Main Demographic For DCA?

Model3 McQueen

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
Many of you all, myself included, have been pretty hard on the post-Chapek era DCA. Personal opinions aside - has the main demographic for DCA been completely revamped?

Let's take a look at Disneyland. Tons of things have changed but the overall feel is still there.
  1. Mainstreet
  2. "Tomorrowland" (lol)
  3. New Orleans Square
  4. Frontierland
  5. Adventureland
  6. Fantasyland
  7. Now, SWGE
Obviously it's a formula that works, and the major lands are relatively kept in tact. Now let's take a look at DCA, the much younger park..

  1. Whatever was here before - IABLL - Marvel Land
  2. Paradise Pier - Pixar Pier
  3. Cars Land
  4. Former entrance - Buena Vista Street
  5. Grizzly Peak / Condor Flats
  6. Hollywood Land
Undoubtedly i'm missing a few things here, but the main point i'm trying to make is that while Disneyland has mainly stayed the same with it's formula, DCA has taken some sharp turns only fairly recently; very recently if you consider its age. Are they trying to attract a different crowd at this point, and who is that new crowd? Why does this work compared to what they had before?
 

TwilightZone

Well-Known Member
Well before the crowd was California tourists, the problem is disneyland is more local.
Today's crowd is everyone, kids, teens, adults. They don't really care about theming, as long as it's fun. However, 2012 crowd where the majority of these changes happened could be the disney purist crowd, with some family sprinkled in there.

So, lots of crowds.
 

Rich T

Well-Known Member
...Are they trying to attract a different crowd at this point, and who is that new crowd?
They're trying to attract any crowd at this point. :D
The one crowd they're no longer trying to attract, however, is the original DCA target audience. Eisner and Pressler dreamed of attracting a more "edgy" and "sophisticated" crowd who viewed Disneyland as "too childish" and were eager to pay full price to enter a park with few rides and an abundance of pricey dining options amid cheap theming full of bad California puns. Turns out that crowd didn't exist! Gasp! :D
 
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DanielBB8

Well-Known Member
Frontierland -> Frontierland + New Orleans Square
Bear Country -> Critter Country
No Town -> Toontown
Fantasyland Autopia merged into Tomorrowland Autopia.
 

Figments Friend

Well-Known Member
I see DCA trying to imitate Epcot in the respect of trying to be appealing to young adults who like to drink.
The twenty something crowd.
A lot of the recent tweaks and additions over the last few years just give that impression to me.
The food 'Festivals' and alcohol being more readily available then at Disneyland Park seems to draw in the 'party people' in the evenings

Thankfully, i have yet to have seen DCA crowd behavior get as questionable as some of the things i've witnessed at Epcot during certain times of the year...

The influx of Marvel additions caters to that marketing group as well.
Restaurant offerings and the more 'mature' settings also have appeal to attract a more 'young adult' type of crowd.


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Rich T

Well-Known Member
I see DCA trying to imitate Epcot in the respect of trying to be appealing to young adults who like to drink.
The twenty something crowd.
A lot of the recent tweaks and additions over the last few years just give that impression to me.
The food 'Festivals' and such plus alcohol being more redily available then at Disneyland Park seems to draw in the 'party people' in the evenings.

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Plus events like the Mad T Party.
 

Figments Friend

Well-Known Member
Yes!
And the awesome 'Elec-TRONica'.

All geared for the nightclub going, young adult party people.


DCA's target audience is 20 somethings for sure.
After playing like a kid at Disneyland Park for the day, quite a few of them head over to DCA when the sun goes down to tank up on the foam.


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fctiger

Well-Known Member
Well at opening DCA was considered the 'anti-Disneyland' in many respects and they were trying to attract literally the opposite group of people who dominates DL and wanted mostly young adults, tourists, teenagers and couples without kids. DL was for traditional Disney folks, families and Apers, DCA were for younger people who didn't care about watching fireworks or wanted pics of Mickey Mouse and wanted a more Six Flags approach but more Disneyfied. Disneyland plays on nostalgia,while DCA plays on the here and now.

