Disneyland Resort (DL, DLR, DCA) Discussion Thread

Its possible. I mean, they pull a screen up on the fun wheel every night. But, then why not just paint it in a better color, haha. Anything is possible though.

I'd imagine it would have to do with upkeep. Look at how dirty space mountain gets/has been. It would be easier to just paint it black and have easier access to repair or replace a screen.

I'm reaching obviously. Perhaps it's just meant to look like a separation in the design of the building. Can the new Thor movie come out already so we can see the movie version of the tower?!

I think the vertical strip of black is here as a visual separation, in order to break the shape of the former ToT.

... but it's still looking like ToT in my opinion. I really have trouble to get it out of my mind when I look at it. Maybe if they had filled the sides of the "T"-shape with scaffoldings and pipes...? That may have helped.

In that light, the building looks pretty nice! As a fan of the franchise, I'm excited to experience the ride this July and I hope it sets the ton for the eventual Marvel area that will take the place of Hollywoodland. I think the space has a lot of potential and California Adventure could definitely use a IP-themed land to draw in more crowds and up the park's capacity.

It does indeed look much better at night. I am never opposed to Disney improving the ride experience with new tech, and it sounds like with the new video content they have achieved that goal. The mind boggles however as how they are going to make the exterior fit into a land though doesn't it? Bugs to one side, Frozen to the other, with a Trolley line passing by. Maybe Thanos and the Infinity Gems can be blamed.

^ Don't overthink it. The Hyperion Theatre is the only building between Guardians and where the Marvel land is rumored to be. The trolley already goes out of Hollywoodland into BV St on one end. Now it can go out of Hollywoodland briefly into Marvel land on its other end. There's really no huge amount of mind-warping needed here, assuming it's needed at all.

Just remember, all midwest towns in the 1900s had a medieval castle at the end of their Main Street, and a big snowy mountain off to the side.

^

Also, I thought this was cool, so I am sharing it. Its a map of all the projects happening withing the Resort District. Take a look!

Anaheim Projects

That is cool, thanks for sharing that link!

That is definitely a very busy construction area.

Thanks for showing all of it, Chris.

Some mapping effect would really bring the building to life. Something like Rocket crawling around the outside or one of the "cell" looking things opening up to show whose inside.

When comparing the concept art to the final product, there is one difference that makes me hopeful for some digital mapping. That blacked out area of the building in the center could be used for some cool mapping effects.

I am quite happy to say that I was wrong on this one! There have been lots of video of testing for projection and maybe even some laser effects on the facade! I only hope that this is for the actual ride and not just for the special events this week.

So there's on-ride video now of the actual "Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout!" attraction. I've been on-and-off dreading the overlay since it was announced, I'm happy to say that I was totally wrong on this one! It looks like a lot of fun with the randomized drops and the oldies tunes in the background. I look forward to finally riding it in person on my next trip to DCA!

So there's on-ride video now of the actual "Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout!" attraction. I've been on-and-off dreading the overlay since it was announced, I'm happy to say that I was totally wrong on this one! It looks like a lot of fun with the randomized drops and the oldies tunes in the background. I look forward to finally riding it in person on my next trip to DCA!

The Rocket animatronic during the pre-show certainly looks impressive.

I saw some footage of the ride too, and I was amazed what they did. I especially love the new Rocket AA they built. The entire ride is by no means flawless, but its pretty cool, and now it's tearing me apart between choosing to go to Disneyland or Knott's for the summer. I was cautiously open to this new attraction, and it met my expectations well. And honestly, it might have been mentioned before, I think this new ride helps give variety to all four Towers, which are already unique in their own way.

Plus this might be me, but does anyone else think that Mission Breakout is kinda like a Marvel version of Tokyo's TOT? You have a guy who "collects" things and one of his collections starts wreaking havoc on the building.

Some mapping effect would really bring the building to life. Something like Rocket crawling around the outside or one of the "cell" looking things opening up to show whose inside.

When comparing the concept art to the final product, there is one difference that makes me hopeful for some digital mapping. That blacked out area of the building in the center could be used for some cool mapping effects.

 

I am quite happy to say that I was wrong on this one! There have been lots of video of testing for projection and maybe even some laser effects on the facade! I only hope that this is for the actual ride and not just for the special events this week.

The building is supposed to swell and pulse with energy, so I'd imagine the effects are there to stay. It looks so cool on video, I can't wait to see it in person!

I think it looks like the worst idea Disney ever had for a ride redo since Rocket Rods.

What a fail, sure the theming and pre show is top notch, but the ride theme in no way fits the ride system and at the expense of what was an amazing ride and theme (albeit not as well executed as it's siblings).

The original theme, story, experience, was pure Disney. This incarnation belongs at Universal, I'm left wondering where the 3D glasses and water spray is going to happen. The ride experience lacks any coherent story, suspense or just real 'WTF just happened' factor.

I think it's best summed up by the sign out front, that's something I would expect to see in a Six Flags park.

I'm actually shocked that they are opening Pandora and this biscuit at the same time.

To me holding off and re theming Star Tours to Guardians would have made much more sense given the film is pretty much centred around flying on a space ship and foreign worlds, and the entire pre show/que could also be themed that way. That and the fact Star Tours makes little sense being in Tomorrowland once the new land opens. About as much sense as a giant Guardians tower makes in an old world Hollywood part of DCA which would be much more suited to say, and Old abandoned Glamorous Hotel.... hey wait a minute.

