Disneyland Resort (DL, DLR, DCA) Discussion Thread

Nemo - Clearly better in CA, but a good addition to the park.

 

In fact, the only saving grace for the subs is the fact that "Yay, I'm on the Subs again". Other than that, it's a waste of what, $130 million.

 

Sorry I just threw up a little bit in my mouth when I read that.

Yeah, I kind of threw up when I heard that ride cost $130 million too.

Question:

For a park that has little to no space for expansion after Cars Land, is Disney really doing the best thing by keeping the water and not just building something else there? I mean, it's nice and all, but the water has never really served it's intended purpose. When is the last time the wave machine was working? 4 or 5 years ago at least.

Then again, removing the lake didn't really work for Knott's, so maybe they should keep it.

Your so hilarious robb!!! And so mature too!!!

Thank you. I appreciate the positive feedback.

--Robb

As far as the WDW versus Disneyland debate, out of all of the parks Disney has I consider WDW's Magic Kingdom to be the most "complete" park out of them all. They have a wonderful collection of rides including Disney staples (Small World, Jungle Cruise, Pirates) to newer attractions like Philharmagic, Laugh floor, and Stitch.

 

I completely disagree with this. IMO the most complete of all of the Disney parks is either Disneyland or Tokyo Disneyland, but lets just focus on the domestic parks. Disneyland has every major attraction that The Magic Kingdom has plus a much fuller Fantasyland and a real Toontown. If only Disneyland had the space that the Magic Kingdom does. That is why I love TDL so much, it mixes Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom so well.

As for Nemo, I wish they would've just spent $60 million at Disneyland for the Epcot version of the ride and left the rest of the budget for something else. As much as I love the subs, that ride just doesn't feel E Ticket to me.

Ok, back to DCA, as Robb said, "The park looks bad!"

Nemo - Clearly better in CA, but a good addition to the park.

 

In fact, the only saving grace for the subs is the fact that "Yay, I'm on the Subs again". Other than that, it's a waste of what, $130 million.

 

Sorry I just threw up a little bit in my mouth when I read that.

 

Yeah, I kind of threw up when I heard that ride cost $130 million too.

Yup that's a ridiculous amount of money for an attraction. I know it's Disney and money comes to them on conveyor belts so I guess let the good times roll. They know we'll learn to love those ungodly expensive attractions that come our way... Mickey always wins!

If only Disneyland had the space that the Magic Kingdom does. That is why I love TDL so much, it mixes Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom so well.

This is exactly the same reason why I love TDL! I honestly am not a big fan of either MK or DL for various reasons. Both have equal pros and cons, IMO, but TDL is the "Magic Kingdom" that gets it all right!

Even though we live 65 miles away from Disneyland, we have not had passes there since 2002. And not renewing our Disneyland Premium Pass for the past 7 years has given us about $5446 that we've put towards more trips to Tokyo Disneyland!

Money well spent!

--Robb

about $5446

 

--Robb

What's with the rounding Robb?

^ Give or take a dollar or two.

--Robb

Question:

 

For a park that has little to no space for expansion after Cars Land, is Disney really doing the best thing by keeping the water and not just building something else there? I mean, it's nice and all, but the water has never really served it's intended purpose. When is the last time the wave machine was working? 4 or 5 years ago at least.

 

Then again, removing the lake didn't really work for Knott's, so maybe they should keep it.

First of all, if Disney wants to they will expand. World of Color will keep people in the park for at least a good while. There is never a good reason for people to stay at DCA at night, I mean, the electrical parade is cool and all, but that thing is never Illuminated. I am thinking(just a hunch) that world of color is going to be much more like Illuminations, and, Disney has never had a bad water show. I have seen DLR's Fantasmic, and have also seen Illuminations and found them both to be totally awesome. In my opinion, Fantasmic is my favorite show at any park, and, how many people do you see waiting for hours for fantasmic for hours? There are tons of people, and, the little mermaid restaurant is getting a viewing area just like the Epcot pub. Besides, nothing would look good where the water currently is, and all the boardwalk theming would have to be taken out.

As far as the WDW versus Disneyland debate, out of all of the parks Disney has I consider WDW's Magic Kingdom to be the most "complete" park out of them all. They have a wonderful collection of rides including Disney staples (Small World, Jungle Cruise, Pirates) to newer attractions like Philharmagic, Laugh floor, and Stitch.

 

 

I completely disagree with this. IMO the most complete of all of the Disney parks is either Disneyland or Tokyo Disneyland, but lets just focus on the domestic parks. Disneyland has every major attraction that The Magic Kingdom has plus a much fuller Fantasyland and a real Toontown. If only Disneyland had the space that the Magic Kingdom does. That is why I love TDL so much, it mixes Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom so well.

