What will Disney do for DCA’s 20th anniversary?

[Darkbeer1]

That LA Times article is a classic. I've read it at least a few times over the years. But you've gotta stop adding stuff to my reading list! Everything you post looks so interesting yet so long!!

OK, you don't want to read, just sit on your couch for this one.

 

[Phroobar]

What I will never understand is how they managed to create such an epic failure around the same time they created masterpieces such as Animal Kingdom and DisneySea.

DAK as a masterpiece is debatable. The place only had four attractions when it opened. Most of the park was jungle. There is only so long you can stare at an animal. (if you could find them)

 

[Disneysea05]

I feel bad for the CMs that had to endure working at someplace so terrible when they were just steps away from one of the most iconic places on the planet.

I was a DCA Attractions CM from 2003-2009 and that wasn’t the feeling at all. Speaking for my area only, we knew that the park was built on the cheap but we were grateful that the reduced park hours allowed even the lowest seniority cast members to have an ideal schedule and still have evenings off. The latest off time was 7pm. The low attendance also gave those same low seniority CMs a great chance of receiving holidays off and approved vacations. I remember that after work I would hop over to Disneyland to enjoy the park since it was still open for a few hours after DCA closed.

That all started to change during my last two years there. I’d say Toy Story Mania was the beginning of the gradual change.

 

[Rich T]

What I will never understand is how they managed to create such an epic failure around the same time they created masterpieces such as Animal Kingdom and DisneySea.

The then-overlords tried to prove that elaborate attractions weren't necessary, and that they could build a cheap park and pack customers in merely by slapping the Disney name on it. Cue sad trombone.

 

[Californian Elitist]

I was a DCA Attractions CM from 2003-2009 and that wasn’t the feeling at all. Speaking for my area only, we knew that the park was built on the cheap but we were grateful that the reduced park hours allowed even the lowest seniority cast members to have an ideal schedule and still have evenings off. The latest off time was 7pm. The low attendance also gave those same low seniority CMs a great chance of receiving holidays off and approved vacations. I remember that after work I would hop over to Disneyland to enjoy the park since it was still open for a few hours after DCA closed.

That all started to change during my last two years there. I’d say Toy Story Mania was the beginning of the gradual change.

I remember initially being happy I was assigned to attractions at Disneyland, but that quickly changed when I couldn’t help but notice my friends at DCA were getting off from work hours before I did and didn’t have to stay until 1AM at times.

 

[Model3 McQueen]

Bob Chapek will come out and announce DCA's new name change

 

[mickEblu]

I forgot to mention I looked up the combined map. Here is what it looked like:
View attachment 347866

Wow I must not have been the only one that forgot the place existed after my first visit in 01.

 

[Phroobar]

Bob Chapek will come out and announce DCA's new name change

View attachment 347969

The DMPod?

 

[Model3 McQueen]

The DMPod?

I don't get it

 

[VJ]

I forgot to mention I looked up the combined map. Here is what it looked like:
View attachment 347866

I remember that the combined maps lasted a while; until maybe 2003 or 2004? I almost forgot about them, honestly.

Glad you enjoy my Paradise Pier video, by the way!

 

[Darkbeer1]

I found some old stuff of mine regarding DCA, so let's go back in time...

Why is Disney's California Adventure a failure?

We can talk about the original attractions, the attractions that were added or removed.....

But really, if you talk to Disney Managment, why do they feel that it is a failure, and not just for DCA, but also for Disneyland Park.....

And the answer is tickets sold, but not the number of tickets sold......

Let's go back to December 2000, when DCA was still under construction, and Disneyland tickets cost $43 (adults)... they were $41 in early 2000, but were raised in November...

Also in November 2000, they started to sell the new 2-park Annual Passes, mainly to those who already had a Disneyland Annual Pass, allowing the upgrading.... a Premium 2 park AP was $100 more than a Disneyland Park only AP...

But in January 2001 they stopped selling Annual Passes to anyone, due to the expected crowds that would should up at DCA's door.

The ONLY people who could parkhop were guests staying at one of the 3 owned Disney hotels.

Almost everybody was expected to buy a Full Price ticket, or a slightly discounted multi-day ticket, but you would have to decide prior to use which park you would visit that day...