Plus this might be me, but does anyone else think that Mission Breakout is kinda like a Marvel version of Tokyo's TOT? You have a guy who "collects" things and one of his collections starts wreaking havoc on the building.

Oh it's not just you. Mystic Manor at HKDL follows the same storyline as well.

Plus this might be me, but does anyone else think that Mission Breakout is kinda like a Marvel version of Tokyo's TOT? You have a guy who "collects" things and one of his collections starts wreaking havoc on the building.

Someone really needs to make a feature film of Harrison Hightower's story, culminating with the disaster at the Hotel Hightower.

^I remember finding a fanmade radio drama version of it a while back. Need to see if I can find the link...

So I bit the bullet and woke up at 5:00 this morning to head over to Disney and ride Mission: Breakout. The park was packed, and within an hour of the park opening, the wait time reached five hours. I was lucky enough to wait less than an hour in the actual line. Once inside of the gates the line flies by. I passed the wait time sign and was on the ride in 25 minutes. I actually wanted the line to slow down after the office, I couldn’t take in any of my surroundings.

Regarding the attraction’s placement and surroundings, if you’ve watched any of the tours Joe Rohde has given of the attraction, you’ll know that it is meant to feel out of place. The Marvel films feature superheroes and extraterrestrials that do not fit normal, everyday life on Earth. The Collector’s fortress is meant to have come from Knowhere and taken up residence inside California Adventure. Hence Rocket’s “Is that Disneyland” line.

Overall, the Disney parks, ever since Walt was around, have been about one thing. Telling a story. Walt created Disneyland to be another media to showcase his ideas through, rather than just film. This attraction, unlike many, if not most, of the attractions in DCA, tells a story. The Collector has taken the Guardian’s prisoner, Rocket has escaped, and he needs your help to free his friends.

As far as the ride goes, it is, in one word, fun. It’s just flat out fun. My whole lift was laughing throughout the whole experience. I was cautiously optimistic when it was first announced, but I gladly welcome Mission: Breakout to California Adventure. Our Tower of Terror was half-assed and built on the cheap anyways, so why not make it unique from any other attraction in the world? And before I get the whole “Marvel films aren’t even good,” I will say that the films may be formulaic (but so is Scooby-Doo, which everyone seems to love). But people, like myself, don’t watch these films for plot or drama, we watch because we love the characters and having a good time. That is what this attraction is centered around.

Got to the park this morning and got a Fastpass for Guardians. Luckily, because some friends got there before us, we got a 9:30 return time!

The ride is really great fun! They did a good job on the whole thing and I can't wait to ride it again.

There are some tower things that have remained (like boiler room has just been dressed up). But the new ride experience is really really fun. They really made the ride a lot more intense and its very re-rideable.

And the story is cohesive! Rocket says "This is what we need to do, and why" and thats what plays out on the ride.

I can not wait to go back and ride again!

I rode it with Chris on opening day and it was really good! The Rocket animatronic was really impressive. I liked it better than the original, and can't wait to go back and ride it again.

I'm not a huge Marvel fan and have never seen either Guardians movie but I'm fine with this change. It was always kind of 'bad tower' anyways, and now at least all the Towers on the planet are different!

...And now the only "bad tower"..... is in French!

Mais, oui!

(Still fun IMhO even if you don't understand the language. It's like Japan! Without it's awesome ToT.)

I'm not a huge Marvel fan and have never seen either Guardians movie but I'm fine with this change. It was always kind of 'bad tower' anyways, and now at least all the Towers on the planet are different!

That's a good point. In fact, I've been thinking about doing an analysis on all four Towers, understanding their uniqueness and even explaining why Mission Breakout isn't such a bad idea.

Personally I see this new ride as sort of an experiment by WDI. Since DCA's tower was one of the weaker versions, Disney tried to see if they could experiment by using the same ride system and building, but try and use not only a different setting, but one from an IP that they actually owned and not licensed. I haven't ridden it yet, but from what I've seen of it, it looks like it was a mostly successful experiment. It's not perfect, there are parts of the ride where it's obvious to see that it took over TOT (IMO, I think the Simpsons at Universal did the theming takeover replacement a little better, even if the transition and entire aspect kinda didn't make much sense), and I think the randomized video patterns could be tweaked a bit. But really, there's nothing that much wrong with this ride, the problems it does have seem very minor. I really hope I get to visit DCA soon because I'd love to actually check this out and compare it to my experiences on TOT.

I got to ride the new Guardians ride last night, here's my experience and thoughts:

We got in line right before closing with the line posted at 105 minutes, but it took probably 30-40 minutes less than that to get on, probably because there weren't any more fastpasses being accepted after 10pm.

The queue is really awesome! There's tons of Marvel and Disney easter eggs, so many that it might take a few trips through to see everything. Unfortunately the Rocket animatronic wasn't working and so we did not get to see it. A little disappointing because I'd heard good things, but downtime comes with the territory of visiting new rides shortly after opening. Overall the queue is better than what it replaced.

Now the ride itself. It seems longer than ToT with a lot more movement which made for a very fun ride. The visuals were totally awesome. However, something was up with the audio, and no one could hear much of anything on the ride.

So my verdict? I'd say overall, the ride is fun but falls a little short of ToT. However, my opinion may change once I've had the opportunity to ride the 5 other profiles, as that is definitely one of the most exciting additions to the ride.

If I had to give ratings, I'd give WDW Tower an A+, DCA Tower a B, and Guardians Tower as I experienced it (with some issues) a C, with the potential to be a B+.

Looking forward to riding again soon!