Marvel Land at DCA. Your thoughts...

[Californian Elitist]

Porque?

Photos of possible plans here, photos of possible plans there. Marvel taking over a bug's land, Marvel taking over Hollywood Land, talk of DCA's lack of California theme, some people saying change the theme to simply adventure that takes place in a theme park in California (that doesn't make sense to me)... I feel like my head spins after reading this thread. That's nothing bad, it's just there's no central focus.

 

[TP2000]

This info was just dropped in the WDW thread about Tower of Terror turning into Guardians of the Galaxy. But since it's mainly about DCA, it seems to fit here nicely...

Haven't been back here hardly at all since I broke this news a month ago and as much as I hate to break it to the naysayers, things are still moving forward on both coasts.

From a well-placed source:

"The Tower project is moving along through approvals and design refinements, and the project now has a proposed timeline that closes the attraction this October instead of January as a more elaborate pre-show and queue plan has been given the thumbs up by TDA.

The project isn't formally funded yet as part of Fiscal '17, that won't happen until June or July, but WDI keeps getting happy words and encouragement from TDA and Burbank. TDA could care less about the upset fans, as they consider them to be of the same variety that were upset about Aladdin and Mad T Party closing. TDO continues to balk at the price tag but Chapek thinks the Guardians franchise is the right way to go long term. "

In other words, almost a done deal for Anaheim and still likely for Orlando ... please stick that in your Tweeter!

 

[yookeroo]

FWIW Jim Hill claims (in podcasts) that the GotG was always just going to be a temporary overlay at WDW and that it's dead now. Now they're looking to add a small themed bar (the current theme) at the end of the attraction.

 

[Deleted member 107043]

"TDA could care less about the upset fans, as they consider them to be of the same variety that were upset about Aladdin and Mad T Party closing."

I sure hope this part is true at least.

 

[Phroobar]

Considering the current situation where no matter how much they charge, the place is still packed to gills. TDA doesn't care if they upset a few fans because they know they won't lose them. Even if they did lose them, the place will still be packed.

 

[BrianLo]

See, this is the funny thing about how information is dribbled to us. The direct quote from the source doesn't actually read all that negative to me about what they are doing in Anaheim.

More elaborate queue, show and longer downtime to do it all *sounds* positive to me. If they are going through with it, might as well do a good job.


Totally off topic of this forum, but I honestly do not think this is happening at WDW still. I'm not sure how Spirit jumped from "TDO balks at the price" to "likely".

He seems to be the only one on a limb saying this is happening at WDW. It doesn't pass my internalized logic. Reading between the lines tends to do me better than taking everything word for word.

 

[Phroobar]

Just look at where all the teenagers at the the resort. They are at California Screamin, RSR, Space Mountain, BTMRR and possibly the HM for the darkness. They use to be at the Matterhorn when the seating was more "romantic".

 

[Curious Constance]

"TDA could care less about the upset fans, as they consider them to be of the same variety that were upset about Aladdin and Mad T Party closing."

I sure hope this part is true at least.

People will use that as proof that Disney could care less about their fans, but they literally couldn't make any decision or change without some group of people that are going to freak out over the change. Regardless of what it is you change or if you change nothing, there will always be a group of people that are upset. I'm sure they are aware of that, and continue on regardless of the backlash. Unless it's affecting the bottom line somehow.

 

[Suspirian]

I personally think this will get far more backlash than Aladdin and definitely more than Mad T Party. Was anyone even complaining about that?

 

[Phroobar]

At times, a company needs to do what is in the best interests of the company. If that makes turning Disneyland in Frozenland because they will be successful they do it regardless of the backlash from the peanut gallery.

 

[Phroobar]

I miss sitting on the floor soaking in the Muppet goodness.

 

[Phroobar]

I think anything touching the cast member parking will be going away soon. Most of the lots of empty there. I assume the post office on the left is never going anywhere.

 

[TP2000]

With all of the expansion talk at DL & DCA I'm always expecting to hear how they bought up the North West corner at S Walnut and Ball Road and removed the cheesy motels and make it a services area to free up more space. Then they could better utilize the little nooks and crannies they've got left.



View attachment 139672

The old Cuban Pete's restaurant area was bought by someone else last year and is being turned into a new motel, so Disney lost out on that. When I was in Mickey & Friends a few weeks ago Disney had built several small buildings in what used to be overflow parking lots for the structure.

They aren't buying more land to build these small structures, they are just taking over land that used to be Disney-owned parking lots around Mickey & Friends.Cause, you know, Disneyland already has too much parking capacity.

 

[Phroobar]

They aren't buying more land to build these small structures, they are just taking over land that used to be Disney-owned parking lots around Mickey & Friends.Cause, you know, Disneyland already has too much parking capacity.