The Execs talking about how they would have to send the DCA overflow over to Disneyland. Go back and find the January 14th, 2001 Los Angeles Times article titled "The Most Jam-Packed Theme Park on Earth?; Attracting visitors won't be a problem for Disney's soon-to-open California Adventure. But coping with the expected hordes may be another matter" written by E. Scott Reckard. The article states that senior Disney officials that there will be days that DCA will have to turn patrons away.

George Kalogridis, then senior vice president of Disney operations in Anaheim is quoted in the article as saying ""Come early in the day or come later, after the park clears out again, hopefully, with Disneyland right across the esplanade and Downtown Disney right there, we won't have to turn people away from the resort."

This is also the news article that talked about company projections showing that DCA would get about 7 million visitors a year. Barry Braverman stated that "Disney Imagineers worked backward from the projected attendance level of 7 million a year"

DCA was supposed to draw full price admission, and get up to 30,000, if not a bit more than that daily in the summer and weekends.... While not the capacity of Disneyland, it was still supposed to bring in a lot of admission dollars....

What happened, first they started to sell ParkHoppers to the Good Neighbor Hotels, then to anyone, brought back the AP's.... offered a MAJOR discount just 4 months after opening (One Adult and One Kid for just $33, instead of the $76 they wanted when the park opened, that was less than 1/2 the price...)

Then in the fall, they dropped the price of the 2 park AP's to the DL only price, and eliminated the DL only AP, basically giving DCA for free to AP holders..... Yesterday, a 2-park Premium was still cheaper than what it cost when they went on sell in November of 2000 ($279 vs $299), now with the price increase the Premium AP is $329, or just a $30 increase in about 4 years.

Then we had all the 2 for one promotions, heck for a 16 month period from January 2003 thru April of 2004, 13 months offered the "Pay for Disneyland, get DCA for free" to Southern California and Baja California residents...

Now we have the 5 days for the price of 3 (plus 6 for 4, etc.) ParkHoppers on sale for the last 2 years straight (plus previous times)....

While a few more folks have come to the DLR, and some have bought an additional day or two in a hotel (one of 3 Disney owned, or at a Good Neighbor location...) BUT...

If you look at the statistic of...

"Amount paid per person, per day to enter the park", that dollar amount has gone DOWN, which has hurt BOTH parks.....

And that is probably the biggest failure of DCA in the eyes of TDA....

 

[Darkbeer1]

Somebody was kind enough to send me an internal PointPoint presentation file from over 5 years ago. I totally trust this person in the fact that this is the real Mc Coy, and not a fake. If I could share my source, I am sure you would agree that it is a true document.

Sorry, guys I will not post the file, nor will I share it. I am sorry, but you are going to have to trust me on this one. I will clearly identify my comments with brackets [like this]. I am also only going to post selected information, mainly related to the infamous comment, and other points discussed over the last few years.

I received a 10 slide presentation, based on the wording, is an internal WDI presentation.

The first slide is the title slide...









THE "OFF THE SHELF" DECISION




Slide 2 is titled "1995 Company Mentality", which had 7 points.

Point 2 is "Can we do a "E" attraction for $70M?"

Point 6 is "With Paul Pressler's arrival our client became the "parks", not MDE."

Slide 3 is








1996 KEY TO A CHEAPER PARK

Facility, Show or Ride - Pick any 2.

Capitalize on an improving ride industry.

Take known technology & theme it with paint color, lighting & graphics.

Take advantage of engineering already spent by others.

"Direct Lifts"

If it's good enough for Six Flags ....

The "Guiding Principles"






As to the second point of Capitalizing, [To me, this is looking at outside companies, such as S&S Power, since the outside vendors have been making better products in the last decade or so]

And the fifth point, "Direct Lifts" [and as described in a later slide, this is taking attractions from other Disney parks, such as Muppets 3-D (the example they used)]

Slides 4 and 5 talks about the Guiding Principles.

The 4th slide is titled "How can Disney's California be realized for less than traditional practice?"

Then we have 11 points for the sub-category "Park Planning/Design/Theming" (the next slide has the other sub-category).

Point 1 is "No berm around the park", other points mention outside visual intrusions are OK, themed facades are faux, show-like, not immersions or period reproductions, that only the entries and front facades are to be themed, and to keep the Monorail as is.