 

As for Nemo, I wish they would've just spent $60 million at Disneyland for the Epcot version of the ride and left the rest of the budget for something else. As much as I love the subs, that ride just doesn't feel E Ticket to me.

 

Ok, back to DCA, as Robb said, "The park looks bad!"

Yeah, I guess I should have prefaced my remarks with "out of the parks I have been to (DL, WDW, and DLP)". I have not had the priviledge to visit TDL or TDS but I hope to get to them in the next few years. And as far as Nemo, I agree. I do enjoy the EPCOT Nemo better and it feels more up to date technology wise. I just wish the DL version had better capacity.

Question:

 

For a park that has little to no space for expansion after Cars Land, is Disney really doing the best thing by keeping the water and not just building something else there? I mean, it's nice and all, but the water has never really served it's intended purpose. When is the last time the wave machine was working? 4 or 5 years ago at least.

 

Then again, removing the lake didn't really work for Knott's, so maybe they should keep it.

As much as you're right, I think it'd be better if it stayed. I mean, would you like to ride CS and not have water there? The addition of the Silly Symphony Swings will sail over the water, the Golden Zephyr already does that, and we wouldn't have the new World of Color water show. Plus, if they were to add anything, I'd like it if they had a boat tour of the bay. That's about it with what you can do to the bay. Or, if we were to see the demise of Mulholland Madness/Goofy's Sky School, and a newer "E" Ticket attraction, I think it'd be cool if they brought in the new Eagle Coaster S&S has been working on, and have it tunnel under the walkway, and have it skim the water. No, not themed to Crush, but have a classic character, and have it well themed. Speaking of well themed attractions, The maliboomer is really going to look like a piece of $#!T when the full refurb is done. The parachute drop probably won't happen because of the underground infrastructure the Maliboomer has now, so if we have to do a retheme with that, why not to Pete's Dragon. Make a lighthouse facade around the towers, add white rotating lights to the top, paint the towers a faded maroon red, and there you go! A new attraction, with a Victorian theme tied in. Ok, I'm done ranting.

Interesting read from Miceage today. World of Color sounds to be something pretty incredible, and if this is correct, $400 MILLION for Carsland!! That has to be a record for Disney, at least the stateside parks.

Side note about DL, sad news is the Remember fireworks spectacular is suppose to go away this spring to be replaced by a much more scaled back show. Can understand why, but still a bummer. Like many others have said, definitely the best fireworks/nighttime spectacular I've ever seen.

Some pics from today. Not really a whole lot in the way of major differences to Paradise Pier. Still a maze of walls going up the way between Golden Dreams and Ariels Grotto. However, the rest of Paradise Pier isn't too bad.

The park was pretty dead in the morning, got progressively busier after noon (which is why we left and are already home).

But uglier than anything going on over at DCA right now is this:

I think this is the ugliest thing to grace a Disney park since "Birthday Castle" at Magic Kingdom. Well, at least they didn't do it to the castle.

On to the DCA construction pics:

As you can see, not a lot of change, but a lot more materials are on site.

Overview of the area

The marquee's of the boardwalk games are coming along quite nicely. You can see a definitive change in the way Paradise Pier is going to look when it's all done.

The Sun Wheel looks like it's getting close to completion

Another view of the construction going on

The entire area from Orange Stinger to Golden Zephyr is walled off on the water side

Some of the area under the orange is being dealt with. Not sure how safe this is with the ride still being open.

Another shot of the area

The Amphitheatre is now fully demolished and waiting for it's improvements

Not sure if this is just part of the construction process, or if this is part of what will be used in the show. Anybody???

Still another year until the show opens

The Bridge between Paradise Pier and the Wharf is still closed. Didn't go into the Wharf area to see what work, if any is being done on the Fortune Cookery (if any)

Thanks for the update, The Boardwalk games look great.

--Jay

Big improvement over unthemed stucco.

I cant wait to see the entire board walk re themed.

^ Yeah, it's a definite improvement.

I had some before pics that I took last year of some of the stuff, but I can't find them right now. I'll look more tonight.

The stuff I'm reading about the World of Color show has me very excited to see it in person. Disney, of course, knows that it will draw comparisons to Fantasmic, so I believe they really will go all-out to make it a memorable production. Effects that continue on into the seating areas should definitely draws some "oohs and aahs". Or maybe scare small children and cause undue heart stress in the elderly? (Just kidding) Seriously, I'm looking forward to this show a lot. Stuff like this, when done well, is a huge part of what separates Disney from their competitors.

It has been said that the effort to be put forth in the Carsland area is on a scale not seen this side of the Tokyo parks. I don't have firsthand Tokyo experience on which to draw, but if it ends up looking like anything I've seen in numerous TRs of the Tokyo parks, then I'm all for it. We still probably won't have lots of hot Asian chick guests dressed up like Alice walking around the park, but hey... We gotta take what we can get!

