DCA : How would you fix the park ?

[rk03221]

That’s not saying much , HS is a half day park on it’s best day

Nope, HS sucks the only good things there worth going are the ToT and fantasmic. At least DCA has more and better attractions along with WoC. Disney is in the long process of trying to erase or improve what Eisner left behind.

 

[Happyrebster]

It was a good step. Not the best step, but a good step.


Removal is never a good thing unless its replacement is better. So far it seems like Marvel land will be garbage and lazy.


Yeah if you're an AP with a drinking problem.


It's made the land even more soulless than it was.


Mission Breakout made me completely sell DCA. Everything up until that point, even Frozen and Soarin Around the World, were tolerable. They're not great and definitely steps down but they're not too offensive. Mission Breakout, on the other hand, is offensive to the senses. It's an insult to the guest's intelligence. Almost everything about it is just awful. Pixar Pier is another insult to the guests with its cheap, cynical overlays that were completely unnecessary. And by all means Marvel land seems to be more of the same trash.

Okay - thanks for your reply. Always curious to see a different perspective.

I guess I'm not ready to judge Marvel land before it opens. I have hope because we never visited Bug's Land at all - even when our kid was little. And I didn't see many other families there either. That section was due for an update. I assume it will continue to be an area of the park dedicated to entertainment for the smaller set and many little people do like superheroes. So I see the potential. Given what it is replacing, I don't expect any thrill rides; but I still think kids will have more fun there.

And Lamplighter certainly has far more to offer than alcohol. The park needed another sit down restaurant that the whole family could enjoy and I think this fills the bill far more effectively than its predecessor.

 

[Happyrebster]

You can’t be serious when you say the Ferris wheel looks cool , it is perhaps the tackiest and most unimaginative structure in any Disney park in the world , the antithesis of the creativity that Disney is supposed to stands for . I would say dinoland in AK is worse , but at least you can experience the entire park without ever seeing it

I am, indeed, serious. The DCA pier, in my opinion, was intended as a take on some mix of the Santa Monica Pier and/or the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. So a roller coaster, midway games and a ferris wheel feels right to me. I genuinely enjoy looking at it in the evening and I think it's a nice backdrop to World of Color.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

I don’t think another coaster will fix DCA. There needs to be more classic attractions a la Pirates or Mansion. Mermaid had potential but the company blew it.

 

[Rich T]

I am, indeed, serious. The DCA pier, in my opinion, was intended as a take on some mix of the Santa Monica Pier and/or the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. So a roller coaster, midway games and a ferris wheel feels right to me. I genuinely enjoy looking at it in the evening and I think it's a nice backdrop to World of Color.

I have no problem with the Pier theme before it got trashed with the Pixar overlay. But even at its best, the problem with the Pier was that it had no sense of history or even a basic understanding of what makes a place like the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk so much fun. Go to the SCBB on a busy weekend and it's joyous sensory overload, with motion, color, music, crazy sound effects, screams, laughs and rides whirling, rushing past and overhead EVERYWHERE. There's so much to see and do that you don't know where to start and NO ONE sees everything in one visit. The DCA Pier has always had the facades, but no depth and no energy. Where's the live music? The spooky dark rides? The GOOD flat rides? The overload of crazy, try-it-if-you-dare food stands? It's always felt like the designers were content with just creating a caricature of a boardwalk--Like a background painting for a cartoon.

 

[mandelbrot]

to play devil's advocate, one could say because you can just go visit the real locations since you are in California. it's the same reason why Phantom Manor's grave yard scene is set to the old west and not how it looks at Disneyland or Disneyworld because those type of cemetaries are all over paris and people can poke their head out the window if they wanted to see that.

They have cemeteries where cartoonish ghosts are frolicking in the moonlight? Yet one more reason to visit France.

 

[mandelbrot]

Look, they tried it. It wasn't popular. People didn't want to go there and the numbers of visitors showed it.

Yeah...except when they doubled-down on the California theme with Buena Vista Street and Carthay Circle people LOVED it. The theme was never the problem. It was the execution--and still is.

 

[mandelbrot]

*cracks nuckles*

The only areas of DCA that need to be improved IMO are Hollywoodland and Paradise/Pixar Pier. Theres ride concepts for other areas of the park but I could literally ramble for days about this so I'll keep it short. (I don't know what the story or aesthetic of Marvel Land will be so I wont comment on that).

I would convert the entire area surrounding the bay (Pixar Pier and Pacific Wharf) to Pacific Wharf. Pixar Pier can remain as a subland but I would add more attractions of substance instead of flat ride. I'd also do away with the neighborhoods concept and the tacky decor to resemble something more along the lines of Trolly Park in TDS. The remaining area would be redone to resemble San Francisco (the victorian houses and current Pacific Wharf area would remain.

Hollywoodland is an easy fix to be honest. Its just a matter of redressing. I'd remove monsters now that Pixar Pier exists and replace it with something of the period. Maybe a film noir related ride similar to the unused D*ck Tracy concept. I'd also change the exterior if GOTG so that its an easier transition between Hollywoodland and Marvel land.