Slide 5 contains 5 "Backstage Philosophy" points, including "First cost before life cycle savings"

Slide 6 is titled "Embracing the Industry... Their way"

5 points, my favorite is "We don't have any lawyers & we don't want to get any."

Slide 7 is titled "Our Experience", with the category of "good" and 11 points

Slide 8 is the category "Lessons Learned" and 6 points.

Slide 9 is just a title slide, "Would we do it again?" and nothing else.

Slide 10 starts with "Yes" in large letters, and then the sentence "The pros far out weigh the cons. But..."

Then we have 5 points, my favorite on this page is, "Have attractions partners sign(underlined) in advance of the buy." [I read this as get the prospective sponsor to pay up before spending the money, or at least be guaranteed that they will pay for it]

[OK, this is the end of the PowerPoint presentation. So what have we learned, that the statement "If it's good enough for Six Flags..." was actually made at a meeting inside the Disney company, and not made up, as some folks wanted us to believe! That Disney had serious cost control issues while designing and building DCA. That Disney made the decision to use "Off the Shelf" rides instead of designing and building their own. That Disney is looking to keep the costs down on new "E" attractions (the $70 million comment, and now the LA Times report of DCA's ToT costing $75 million). That Disney purposely cut back on the theming at DCA.]

 

[Darkbeer1]

Now, let's look at some news stories that came out in the first year or so...

First, from an Orange County Register article from October, 2002







Try to turn California Adventure into something more than an oft-vacant sideshow for Disneyland.....

Look at California Adventure, the signature of Pressler's reign as theme-park king. The ailing park surely suffers from a lack of amusements - an obvious result of its relatively low-budget construction, if you can say that about a $1.4 billion park.

Pressler's bet that a quirky mix of rides, eateries and retailing would make the new park a draw was a flop.

For Disney, California Adventure is not the sole Disney ailment.

Keonig(sic) said Pressler does deserve a good share of the blame for the alleged lack of creative ambition at the Disney theme parks. He said California Adventure, in which Pressler played a central role, suffers from a much deeper problem than temporary economic woes. It's a conceptual problem, he said: The mostly local people who attend Disneyland simply don't want to attend a theme park about California.


Next is an article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer







Disney's California Adventure park in Anaheim got off to a slow start when its attempt to appeal to adults with gourmet restaurants and nostalgic carnival attractions failed to catch on. The park has been retooling by adding more rides for younger children and returning to more tried and true Disney themes.


And from a great Marketwatch.com article (back then it was CBS Marketwatch.com).







California Adventure, completed for $1.4 billion in early 2001, never quite caught on, as low attendance has forced Disney to constantly revamp the park. The price tag is considered low for a theme park, since new parks in eastern Asia are costing $4 billion to $5 billion but are financed and designed by other companies that take out licenses with Disney.

California Adventure -- developed solely by Disney -- was seen as being long on retail outlets, such as a Wolfgang Puck restaurant, a sourdough bread bakery, a winery and a series of restaurants and shops made to look like a Hollywood studio. And half the $1.4 billion spent went toward construction of the Grand Californian Hotel.

Conversely, it was considered short on attractions, especially for young children. California Adventure is revamping a sizable portion of the park and putting in a new attraction called A Bug's Land, based on the movie "A Bug's Life." It's due to open early next month.

Al Lutz, a longtime Disney parks observer and creator of the Web site , regularly monitors park activity to gauge attendance and park improvements. He says Disneyland continues to draw the same numbers of crowds it always has, in the 25,000 range, but California Adventure lags at 4,000 on weekdays and 10,000 to 15,000 on weekends.

Lutz said it showed that the decisions made on California Adventure, primarily under Pressler's purview, were not the most sound.

"I think he approached them as retail operations and didn't look at them for what they are," Lutz said. Each theme park needs strong elements of showmanship to interest attendees, he added.


And from a September 27th, 2002 article in the Orlando Sentinel...







Harriss' tenure at Disneyland has included that attraction's coolly received second theme park, California Adventure. That attraction, which opened last year, has resorted to discounting tickets to attract tourists.

 

[Darkbeer1]

And from a November 2002 Marketwatch.com article (selected paragraphs only)







Walt Disney Co. is betting small insects and a big building will help its troubled California Adventure theme park find a following nearly two years after it opened at a cost of $650 million.

