I still remember going to DCA that opening weekend. I was living in Japan at the time. I flew all the way to California just to see this thing the first week and man I can remember the utter disappointment I had for this thing on every level. Walking through that entrance (Sunshine Plaza?) with the hubcap 'sun' was surreal in the worst way possible and a great set up for the dismal experience for the rest of the park save for GRR. I still remember me and a few family members walking around and I kid you not two hours into the experience someone said "I wish we could go to Disneyland' lol. It just did not feel like a real Disney park to so many of us and especially me.
And then what made it worse the place was so dead we did literally everything we wanted to do in the first three hours. We did literally everything in that time and it was still just the mid afternoon lol. No one wanted to go back to the hotel and since we paid full price for the experience (oddly the first and
last time I have ever paid full price to get into DCA 20 years later) and since we couldn't get into Disneyland (but was going the next day) we decided to stick it out until the fireworks. That was the other crazy kicker, the park had no night time show of any kind. I remember the few of us that stuck around watched the fireworks from the other park thinking how much we all wanted to be in
that park! We paid literally the same price to get into DL and yet only had maybe a third of the things to do as DL had. What were they thinking?????
The highlight of that first day was Soarin for sure, which was the first thing we did (with a ten minute wait) and it basically went downhill from there although Calif Screamin was a big hit as well. But absolutely nothing else captured my attention. So much of the park felt bland, lifeless, uninspired and just plain bad. I wouldn't go back for another four years until the DL 50th anniversary.
Compare that to when Tokyo DisneySea opened (which I was also there for its opening weekend) and completely blown away in every sense of the word. I still remember how much I kept saying 'wow' walking through that park. So many jaw dropping areas. It's still crazy they opened both parks the same year.To this day it is probably still the best Disney park, if not the best theme park period, that has ever opened. I was all set to go back to see it last April after not being there for over a decade but Covid had other plans.
Twenty years later, I do truly enjoy DCA now. I feel despite what a lackluster park it opened up as, there has been a lot of major improvement. I really started to like it from 2008 on when they opened TSMM and it improved steadily from there. After 2012 and DCA 2.0 was official I always really liked it. Still nothing like going to DL, but still really enjoy it. Today it at least
feels and looks like a Disney park. Back in 2001, it felt like a Magic Mountain park with a few tangible Disney elements to remind you it wasn't and very little else.
It's still shocking it got the green light in it's original form.
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