Wasn't that the new Tram refueling area?

 

[Pam Hates Penguins]

A large portion of the space shown in that image can't be used by this project. Everything Disney has done indicates that they want to keep the semi-private service road in tact behind the park (labeled as Disney Way on this map, though I don't think it officially has a name). Additionally, the white-roofed backstage buildings would need to remain, as well as the in-park backstage road around the periphery of the parcel. Once all those are removed, we're down to about 6.7 acres:
View attachment 137382

No. Tower of Terror will not be removed I don't think.

 

[mickEblu]

So I have been pretty vocal about how I feel about GOTG taking over TOT. I was at the parks yesterday and decided to ride TOT with an open mind and really critique what works and what doesn't.

After reflecting on the experience, from outside of the hotel, to the queue, to the pre show, to the ride itself I realized what I would really miss most about this ride would be the old Hollywood feel and how this haunted hotel works so well as an anchor for the land. I would miss the queue and that beatiful, haunting jazz music they play outside the hotel / outdoor queue which nobody seems to talk about or notice. Losing this theme / experience in the park, I feel is the biggest loss.

I would slightly miss the tie in to The Twilight Zone because somehow it does a better job of placemaking (through nostalgic feeling for the IP because of its age and place as a classic) and is more effective than the actual show scenes themselves. Just seeing the Twilight zone logo and hearing "Rod Sterlings" voice is a great set up that is not matched by the pre show video content or the show scenes on the ride. At least in DCA's version.

The show scenes could use some work. I feel as if they do not do justice to the Twilight Zone IP. Besides the star field, everything else about the show scenes are kind of cheesy. I guess this is something I always overlooked as I was overtaken by my excitement / anticipation for the drops to come.

So in summation I do not think that TOT is a flawless experience. However, I still don't think that GOTG is the right move here. I think they should actually strengthen the theme they already have going on here. I love the old Hollywood theme and coupling that with a Haunted hotel is just classic. Especially with the Red Car trolley outside, the whole thing just works. I will admit that the show scenes could use some work, which would be a lot easier and in my opinion more effective than retheming the entire attraction to GOTG. An Old Haunted hotel anchors Hollywoodland beautifully and is much better suited for DCA in general.

I think Disney should give GOTG the type of attraction it deserves or overlay Star Tours.

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

I looked on WDW Magic and saw no Marvel Land coming to Disney California Adventure thread. So I made one. Let's do this! Let's talk about the rumor (that still occurs today).

View attachment 136361

Where is ToT located at on this map? Trying to see how it fits into the marvel land.

 

[Stevek]

Where is ToT located at on this map? Trying to see how it fits into the marvel land.

The square-ish section cut out of the red, top left-center.

 

[NobodyElse]

When I say LA I mean downtown LA. Hollywood kind of has an identity of its own.

Is that where Carthay was? I didn't know that.

Hollywood is an area within Los Angeles city limits. The Carthay Circle Theater was considered to be in the mid-city west area of Los Angeles city. Right or wrong, good or bad, Los Angeles (L.A.) means different things to different people.

There's the City of L.A., the County of L.A., the L.A. Metropolitan Area, as well as the Greater L.A. Area (pretty much representing the broadcast area).

Growing up in Anaheim, it used to irk me that we were host to the "California Angels" and the "Southern California Sun" sports teams, and that out-of-state relatives staying at out house assumed they were "coming out to L.A." when they would enter neither the county nor city. It seemed that Anaheim was deemed unworthy of it's own identity. But, Oh well.

 

[NobodyElse]

A large portion of the space shown in that image can't be used by this project. Everything Disney has done indicates that they want to keep the semi-private service road in tact behind the park (labeled as Disney Way on this map, though I don't think it officially has a name). Additionally, the white-roofed backstage buildings would need to remain, as well as the in-park backstage road around the periphery of the parcel.

Thank you for the pictures, but respectfully I think I disagree with some of your reasoning. While the "Disney Way" road would (and really should) remain in place, it doesn't need to be as wide as it it currently is, and could even be shifted a bit towards Harbor if that's deemed necessary.

EDIT: I would assume that "Disney Way", likely in a somewhat new configuration would become "the in-park backstage road around the periphery of the parcel".

I also don't believe "the white-roofed backstage buildings" would need to remain. Recently an architect friend (somewhat reluctantly) reminded me of the term "Disposable Architecture" This was specifically in reference to Macy's at the Irvine Spectrum Center. In a nutshell, it was built in 2002, then closed when Macy's went through down-sizing. Rather than getting a new tenant, the Irvine Co. demolished the whole building, and will rebuild for smaller stores. (Story here.) Those back-stage buildings could come down in a heart-beat if they want the land for something else.