California Adventure, the adjacent Grand Californian hotel and the Downtown Disney shopping district cost a total $1.4 billion. The park itself cost an estimated $650 million. By contrast, the new DisneySea park in Tokyo -- paid for by licensees -- went for roughly $3 billion.

To get California Adventure numbers up, Disney will have to acknowledge the theme needs to be reworked. Much of its business is local, and there are few park visitors who want an education on their own state, analysts say.

"In order to turn this around, they have to turn their back on the concept," said Jim Hill, a longtime Disney observer who operates a Web site devoted to company news. He says there are a number of proposals under consideration to add new attractions at the park, all of which will result in the California theme getting shunted aside.

"Everything that's on the table is stuff that's fun to ride. It has nothing to do with the California theme," Hill said.

To be sure, California Adventure has gone through the growing pains associated with many of Disney's parks. But some observers say it's worse this time.

One of them is John Cora, Disney's former vice president in charge of resort development, who was responsible for putting in many of the attractions at the new park. He left the company shortly after it opened in February 2001, and now is a theme park consultant based in Oceanside, Calif. Cora says he had an amicable parting with Disney.

Cora says Disney's highest priority in developing the park was to keep costs down.

"That was the bottom line," he said, adding he differed with management over how much and where to spend money on the park.

California Adventure, the adjacent Grand Californian hotel and the Downtown Disney shopping district cost a total $1.4 billion. The park itself cost an estimated $650 million. By contrast, the new DisneySea park in Tokyo -- paid for by licensees -- went for roughly $3 billion.

Cora says that the underlying problem is that to round out the park, California Adventure had to put in an inordinately large number of high-end restaurants, stores, and other retail outlets. Patrons balked at the prospect of spending $45 to get in, and then spend more on goods and food.

That was the influence of former Disney parks chief Paul Pressler coming through, Cora says. Pressler had extensive training in the retail sector and left Disney to become chief executive of Gap Inc. in September.

"Part of the problem is Paul came from retail. He thought retail and still thinks retail," Cora said. "We spent enough money overbuilding retail and food (operations) to add three or four more major attractions to the park."

Some of those facilities are closed or have been replaced. Along with the Soap Opera Bistro and Mondavi winery, Wolfgang Puck operated a restaurant in the heart of the park for a time but eventually left. Disney is operating another restaurant there now.


So we have one of the key players in building DCA saying things like cost was the number one issue, and that they overspent on food and retail (So much so that they could have added three or four more attractions for the same price!!!)

 

[Darkbeer1]

Here is an intereview from Yahoo of Roy Disney in December of 2003







CONCERN OVER THEME PARKS

Eisner, he argues, has not invested in theme parks as he should, and the board of directors was ineffective.

"The upkeep down in Disneyland is sickening," he said, adding that the company under Eisner had built "half a park" but charged full-park prices at California Adventure, the theme park opened next to Disneyland in Southern California.


You know, it is funny, many of us have made points like..

Disney upkeep is not what it used to be...

DCA was built on the cheap

DCA is a half day park / not enough to do

The pricing structure is wrong, that DCA is not worth the same price as Disneyland.

But many folks said we were wrong, it is nice to see that a member of the immediate Disney family agreeing with those comments....

I also want to point out, Disney has been trying to fix DCA, including the addition of ToT... But ToT is not the CURE for DCA, there is still a lot to do to make it a park that is worth close to the Disneyland price...

Let's look at what Marty Sklar said at the IAPPA in November of 2003, as reported on Jim Hill Media ...







EISNER UPDATE: I am just amazed to see how the support for Michael Eisner within the entertainment community has begun to erode. It seems like -- these days -- nobody has a kind word to say about the guy. Take -- for example -- this quote from Harvey Weinstein, the co-chairman of Miramax Pictures. When asked to describe what it's like to work with the Walt Disney Company in general (and Michael Eisner in particular) these days, Harvey had this to say:

"All the great executives have been driven from the company. I think there is no camaraderie anymore, no great esprit de corps that I found earlier. I think there was more risk-taking, a more fun company. I don't know why, and it's sad that it is."

And even formerly loyal lieutenants like Marty Sklar, Vice Chairman and Principal Creative Executive of Walt Disney Imagineering, have begun openly carping about how terrible it is to work at the Walt Disney Company during the waning days of the Michael Eisner era.

