The article reveals nothing that hasn't been gone over, at length, here and on other Web sites. But there are a couple of notable quotes.
Fave quote: "We've done better than we thought without any Japanese tourists," Disney Chief Executive Michael Eisner said.
Gee, maybe they all went to the vastly superior (by all accounts) Tokyo DisneySea instead?
And from Pressler, "We thought we'd limit Disney characters to the more traditional Disneyland experience," Pressler said. "But lo and behold, our guests said they wanted the characters everywhere. These are things we didn't anticipate, but we read them loud and clear."
So Pressler says Disney listens to guests, heh?
Okay, I'll bite. Let's let Paul hear it: What would you do to improve California Adventure?
I'll start: Open up the checkbook. In the global theme park market, character floods and $5-10 million attractions don't attract visitors. Disney needs to commit to a $50-million-plus (minimum!) attraction for California Adventure if it has *any* hope for drawing crowds to this park. And Disney needs to budget nine figures if it really wants to move the turnstyles.
A stripped-down Tower or Terror won't do it. Heck, a faithfully recreated Tower of Terror wouldn't do it. Only by designing and building something that tops Spiderman itself is Disney going to overcome the bad public perception of this park.
Fortunately, there are enough great stories in the history and literature of California to support such a ride. (Zorro, perhaps?) So, unlike what some others believe, I don't think the theme of the park is the problem.
It's Disney's refusal to properly fund it.
Next?
Or just sell the thing to Knott's and be done with it.
However, I think, Disney's Californian Aventure needs a major ride in the Grizzly Peak area of the park, why because although the rapids ride is really great and well themed, the area doesn't have enough attractions to suit a full-day attraction. I propose an inverted B&M, original enough to challenge the Batman:The Ride and IOA's Dueling Dragons, perhaps we could have a Montu/Alpengiest type attraction installed, I know space is a problem, but if the ride fly's over the Grizzly Peak, it could be themed to the Peak well, with holes in the Peak for inline twists and such like, I bill that at $35 million, a lot of money, but the sucess of B&M's worldwide, would assure many investors, that it would bring in the guests. Let's be honest, B&M have few inverted coasters in Southern California, in fact only Batman: The Ride at SFMM, and that isn't the best attempt they've ever come up with! Come on, you've installed an S&S Tower, let's get building a B&M inverted machine to Grizzly Peak!
The problem with "fixing" DCA is that there are just too many problems to fix quickly and easily. Here are the problems I hear most and what I would do to fix them (money be damned!):
1) Attractions that AREN'T attractions (like tortilla factories): Dumpola! Unless they can turn a conveyor belt into a roller coaster, there is no other solution than to get rid of these types of things.
2) The lack of real ATTRACTIONS: Build attractions. Duh! Robert is right that a ToT won't do it. A REAL ToT might help somehat, but it is only a partial solution. The thing they are currently building will NOT put this park on the map. Robert is also right that something on the level of Spidey is needed. Currently, the greatest ride in the park is Soarin' Over California, and if that isn't bringing in the peeps, they need something greater.
3) The theme doesn't attract the locals: I think this complaint is stupid. If the park was filled with great rides, no one would say a word about the California theme. The most hated area of the park is Paradise Pier which doesn't really scream "California," does it? I have had suggestions for more California theming before, but I will repeat them because I like seeing myself type! Gut PP, keeping the Sun Wheel, the Maliboomer and the coaster and theme it more to an actual PIER. Add one ride (a funhouse has been suggested by others, which is a fine idea, since this place needs a decent dark ride) and maybe something inside the other helix. Retheme the area where all the CRAP now is into a Lake Tahoe winterscape (an Olympic theme?) That area is plenty big enough to house several REAL rides. Then expand the San Francisco area with a hillier Big-Thunder-style coaster. Instead of desert scenery, surround the tracks with a stylized San Francisco. Theme the cars as cable cars and you have yourself a new and exciting E-Ticket. Hollywood would be okay if they fixed up the big theatre PROPERLY (escalators HAVE been invented, you know) and if they dumped the Muppets (I luv the Muppets but two 3-Ds in this park is ridiculous and this is the one being ignored.) Give the Muppets an actual RIDE, and turn the Limo ride into something that isn't a laughingstock. I honestly have no clue what can be done with the Pacific Wharf and Bountiful Valley areas. Maybe turning the whole area into the "family" area of the park isn't so bad an idea. But that Flik's Fantasy Faire crud WON'T do it. Turn the warehouses of the Wharf area into family dark rides. Then the Farm area could be saved for the younger kiddies.
4) There is nothing for kids: Read the last few sentences.
