Disneyland Resort (DL, DLR, DCA) Discussion Thread

[Wes]

^ It's still there in essence, but it's just being swallowed into the Grizzy Peak section. There will most likely be extensive retheming to make it more in line with the foresty theme of GP as opposed to the desert-y Air Force base feel it has now. Soarin' obviously won't be going anywhere.

[Axman]

^^ No , I'm sorry, my mistake.

 

Condor Flats is just getting re-named and tweaked a bit, to accomidate more crowds. There's concept are ton pg. 8 of the new, more lush Condor Flats area.

[Monty1994]

i've always liked DCA.....but very excited by the test trak cars ride! This renovation is sure to make the park even better

[hemmy]

Maybe I will never understand the hate DCA gets..but I would rather go here than the majority of Disney parks.

 

The 2 California parks are 2 of the better ones.

[ECZenith]

Borisdag, how could you consider DCA's Tower Of Terror as a dud? While it certainly isn't as good as Orlando's version it's easily one of the most popular rides at the resort. I think the steps the park was taking before this huge renovation was announced was a great start and this will just further improve things. Monsters is 10x better than Superstar Limo and gave the park a good solid dark ride, Tower strengthened the thrillride backbone the park was built on. I do agree with you that Mulholland Madness is just meh... but at least they're going to Disney it up a bit to make it fit better.

 

I'm thinking about transferring over to DCA after the holidays as a Paradise Pier attractions CM, I like both theme parks about the same as weird as that sounds, but I think after this transformation is complete I'll actually prefer to work in DCA.

[DATman]

^Monsters may be better than Superstar Limo, but it still isn't the ride it should have been. It should have had AA's, but because it only had one (Roz), the ride really lost that sense of realism that you come to expect with Disney rides. Is it better than SSL? Obviously, but is it an extremely good replacement? No, not really.

[America Sings Freak]

^ I thiink the point everyone is missing is that without TOT, there would be only two reasons to go to DCA!

[coasterdude5]

^ Right, and that's why I have no problem with Maliboomer being removed, because "in theory", they are the same ride concepts, except one is outdoors and the other is inside.

[Wes]

^Monsters may be better than Superstar Limo, but it still isn't the ride it should have been. It should have had AA's, but because it only had one (Roz), the ride really lost that sense of realism that you come to expect with Disney rides.

 

No one complains about that with any of the Fantasyland dark rides, and Monsters has just as many (if not more) three dimension moving figures than any of those rides. Monsters is one of the better mid-level dark rides Disney has. It's long, it has some great effects (the Door scene, the disappearing Randall, the Randall that gets bashed by Boo, Roz, etc.) and it is a perfect dark ride for kids. Considering that the entire ride had to be retrofitted into SSL's existing footprint, I think they did a fantastic job.

[KGA29]

Borisdag, how could you consider DCA's Tower Of Terror as a dud? While it certainly isn't as good as Orlando's version it's easily one of the most popular rides at the resort. I think the steps the park was taking before this huge renovation was announced was a great start and this will just further improve things. Monsters is 10x better than Superstar Limo and gave the park a good solid dark ride, Tower strengthened the thrillride backbone the park was built on. I do agree with you that Mulholland Madness is just meh... but at least they're going to Disney it up a bit to make it fit better.

 

While it did update DCA's lame ride collection, I do not think that ToT at DCA is one of the most popular attractions in the resort. Even during peak seasons, it almost never has a very long line. In Orlando, the FPs run out by afternoon. I have never seen DCA's ToT's FP run out including visits in the summer, President's Week, and before Christmas. It's not a dud, but the remote location decreases its popularity, similar to DL's Winnie-the-Pooh.

[DATman]

^^When you put it that way, I really have to agree with you. Although, that's my problem with the Fantasyland dark rides. I really wish that they would be updated with newer technology, as Peter Pan is the only one that doesn't feel out-dated as of now.

[Axman]

^ These kinds of rides are supposed to be classic, not realistic. Updating them would ruin them

[America Sings Freak]

^ I have disagree with you mainly, because Alice in Wonderland recently got a minor renovation and looks almost like it is from the mid-1990s. Well that is if Disneyland created any dark rides in the mid-90s. I feel that Pinocchio is perfect, mainly because it is newer than the rest of the Fantasyland rides and has extremely good effects for a dark ride.

[DATman]

^^It would not ruin them in any way shape or form. If anything, not updating them is ruining them because the effects are obviously done and the technology is terrible compared to other places in the park. Guests can see what makes things work (like the bats in Snow White's forest) and this takes them out of the story, which is the last thing you want to happen, because once they notice one bad effect, they will notice them all. An update of the technology and effects is something that should happen in order to keep the focus on the storytelling and not on how cheap the ride's effects look.

 

I have never understood the "keep the rides as they are" standpoint of Disneyland purists because never changing them is what brings them down. If Walt could update his classic rides with new technology, new effects, and new animatronics to further the storytelling, I highly doubt he would say "No, because it would ruin them".

[Axman]

^ I just want these rides to be presrved the way they are. Some rides, like Pirates and Haunted Mansion, can still be classic and updated. Updating the Fantasyland "crawl-along" rides would be taking away from their classic charm. There's absolutely nothing wrong with them the way they are now.