Want proof? Take a gander at this Marty quote that an unnamed someone sent from an IAAPA seminar Sklar spoke at last month. When asked about what his thoughts were about Disney's California Adventure. Marty replied:

"I think that you're nuts to build a park next to Disneyland that's half the size and charge the same amount of money."

 

[Darkbeer1]

Next, we have a Motley Fool article from July, 2004...

An interesting opinion piece by Rick Aristotle Munarriz that deals with his 2 week trip out west, in which he visits DL, DCA, Knott's and more. (FYI, he is an investor in both Disney and Cedar Fair)

First, lets see his thoughts on Disneyland...







Disneyland rocked. While Tomorrowland felt hollow without Rocket Rods, Space Mountain, and the submarine voyage, Disney's original theme park was essentially the same vibrant oasis of guests, attractions, and long operating hours that it has always been during the summer.


About right, many people complain about Tomorrowland, and with good reason....

Now, let's see his thoughts on DCA...







Across the way, the same couldn't be said for Disney California Adventure.

A lot has been written about the shortcomings of Disney's second West Coast park. Sadly, it's all true. It remains an incomplete destination. It opens later and closes earlier than its sister park as a silent bow of admission that it is not a full-day park.

The park's newest attraction, a scaled-down version of Disney World's Tower of Terror, is helping. It's the ride of choice after the rope drops at 10 a.m. A summer promotion with McDonald's got us Big Mac-consuming guests in an hour early, which proved to be plenty of time to knock off three quick rides on the new attraction before the rest of the park opened, but why did Disney give in to the cloning process? It's not a regional operator like Six Flags that can afford to dilute the magnetism of a new ride by copying it. Why would the masses that have already experienced the ride in Florida over the past 10 years head out to California? California Adventure has just one worthwhile original attraction, but that distinction will vanish once Soarin' Over California opens in Florida next year.

Yes, attendance is bouncing back at the park after horrifically sandbagged levels, but rather than wonder whether the park's initial flaws were the result of the concept or the execution, one is left wondering why Disney continues to open incomplete parks. Isn't it humiliating enough to have to list strolling characters as park attractions on the official website?


But some of the most interesting comments dealt with Knott's Berry Farm...







Tied up in Knott's

We had chosen to make Knott's our hub for the first half of our trip. Cedar Fair is cool enough to furnish its investors with discounts at the adjacent Radisson, and the central location made it ideal to check out other area attractions before hitting the park for a couple of hours after the school groups board their yellow buses and move on.

The park itself is an endearing showcase of contrasts. You have a low-capacity stagecoach ride powered by four live horses galloping past spinning flat rides and tower-drop thrill rides. Trains and gold mine railcars circle gently around on their rustic tracks while a half-dozen varied roller coasters take a more adrenaline-fueled approach.

We weren't catching the park at its finest hour. A walled-off lake was drained as the park was laying down the groundwork for its next coaster. It forced the closing of two minor attractions and created a bottleneck at the entrance, but as a unit holder, I accepted it as short-term pain for long-term gain.

I relished the enthusiastic ride operators, and we had such a good time that we wound up spending more days at Knott's than we did at the two Disney parks combined.


WOW, his family decided to spend more time at Knott's than Disneyland and DCA combined.......







However, it did fall short in some ways from the standards set at Cedar Point's peninsular thrill haven. There was no complimentary ride reservation system like the flagship park's FreeWay option. Some of the attractions weren't being run at full capacity despite queues that warranted that. At Cedar Point, the Midway Market buffet is a quality eatery, while Knott's Auntie Pasta's smorgasbord is a culinary disaster. When Cedar Point's new coaster proved to be temperamental last summer, the website provided daily updates. Over at Knott's, its newest coaster was down for three weeks, yet it was still being touted on the park's site as a featured attraction. Truth be told, earlier this week the Knott's site even had rides listed that have been closed for months.

Yet we also appreciated the wider variety of rides at Knott's. That park was shadier too, save for the incomprehensibly uncovered overflow area at the tiny pass-processing office. While I'm not sure how -- or even if -- the ride closings and in-park construction will hurt the 2004 summer season, the park is sprucing itself up nicely for a knockout 2005.