5) There aren't enough characters: Geez, I wonder how you would solve this??? That line about the characters not fitting into this non-typical Disney park is such GARBAGE. There are characters all over Epcot, which is easily the least "Disney" park of the lot. If there aren't characters here, then please explain MuppetVision and It's Tough to Be a Bug to me. I say make certain characters exist ONLY in this park. If Monsters Inc is turned into a ride, like it should be, then keep those characters here and let people know it. If they clone Buzz Lightyear, like they so desperately want to, they should put it here and make this the unofficial Pixar park. We all know that Pixar is more of a draw lately than Disney is, so they should milk that.
6) Everything happens so slowly: It sure does. Disney can transform a gift shop like Bruce Wayne going down the Batpole. Yet even lesser rides take a year to get going. This is ridiculous. Universal built Men In Black in a year, so why will a half-hearted ToT take 2 1/2???
Sure, stuff like this would be extremely expensive, but how will the same excuses work five years down the road? They won't. And someone won't be making 100 million a year anymore. Take a paycut and EARN your salary this year, Eisner.
For the Anonymous poster who mentioned the Queen Mary: Disney used to own the Queen Mary. In fact, the original specs for the park that became Tokyo DisneySea were for a Long Beach theme park built around the Queen Mary.
Disney played Long Beach and Anaheim against each other to force Anahein into spending billions of dollars on infrastructure and tax breaks to help Disney build a second park in Anaheim. (Which became California Adventure after Disney killed the Westcot park it sold Anaheim on.) And Imagineering took all the design work it did for the Long Beach park to Tokyo.
So Imagineering's got plenty of designs sitting around for stuff to do with an ocean liner.
I still say keep the Pixar characters and the Muppets as this park's set of characters. Of course Disney wouldn't want to name something Pixar Place or anything like that, but the visitors will know where the Pixar stuff is. Besides, the Muppets and the Pixars are all too hip to be hobnobbing with those run-of-the-mill characters over at DL! ;-)
You'd buy food and sit down to punch in a selection of a show you'd like to see!
Shoot, I'd even be willing to have a total revamp of TCB... with the new Country Bears (very detailed high tech animatronics!) onstage.
Obviously, it needs more rides, but that's more of a problem with Disney parks overall than one isolated with DCa, and, with the coming of Tower of Terror, Disney is taking the first of, hopefully, many steps forward.
But DCa continues to be empty, and I realized that, besides rides, DCa is missing one other element that keeps its streets from being full. DCa lacks shops.
Shops?! I'm sure you're surprised that I'm suggesting that Disney add more areas where they can overcharge you for souvenirs, but think about it--Main Street, U.S.A. is always teeming with life because of its shops. Besides the Disney Emporium which sells the obvious Disney souvenirs, there's a magic shop, a timepiece shop where you can watch artists creating custom-made faces for watches, various candy and icecream shops, et cetera. It's charming. Consider when you walk through the streets of New Orleans Square--besides the souvenir shops, there are various curio shops and a shop that sells glass figurines, and ladies painting parasols at sidewalk shops.
Think about how busy Main Street usually is, and then consider that there are no rides (besides the train and horse-buggies) located in Main Street.
Now think about DCa--although it has shops, many of its "storefronts" are just empty, non-functional facades (think about the Golden State Park area). Compare this to Main Street where the storefronts are actually stores or other working buildings (i.e. the Bank, City Hall, etc.).
Why doesn't DCa make better use of its space and add shops to the existing facades? Not just boring souvenir shops, but California specific shops--perhaps a henna shop, a salt-water taffy shop, a shop that sells movie memorabilia in the Hollywood backlot, maybe even a shop that sells L.A. fashions. Shops that are interesting and not cookie cutter.
It's funny--I always hear Paradise Pier being maligned at DCa, yet it is probably the best themed area of the park, and certainly the prettiest part of the park to be in at night. Although the boardwalk theme may seem conventional, Paradise Pier at least follows that theme--and, for DCa, it's usually fairly busy. I think a lot of that has to do with the shops--the Corndog shop, the sunglass hut, the various carnival games. How much better would it be with a salt-water taffy store? Perhaps with taffy being pulled in a large window right out in front? How about snowcones? That's a favorite boardwalk treat...just some suggestions...anyone else?
1. Tear DCA down to the ground & return to the drawing board.
(What in the world was wrong with WestCot?!)
2. Have the board at Disney run Michael Eisner out of the company.
Since neither option is likely to ever see the light of day, I guess we're all screwed!
*sigh*
#2 Make all the paths in the Golden State area thinner and place a stone work to make it feel as though you're walking in a garden. No parades, but whoever thinks DCA needs a parade anyways?
