decoration.

Hollywoodland has, essentially always, been decoration in a quite literal sense. To the extent it was something beyond that, 'theme', such as it was, is a thin veneer of place, often with explicit textual references, rather than any attempt to create a convincing environment. The exception, like much of DCA, being a single attraction (Tower of Terror) with a serious (if possibly compromised) commitment to something beyond textual queues. San Fransokyo Square is much the same, where Disney took a themed space and literally painted decorations on to make it something else.

You're right these are better than batman logos on queue, but it's a difference of degree, not substance. I'd call these all expensive or elaborate decoration. Not incapable of creating a pleasant space to be in but certainly not the same as a themed experience like you see in Disneyland or even other parts of DCA.

So what’s left? Pixar Pier is the only one that could fit the definition. But even then it’s not like Paradise Pier was Mysterious Island. It never really evoked a time and place and the atmosphere is the same. I think Pixar Pier was a lateral move with mostly aesthetic upgrades (with the exceptions being the red straw scream tunnels and the Chicken Shack) but a thematic downgrade.

Pixar Pier is very clearly decoration, and much like Pacific Wharf to San Fransokyo, is an example of how a poorly executed theme can become an expensively decorated space. When you slap the logos or iconographies of the properties you want to evoke on buildings, rather than tailoring an experience to the property, you're engaging in decoration and not theming. To be clear - it's not that this can never work to good effect, it's just to distinguish the approaches that designers take to the spaces they're creating. I suspect Disney's designers and marketers are well aware of these ideas, whether they use this language or another, it's quite clear that they consistently apply theme and decoration to many of the same properties across the resorts.

 

[Disney Analyst]

A stunning photo.