While I like the FreeWay system at Cedar Point, it is a bit of a pain, you get in line between 10 and 10:30 AM to get a hand stamp at 11 AM (Heck, a one hour wait beats a three hour wait), I don't see it working at Knott's, there is no real need for it, as the queue's usually move fairly quickly.

As for Auntie Pasta's, if you are looking for All you can eat Pizza and Pasta, plus Salad, it is OK for a family. I much prefer the Ghost Town Grill or the Chicken Dinner restuarant for meal choices. Or even Amber Waves at the Radisson (Now called the Knott's Resort Hotel).

 

[Darkbeer1]

And here is this great line from the "Unofficial Guide to Disneyland" by Bob Sehlinger...








From a competitive perspective, Disney's California Adventure is an underwhelming shot at Disney's three Southern California competitors. The Hollywood section of DCA take a hopeful poke at Universal Studios Hollywood, while Paradise Pier offers midway rides a la Six Flags Magic Mountain. Finally, the whole California theme has for years been the eminent domain of Knott's Berry Farm. In short, there's not much originality in DCA, only Disney's now-redundant mantra that "whatever they can do, we can do better".

Even if the park was called Disney's Slag Heap, the faithful would turn out en masse.

 

[Darkbeer1]

Well, I have decided to go back thru some 2004 posts at another board and look back at what happened at DCA...



First event, the Rose Bowl Float coming to DCA, and the fiasco it created by not finishing the parade, and remaining in Pasadena for the 2 extra days of Float Viewing...


First a quote from Robert Niles








But, c'mon Disney, this is the Rose Parade. Not a preshow float for the Main Street Electrical Parade. Other corporations recognize that this a time to put aside overtly commercial messages and build a little goodwill with the audience -- their market. But Disney instead decided to flog California Adventure at us, and pimp a new ride.



Bad show, Disney. But wait, it gets worse. On the back page of the Calendar Weekend section of this morning's L.A. Times, Disney has an ad promoting its float's appearance at DCA from Jan. 2 - 19. Say what? That means the float won't be joining all the others from the parade in the traditional post-parade display. Instead, Disney's hauling it back to Anaheim and putting it on display for paying customers to DCA.



Tacky, tacky, tacky.




A quote from Fab, aka Michelle Smith







What's even tackier is that the second and third are usually the days reserved for disabled people and underpriveliged youth groups to view the floats. Why couldn't Disney have waited til the fourth?


Looks like Disney has learned its lesson and left the float in Pasadena for viewing.... and didn't bother to ship it south...

And how much did the showing cost at DCA, they had a team of float folks replacing flowers for a couple of weeks, plus the entertainment team that "rode" the elevator, well, they really didn't ride it at DCA, but they still worked the crowd.....



Then in the first week of January, Disney Marketing started up with a new Campaign to help sell the special SoCal tickets... The tag line...







"Pay for Disneyland, get DCA for Free"




Now this came as a big shock to many, who in the past complained when folks on the boards said the same thing in regards to prior promotions of the SoCal ticket....



Also around the same time, good news from the park, as it got rid of its SAP (Special Assistance) program, and went to a much more regulated system of matching assistance to need, and cut back on a lot of abuse of the old system



Also in January 2004, the Resort got rid of the "original" logo that featured GRR, and went back to a traditional Script logo that gave more emphasis to Disneyland, and shortly thereafter, DCA's logo was also changed, this time emphasing DISNEY and placing California Adventure in much smaller letters.



Then we had Roy Disney making a statement about DCA in a SEC filing from February 2004.









The filing then took issue with the company's skimping too much in building California Adventure and Disney Studios Paris in recent years. It said the company should have invested more in California Adventure, which opened in 2001, and charged that executives were too skittish over the Euro Disney debacle.



"The continued suppression of innovation - fixing the off-the-shelf rides -- is likely as the schemers desperately try to avoid any financial write-offs at this time," the filing says. "[California Adventure] has failed and will never come close to generating the financial return the planners forecast."



Also in early February, we had this statement from ESPN...









Next year, Disney's California Adventure (DCA) is opening a new attraction, the Tower of Terror, which is the number one attraction at Walt Disney World in Florida. With its incredible popularity, the number one marketing message for DCA over the next year will be launching the new Tower of Terror. As a result of DCA's specific goals, the X Games Xperience will not continue next summer.