#3 Replace that Sun Dial with The Sun Wheel to have something with an honest to god attempt at another version of a castle.
#4 The streets of the Hollywood area should instead have replicas of all those star signatures along it's main road.
#5 Place a roof over the main road in the Hollywood area so as to further increase the glamour that should be Hollywood.
#6 Have Paradise Pier to have actual wood as it's walking surface just like that of Disney World's Boardwalk.
and that's my 50 cents
I think that the Queen Mary theme idea is great for DCA. Disney can partner with RMS Inc, which owns the real deal down in Long Beach. (LB should have gone all out to get DisneySea) DCA is in dire need of a dark ride. Not just any dark ride, but how about a trip within a harbor setting that desends into a cave, ah-la Pirates. Pirates is the greatest Disney ride ever made, in my humble opinion, the themeing is simply mindblowing. (Stop making the ride PC!) Disney would do well to continue down that path.
All of this being said, I think DCA is a decent park. People are unfairly expecting another DL. The economy is not the same as when DL was build, and for what its worth, Eisner does deserve credit for the Disney Decade program he started that pulled the company out of the 1980's hole it was heading into.
These are DCA's great rides:
CA Screaming: Smoothest rollercoaster I have ever had the pleasure of riding, with good thrills. Perfect family ride, keeps the teens and adults happy. Disney has something on its hands with this one, something big.
Soarin: Great. Just change the movie periodicly. What Disney magic is all about.
GRR: Best rapids ride in the state, beats Knotts and Six Flags hands down. Good themeing. Needs an expanded cave. Think partial dark ride. Would be the first dark ride turned rapids experance anywhere nearby.
Bugs Life show: A truely exciting show, good enough to interest teens.
These are the soild DCA attractsions. Disney should go from here and spice up the current underachivers. Can Superstar straight away.
The Hollywood land needs to go. California themed or not, it needs to go. It has little saving graces aside from the Muppets, and yet... It had so much potential.
Here's what I would do.
1) Figure out what kind of rides/attractions I want & how many
2) Design the theme around them. ( Or place them evenly, etc. )
There are too many theaters in there. When I went there upon opening there was the Muppet Theater ( good ), A Bug's Life ( also good ), and some movie with Whoopi Goldberg that I have since been referring to as "Whoopi Goldberg's WHITE MEN ARE ALL EVIL" movie. I think it was her goal to tell us what white men cause suffering and evil against every other race for a good 20 minutes. I hear her condescending movie is gone now. Good riddance.
Change that damned beach park too. I paid to get into DCA to find... Portable carnival rides, set up in a permanent fixture? So they put the giant swings-on-a-chain ride inside a giant orange. BOOOORRRIIINNGGGG!!! It's just another portable carnival ride. I'll just drive to Santa Monica and go see a REAL boardwalk rollercoaster park if that's what I want.
Think about the stupidity of their actions.
a) Disney parks have characteristically kept Walt's dream alive by "transporting you to a magical land"
b) When you enter DCA, it is the only park of theirs where you are in the SAME DAMNED LAND YOU JUST CAME IN FROM!!! On the outside of the turnstyle, I'm in California. But once inside,... DAMMIT!!! I'M STILL IN FREAKIN' CALIFORNIA!!!!
On another note, I feel I have the perfect idea for Disney. It needs to have parks for everyone, like DL, staying hip and up to date, while keeping the real classics. Never and I mean never make rides that cause 40 percent of the population to get sick, like Magic Mountain. (for the record, Spin Out got me sick there, not the coasters, but they were rough. Curse that spinning ride)
I think you've hit upon a major point when you discuss how DCa fails to transport you to another land as Disneyland does. You enter California Adventure, yet you still feel like you're in California...
I think that can be resolved, however. I think that DCa's major trap isn't that it's set in California, but that it's set in contemporary California. Disneyland breaks the time barrier with Frontierland, Tomorrowland, Main Street U.S.A., and even New Orleans Square to some extent.
The problem with getting out of the contemporary California scene is that theming DCa after California's historic past would make it resemble Main Street U.S.A. and Frontierland way too much. But still, making Paradise Pier more reminiscient of the Golden Age of boardwalks might provide the Imagineers with more options to explore (I still want that salt-water taffy shop with taffy being pulled in the store window!).
And why not open up the past of San Francisco a bit more for DCa? You could have Victorian style buildings and clothing. You could even throw in something to do with San Francisco's Emperor Norton I, the only Emperor of the United States of America. That might provide the Imagineers with some interesting areas to explore and build.
They also should build a flying coaster somewhere on Paradise Pier. They can give it a beach theme.