And we saw how well that approach worked. ;)

So today they are basically aiming for the same audience as DL, but its probably still aimed more for younger people and why you have stuff like Careland, Pixar Pier and Marvel happening. They want DCA to feel like a traditional Disney park (hence BVS) but still a little more contemporary and cooler. I imagine if you are a teenager to college age DCA is a lot more appealing than DL is. I'm not suggesting thats true for every teenager out there of course but they probably like it more than someone over 30 does.
 

Darkbeer1

Well-Known Member
I went to DCA for the first time a few weeks ago and I LOVED it!!!
So what category do you fall into?

As for the current demographic that Disney is going after. Well, locals in AP's with the changes to block out dates, and the purchasers of the SoCal special, as most of them are opting for the lower cost one park a day version.

And then the out of town multi-day ticket packages. They aren't even trying to get single day visitors to attend, especially at the current price points.
 

fctiger

Well-Known Member
Why did they cancel this? It always seemed to be popular and was a unique feature of DLR.

Will never get it either? Madd T Party was the perfect venue and was so fun and popular. It finally hit the sweet spot of trying to be a little more cool but not cheesy. And it attracted both young and old guests while one of the biggest highlights to DCA 2.0. It did last for a few years but everything after it straight sucked.
 

Robbiem

Well-Known Member
Well at opening DCA was considered the 'anti-Disneyland' in many respects and they were trying to attract literally the opposite group of people who dominates DL and wanted mostly young adults, tourists, teenagers and couples without kids.

I can never understand this business model, the whole point of DCA was to make Disneyland a resort and encourage longer stays like people do at WDW. If you were doing this why would you go after a completely different clientele?
 

DanielBB8

Well-Known Member
I can never understand this business model, the whole point of DCA was to make Disneyland a resort and encourage longer stays like people do at WDW. If you were doing this why would you go after a completely different clientele?
Did you not realize that was done to Epcot as well? Epcot was designed for adults with few attractions designed to appeal to young kids. It worked for awhile when adults and kids had separate interests. Once upon a time, adults had separate spaces to enjoy smokes and drinks. They attend cocktail parties and socialize at dinner parties. Think "Mad Men". Disney wanted to capture this market although this culture is going away. Part of the thinking was the rides and attractions aren't the motivating factor to visit Epcot or DCA, which was incorrect. Now that they fixed the attraction and theming issues at DCA, they brought back the wildly successful food, wine, art, and garden festivals. So Disney can go after the traditional Disney audience while also giving parents and single, childless adults an opportunity to indulge in adult drinks and foodie appetizers. Eisner had the right idea, but bad execution. Then there's Trader Sam's.
DCA doesn't even know what it is anymore. Disney seemed to have a plan a few years ago but gave up on it. Now it's just a patchwork of Cars, Marvel and craptastic overlays no one wanted. At least there's booze.
DCA's theming all point to Disney. It's their park and they're making it all about Disney. They're fixing the weakest part of DCA that was Bug's Land. Soon they'll fix Hollywood Backlot. The result will be good.
 

Model3 McQueen

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
The 3 friends I have that say they like DCA better than Disneyland seem to only talk about the bigger rides. Specifically guardians, incredicoaster, and racers. Funny thing is that the one time we spent a whole day there they were bored out of their minds, and one of them only had a single park day ticket so we were trapped

I think it's really interesting your friends like DCA over Disneyland because of 2 re-skinned rides (and RSR, but who's complaining about that? ;)).

The other two attractions don't hold a candle, IMO, to thrill attractions like BTMRR, Space, IJA, Splash, Matterhorn, (and perhaps now in the future, RotR and Smuggler's Run.) I think DCA struggles to capture the magic of Disneyland E-tickets.

One thing is for sure, someone would have to pay me to spend a full day, open to close, in DCA.
 

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