Also around the same time we find out the Super Soap Weekends have also been cancelled at DCA for 2004.



Febuary 8th, 2004 was DCA's 3rd Birthday, and in honor of the event, Disney did absolutely NOTHING!



Then we had this statement from Michael Eisner himself...





May 5th brought the addition of Tower of Terror to DCA, which helps its attendance mix, but by no means was it a home run. Most people have said they prefer the WDW version... so 10 years after the original was built, DCA gets ToT lite.... and after an initial boost of AP holders, crowds have died down to very short waits.



Later in May we find out the SSL had been officially put out of its misery (though in early 2004 there were rumors of it reopening)....



Late June brought the first 1 day ParkHopper to the Main Ticket Windows, at about $20 more than a Single Park ticket, and even less with a SoCal discount.



July had an interesting article from the Motley Fool...









Across the way, the same couldn't be said for Disney California Adventure.

A lot has been written about the shortcomings of Disney's second West Coast park. Sadly, it's all true. It remains an incomplete destination. It opens later and closes earlier than its sister park as a silent bow of admission that it is not a full-day park.



The park's newest attraction, a scaled-down version of Disney World's Tower of Terror, is helping. It's the ride of choice after the rope drops at 10 a.m. A summer promotion with McDonald's got us Big Mac-consuming guests in an hour early, which proved to be plenty of time to knock off three quick rides on the new attraction before the rest of the park opened, but why did Disney give in to the cloning process? It's not a regional operator like Six Flags that can afford to dilute the magnetism of a new ride by copying it. Why would the masses that have already experienced the ride in Florida over the past 10 years head out to California? California Adventure has just one worthwhile original attraction, but that distinction will vanish once Soarin' Over California opens in Florida next year.



In July, Management decided to eliminate the wait board at DCA.



Also, at the end of July, the DLR Guide map was eliminated, and once again two different maps were issued for each park, this time with a new "Times Guide" on a seperate piece of paper, to allow the Glossy Maps to have a longer shelf life.



In August, Who Wants to be a Millionaire - Play It! was closed, and showings of Aladdin were cut back to 5 days a week. Also Groove 66 and Chance to Shine got the ax in the summer of 2003.



September brought the closure of the Paradise Pier Hotel special entrance, and the return of ABC Primetime Preview weekend, which really didn't boost attendance that much.. should be interesting to see if it returns in 2005.



http://www.jimhillmedia.com/mb/artic...le.php?ID=1092



September 14th brought Touch Screen Ordering and payment system to Taste Pilots Grill.



October brought back White Napkins to DCA, but instead of a DCA logo, now the napkins feature the Disneyland Resort logo.



Also, after over a year of having many strings of lights missing, the new fiscal year finally allowed for the replacement of the missing lampposts and lights.



http://www.jimhillmedia.com/mb/artic...le.php?ID=1131



November brings changes to Ariel's Grotto, with Ariel going away, and Capt. Mickey and Capt. Rustworthy taking over the place. Of course menu prices go up $2 a plate, but Disney still can't afford to change the signage to advertise the fact that Mickey Mouse is now the main character at the meals.... So we have "Ariel's Grotto" that doesn't have the lovely redhead as one of its characters....



Also in late November and December, DCA was seriously lacking in the Christmas decoration and shows department. No Christmas tree, and the only real Christmas thing was Santa's Beach Bash.



And also in late November, a new themed truck was parked in front of San Andreas Shakes... Of course, it is just one big Kellogg's advertisement!



Looks like 2004 was the year DCA had a bunch of stuff closed or eliminated....



Should be interesting to see what 2005 brings to DCA...

So Far, The "Pay for Disneyland, get DCA for Free!" is back

The lowest price EVER for a 3 day ParkHopper at $109 (Advance Purchase)

DCA closes one hour earlier (8 PM) on Friday's

 

[Darkbeer1]

Time for Darkbeer's Top Twenty List.....

(insert music and graphics...)

Tonight's topic, the top 20 nicknames for Disney's California Adventure......


Number 20 - DOA = Dead On Arrival... in honor of the original nickname given by the DLR CM's for the park back when it first opened in February of 2001.