[ebl]

Speaking as someone who's been riding those rides for many years (since the '60s), updating the scenery and effects would be a good thing. It's not much fun to go through knowing exactly what's around the next corner. Surprise---and change---can be good.

 

Sure, there's nothing wrong with preserving classic rides, but even Walt said it himself: "Disneyland will never be completed." New stuff can be good stuff. Even in classic dark rides.

 

Eric

[ginzo]

Speaking as someone who's been riding those rides for many years (since the '60s), updating the scenery and effects would be a good thing. It's not much fun to go through knowing exactly what's around the next corner. Surprise---and change---can be good.

 

Sure, there's nothing wrong with preserving classic rides, but even Walt said it himself: "Disneyland will never be completed." New stuff can be good stuff. Even in classic dark rides.

 

Eric

 

Yeah, modernizing the Fantasyland dark rides could be very good if they preserved the original spirit of the rides. Drastic changes, like turning Toad into a Sally shooting dark ride, could be awful.

[Wes]

^ I just want these rides to be presrved the way they are. Some rides, like Pirates and Haunted Mansion, can still be classic and updated. Updating the Fantasyland "crawl-along" rides would be taking away from their classic charm. There's absolutely nothing wrong with them the way they are now.

 

You do realize that all the dark rides were updated in the 80's when they redid Fantasyland, right? Not to mention countless things that get updated when they do rehabs of each ride.

[Axman]

^ Really? I didn't know that.

 

What did they look like before?

[Wes]

^ I couldn't really tell you, I know some of the stuff that was added to each attraction, but I don't really know what they looked like before 1983 (beyond the obvious cheap circus tent to European village transformation the entire land took). I'm sure Googling around will help you find stuff if you're interested.

 

The point is that these rides get updated all the time, even if the ride is essentially the same, effects and lighting and other random stuff gets updated and modernized all the time. No one is arguing that the core essence should remain true to what it is, but plussing and refreshing the rides with more modern technology keeps the rides relevant. Saying they should remain "classic" is a mute point, because they are entirely different beasts than they were when they opened.

[kraxleRIDAH]

I'm also on the boat when it comes to updating or "refreshing" the classic Disneyland attractions. Most of the updates are cosmetic changes anyway, without much drastic alteration of the original ride travel route or scenes.

 

If you compare the Pirates of the Carribean of today to the one that was in 1975, you'll really get a feel of how much technology can improve a ride for the better. The animatronic updates have made the realism in that ride that much more believable.

[Axman]

^ Well I suppose that as long as the rides origonal charm is preserved, then updating is O.K. I'm just glad that DL doesn't have a Fantasy land like Tokyo Disney; I really don't like the tent-theme.

[kraxleRIDAH]

^ Haha. Funny thing is, the Disneyland Fantasyland USED to carry a Circus-tent theme on all of its facades like currently seen at The Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland. Like mentioned earlier, in 1983, all of the Disneyland Fantasyland darkride facades were completely remodeled to an architectural style reminescent of a Bavarian Village.

[speedracer]

^^ The 1983 update added all the fiber optic lighting and 3D effects, state of the art at the time. So yeah, even these old classics get refreshed every often, proably time for another one, but I'd rather they fix TL first.

 

BTW, the LM ride won't be your typical Disney kiddie dark ride, you can see from the concept art it won't be the small low capacity version with the overhead track originally designed for Paris. With the higher capacity Omni-Mover ride system, huge show building, catchy soundtrack and rumoured $100 million budget, sounds more like it'll be on the scale of a Haunted Mansion. Can't wait for the giant animatronic Ursula finale!

 

My feelings about DCA pretty much match what seems to be a general concensus, not that bad, but not that great either:

Holli Messenger has given the matter some thought, and it came to her on her family's first-ever visit to DCA: : "I don't know that there's anything wrong, but there's nothing right, either."

 

Noting that Disneyland opened more than 50 years ago, she said, "There's very little here that speaks of the 50 years of innovations since then" in amusement park attractions. For example, she cited the watery Grizzly River Run and said, "They have the same thing at Silverwood," an amusement park in northern Idaho.

 

Messenger, visiting from Portland, Ore., with her husband and 5-year-old twin boys, said the family was having a "fabulous time" but that she "had huge expectations because Disneyland is so much over the top in so many ways."

 

The sense of "theme" at Disneyland simply doesn't carry over to California Adventure, she said. Messenger, 39, first visited Disneyland as a child, then again in high school, then on her honeymoon.

 

And no, she doesn't expect a companion park to surpass the original. But, yes, she thinks a next-door park could be successful, if only. . .

 

"I expected some originality," she said, "but there's so much that's exactly the same" as other amusement parks. In its present incarnation, she said, DCA is "just a collection of things" that doesn't represent anything in particular

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/orange/la-me-parsons18oct18,1,6396361.column?coll=la-editions-orange&ctrack=5&cset=true

 

Shame to think with all the cash spent to build Eisner's Great Mis-Adventure over Anaheim, plus the hundreds of millions more in additions since to stabilize it, and now this $1.1 billion, we could have had our Westcot or Port Disney after all.

[Axman]

I simply love the village themed Fantasyland. It looks like it's always been there.