The new entrance theme looks to be very immersive in the concept art and should add a great deal of atmosphere to start your visit. As is no secret, a sense of "place" has been lacking from most of DCA since it opened. (The Grizzly peak and Pacific wharf areas being notable exceptions, imho.) Did anyone that didn't bother to look into it to some degree ever really "get" the whole Condor Flats area? I mean, I know what it's supposed to be, and it still doesn't work for me. Maybe the aviation buffs bust a load in their pants when they walk through there, but the average guest? I'm thinking probably not so much.

Paradise Pier was simply too cheesy and cheap looking to capture the romance of the classic pier parks. Although they may have actually been cheesy and cheap in many cases, the spirit of carefree fun they seemed to be going for was never really realized by visitors. The improvements visible behind the construction walls are a very welcome addition.

As for the re-theming of the Sun wheel to Mickey's fun wheel, it seems like a lateral move to me, but whatever... At least it's got fresh paint and that's a plus. The Silly symphony swings concept art looks ok I guess, and at least it's a change to a Disney theme instead of the rather generic orange, or tangerine, or peach, or whatever it is that it's supposed to be now. (Yeah, yeah... It's in "Orange" county, and the place used to be an "orange" grove and all that... Whatever... The theme didn't work, or they wouldn't be changing it, right?)

The Mulholland Madness change to Goofy's flight school seems like it has limited potential. Then again, exactly how much potential exists with a wild mouse, the likes of which you could ride at your county fair? Unless they put it inside a box and add some really cool effects then I don't see this change really being much of a change. Again, it's another tie-in to a Disney theme, so if we have to give them points for trying, then I'll give them a zero, because that's better than a negative 1.

You'd certainly think that Disney would have known better to begin with and saved a great deal of this expense by doing it right the first time. Making it right after the fact, even with the pains associated with the construction, is far better than simply leaving the park in its current state and just milking a cash cow that's going dry. By the time this current renovation is completed I think DCA will be transformed from the "overflow" park that it's been into its own must-see park.

I've heard varying tales of whether Mulholland Madness would even stay in the park---rethemed or otherwise---but I'm glad they're keeping it. To me, it's a fun little coaster and I've always taken a ride or two on it each visit.

In all the years the park's been open, I've only ridden Orange Stinger one time---and that was on my most recent visit last September. Underwhelming to be sure; it's just a wave swinger inside a building with the sound of bees buzzing. But I believe the park needs rides like that, as well as remakes of classic rides like the Fun Wheel and Golden Zephyr---people do enjoy them.

Eric

Oh, don't get me wrong. Relatively simple rides certainly have their place in the park and I agree that people do enjoy them. Take Dumbo, in the park across the Esplanade, as an example. It's also nothing more than you'd find at a carnival, except for it's tie-in to a lovable classic with it's elaborate (for a ride of its type) theming. The line to ride that thing in the middle of a summer day is simply flabbergasting. Of course, capacity plays a large part in that, but still, it has its charm.

I could see some of that same kind of "magic" working pretty well on the wave swinger in DCA with the retheme, but I don't see a similar effect for the current Mulholland Madness getting a light makeover. The relatively common Wild Mouse coaster would need quite a bit more than I'm seeing in the concept art to make it much more endearing than it is now. I agree with your assessment that it's "a fun little coaster and I've always taken a ride or two on it each visit." That's exactly how I'd feel about the same coaster at the county fair. Don't we usually expect a little more than that from Disney?

I understand that not every project that's a part of the makeover can be a multi million dollar undertaking, but the mild Goofy theme added to what is, and will continue to be, "just another mouse coaster" kind of falls into the category of "why bother?" for me. It looks like it would still be nothing all that special.

The Golden Zephyr is fine just the way it is for me. It's actually a good fit for the area. They don't have it pretending to be anything it's not. It's just a classic style of attraction that was enjoyed at classic seaside parks. It was a nice choice from the beginning. No sense in fixing what's not broken.

Here are the comparison shots I was talking about:

New:

Old:

From the HoJo "Mattercam" ... the Paradise Pier sign is up on Screamin'. That was fast.

Paradise Pier sign

Yea, they were putting it up last night. Was only going to go up two letters at a time...looks like they decided to do all of them! I'm also glad to see that the sign is not inside the loop, as the original plans had detailed.

LOL! It makes it look like they've re-named either the park or the roller coaster to "Paradise Pier" to anyone looking at it from the outside.

I can see it now. People will be all "Let's go ride Paradise Pier!"

--Robb

Guests would call it Mickey Mountain...Now it'll be known as Paradise Pier Mountain.

Sign looks neat-o though!

EDIT: It looks fantastic from inside the park:

More photos!

Wow, that does look nice.

Although ... what does it say about DCA when were excited about a sign???