Number 19 - Disney Coddles Accountineers

Number 18 - Don't Create Another

Number 17 - Disney's Carney Amusements

Number 16 - Eisner's Folly - In honor of SaveDisney.com

Number 15 - Dirt Cheap Attractions

Number 14 - Dull Carnival Ahead

Number 13 - Disappointing Creative Attempt

Number 12 - BRL = Budget Ride Land

Number 11 - Dormant Cheap Amusements

Number 10 - YMCA = Yucky Miserly Cheap Area, in honor of the "music" series in 2002

Number 9 - D'oh California AWFUL!

Number 8 - BLS = Blue Light Special

Number 7 - Disastrous Creative Attempt

Number 6 - Doesn't Attract Californians

Number 5 - ECCA = Eisner's Cheap California Adventure

Number 4 - Disney's Corporate Arrogance

Number 3 - Decidedly Crummy Attractions

Number 2 - Discounts Create Attendance

And the Number 1 DCA Nickname...

DUMB = Disney's Universal Mountain Berry Park

Honorable Mention goes to Don't Come Again

 

[Darkbeer1]

The DCA tickets discounts offers in 2003

First off, Disneyland attendance had no change, and remained at 12.7 million. DCA attendance went up 600,000 in 2003 (based on the Amusement Business numbers).

A couple of big ticket promotions were offered in 2003...

First, for the vacationing folks, in late 2002, it was announced that you could be a 5 day ticket for the price of 3 for all of 2003 (also 6 days for 4). In late 2001 and parts of 2002, you saw this ticket during the off-season, but not in summer or other peak times, and, they only announced the offer just before it happened, basically only giving the last minute crowd a chance to buy them. There are no blackout dates with these tickets. Also, they offered hotel specials like get the 4th night free that matched up with these tickets. This had to help in the park hopping department.

Second was the revised "SoCal" special that started in 2001. At first it was a 2 day NON park hopping ticket for a few dollars more than a single day price, they tried different pricing points anywhere from $10-$25 more. Also, in 2001 and early 2002, you could use both days at Disneyland, and were not required to attend DCA at all. In the fall of 2002, they had the 2-day ticket for $54 ($9 more than a single day ticket), but this time it was one day at Disneyland, and one day at DCA. Well, the ticket sellers at the main gate would explain the offer when asked if there were any SoCal specials (and they have signs at the ticket windows saying to ask about the SoCal specials), but many folks decided to just get a single day ticket to DL, and not bother to pay the extra $9. The folks at TDA were not happy with the numbers, even though Flik's Fun Fair had just opened.

Well, in early 2003, the "Pay for Disneyland, get DCA for free" ticket was announced, now just $47, the same price as a one-day ticket. This offer started in early January, and expired in mid-May.... well, now when the guests went to the ticket window, and asked about the special, they were told for NO extra charge they could get a 2-day ticket (some asked for just a discounted DL only ticket, but were told those tickets are not discounted), so folks ended up with a 2-day whether they wanted it or not. Well, these folks went to Disneyland for the day... and then put the ticket on the fridge, or somewhere else... and then folks realized that the ticket to DCA was about to expire..... so many folks in fact that Disney had to extend DCA hours, staffing , and offer extra showings of shows for the last three weekends of the deal(No such additions were added to Disneyland). This really drove up DCA's numbers in May.

The same ticket showed up on August 1st, right in the middle of summer peak, this time good to late November, but now with a 30 day fuse, to prevent the problems they had in May by not having all the tickets expire at the same time. They also offered the ticket in early December as an AP holder special (for AP guests). So basically for 3/4th's of the year the SoCal ticket was offered.

Also, as for special events, the Grand Opening for Aladdin was January 2003, which brought in AP holders (and it has been reported that the DLR has over 600,000 AP holders).

Then you had the Grand Opening of Playhouse Disney in May of 2003.

So between offering many more discounted tickets in the summer, the lowering of the SoCal special to make DCA free, and the additional AP visits to check out the new show offerings, you have an increase for DCA, while DL stayed flat....

Interesting to note that the increase is about the same number as AP holders...

And what do we have in 2004? Well, the 5 for 3 and 6 for 4 tickets have returned for all of 2004, this time they come with a free ESPNZone card... and the "DCA for free" ticket has returned for the first 4 months of the year.....