I feel like any change of theme for the park that wouldn't be generic would require drastic changes, but an idea I had would be to change the park from California to the Pacific Coast in general. It could involve Coastal areas of North, Central, and South America. Could also branch out farther into Polynesia, Australia, costal Asian countries literally anything that borders or is surrounded by the pacific ocean. Doesn't Disney Pacific have a nice ring to it?

DCA has been missing the quintessential type of Disney attraction since day one: the indoor boat ride. A reimagined version of the Great Movie Ride as a boat ride could be the savior of Hollywoodland. It could replace the entire backlot area including Monsters Inc. the sad clone of Philharmagic, and the empty buildings.

 

[THE 1HAPPY HAUNT]

They have cemeteries where cartoonish ghosts are frolicking in the moonlight? Yet one more reason to visit France.

No, they have cemetaries that look very simlar in style to the style of the one in the graveyard scene.

 

[Rich T]

DCA has been missing the quintessential type of Disney attraction since day one: the indoor boat ride. A reimagined version of the Great Movie Ride as a boat ride could be the savior of Hollywoodland. It could replace the entire backlot area including Monsters Inc. the sad clone of Philharmagic, and the empty buildings.

I can't see them ever building another GMR, but... What about The Great Disney Animation Ride? Eh? Eh? Kind of a more intense, AA/effects-heavy indoor version of the castle boat ride in Shanghai. With a plot--All the villains are trying to stop you from reaching the end.

 

[TROR]

I can't see them ever building another GMR, but... What about The Great Disney Animation Ride? Eh? Eh? Kind of a more intense, AA/effects-heavy indoor version of the castle boat ride in Shanghai. With a plot--All the villains are trying to stop you from reaching the end.

That’s not honoring to classic cinema.

 

[Rich T]

That’s not honoring to classic cinema.

What -- You think Disney's going to build a new ride that takes you through Citizen Kane, The Searchers and White Christmas?

 

[TROR]

What -- You think Disney's going to build a new ride that takes you through Citizen Kane, The Searchers and White Christmas?

Ideally.

 

[Nirya]

Don’t do the Great Movie Ride.

Do the Great Muppet Movie Ride concept instead.

 

[Miru]

Rename it Six Flags California Adventure.

Admittedly, that would slowly turn the park even worse. At some point Six Flags will genericize it and make it even cheaper.

On-topic, the Great Muppet Movie Ride would be in a new Hollywood Tower.

 

[justintheharris]

Fix it? Honestly, nothing's wrong with it. Keep Soarin Over California and the park in its current state has no real issues. Just a classic case of 'always room for improvement.'

 

[KevinPage]

1. Get rid of Chapek
2. Undue the damage done by Chapek

 

[Magenta Panther]

I don’t think another coaster will fix DCA. There needs to be more classic attractions a la Pirates or Mansion. Mermaid had potential but the company blew it.

You really have to wonder though...is Disney even capable of building a new ride/attraction that's as good as a Tower of Terror anymore? I frankly doubt it; I think Florida's Tower of Terror was the Imagineer's last hurrah. Everything that's followed it has been cheapened and shortened and cut back or is a misfire or, while okay for what it is, does not live up to the source's potential (Frozenstrom). I really despair of Disney applying the same level of detail to anything new that it builds as it did for the Tower. Even Galaxy's Edge's Falcon ride seems to be a dud. Heck, the land itself is kind of a dud, from what I'm hearing and reading. No street atmosphere, apparently, which is vital for an attraction like that. Plus it's just plain ugly. Depressingly so, according to a friend of mine who visited it last week. Maybe it'll improve, we'll see. But there may be a reason the crowds have been underwhelming, according to some reports; maybe the land just doesn't look all that appealing.

I hope I'm wrong and Disney will surprise and delight me once again. But until it proves it respects park guests like it once did (fixing the Yeti would at least help revive my hopes) I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Miru]

You really have to wonder though...is Disney even capable of building a new ride/attraction that's as good as a Tower of Terror anymore? I frankly doubt it; I think Florida's Tower of Terror was the Imagineer's last hurrah. Everything that's followed it has been cheapened and shortened and cut back or is a misfire or, while okay for what it is, does not live up to the source's potential (Frozenstrom). I really despair of Disney applying the same level of detail to anything new that it builds as it did for the Tower. Even Galaxy's Edge's Falcon ride seems to be a dud. Heck, the land itself is kind of a dud, from what I'm hearing and reading. No street atmosphere, apparently, which is vital for an attraction like that. Plus it's just plain ugly. Depressingly so, according to a friend of mine who visited it last week. Maybe it'll improve, we'll see. But there may be a reason the crowds have been underwhelming, according to some reports; maybe the land just doesn't look all that appealing.

I hope I'm wrong and Disney will surprise and delight me once again. But until it proves it respects park guests like it once did (fixing the Yeti would at least help revive my hopes) I'm not holding my breath.

Losing faith as far back as mid-Eisner? The not-wholly-owned stuff has had better ideas, but I feel we had a minor spike prior to 2015.

 

[THE 1HAPPY HAUNT]

You really have to wonder though...is Disney even capable of building a new ride/attraction that's as good as a Tower of Terror anymore?

They did. it's called INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF THE FORRIBEN EYE