I so agree. While the changes to the river were well done, I loved the backside of the river experience in the before-times. While I live on the edge between civilization and wilderness, when at Disneyland in the middle of SoCal's urban sprawl, I loved the remote wild feeling that the canoe experience provided. It somehow was an almost transcendent few minutes and a respite from the often frantic pace of the park experience.
I had completely forgotten about Cascade Peak, probably because the only visit to Disneyland I made where it was still around was when I was seven. That is absolutely the sort of thing that the final stretch is missing to give the thing a sense of payoff-and it's interesting that no one really decided something like that was necessary for the subsequent rivers. I'll grant that the feeling of remove was greater in the original river, though I still would side with the current version overall.
Isn't the trestle bridge sort of the new version of that (though not hidden)?
It's a big set piece, but you're right.
To a point, but I was referring more to Cascade Peak's placement than anything else. Cascade Peak was located, to my understanding, on the very last stretch of the river, not terribly far from where the boats dock. That meant it conceivably would have served not only as a landmark, but also as a payoff for the last stretch of the journey, a finale of sorts.
Cascade Peak was just poorly maintained for its last few years. It was torn down in 1998, well before Disney’s California Adventure was opened.IIRC, Cascade Peak was removed to give better sight lines for Geyser Mountain that was planned for the Big Thunder Ranch area. Geyser Mountain was to be Disneyland's version of the Tower of Terror but themed as a mining elevator system. Since DCA was in big trouble and Geyser Mountain cost too much, they built the Paris version of the ToT instead.
Which was also the time they were planning out site lines for Geyser Mountain. There are a lot of things that are poorly maintained they never got rid of.
But you don't generally gut things for sitelines until you are essentially starting construction.
And there’s a huge difference between not maintaining something and not maintaining something that’s full of water.
It's not, they've already announced that it's becoming Adventureland Treehouse with a number of changes expected.
Imagine what it would have been like if they’d made her as a proper animatronic!
Oh darn. Do you have a link for that? I can't seem to find it in relation to Hong Kong DIsneyland.
I actually misread your post and didn't see that you were talking about Hong Kong's treehouse. Hong Kong's is staying.
