Originally Posted By Moon Waffle I've only been to DCA twice and haven't really been looking either time...but I've got to ask...where exactly is the San Francisco area?
Originally Posted By friendofdd It is located between GRR and and the Golden Dreams theater. The buildings look like SF Victorian row houses. Public restrooms are there and there also seem to be some backstage offices behind some of the doors.
Originally Posted By Rivkah86 ^^^ Those blank buildings always confused me. They look like an attempt to take after Main St. Even if there are offices in them, they should at least open the bottom level to the public... it just looks so empty and barren. It's almost sad. They could do so much with an area like that.
Originally Posted By topdisneymom I was disappointed in the San Franciso area. I was expecting it to look like main street with shops and maybe some place to eat. It's too bad, that would have been great.
Originally Posted By Rivkah86 ^^^ Maybe that's another place they can pay some much needed attention to with "Project Sparkle".
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt The so called "Bay Area" section of DCA has to be the weakest area of the park both in terms of content and theming. It's certainly no wonder the original poster had to ask where it was. People here complain about the theming of Paradise Pier but those cheap faux victorians across from Golden Dreams look much more in line with Six Flags decor than anything else at DCA to me.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan I agree Hans. With all the history, both real and fictional, of San Francisco, in addition to things like hills, fog, cable cars, there's so much that could have been done based on that.
Originally Posted By Jim in Pasadena CA It seems to me that I read somewhere that that connection between that section near the 'Golden Dreams' theatre and 'Grizzly Rapids' was an afterthought. Which is why it has an even more thrown together appearance with those row houses. In other words, that path that runs past the Brother Bear play area, and then past Grizzly Rapids was going to just loop around through the Grizzly attraction [like it does now], and then connect back to the entrance of the Grizzly ride and the main path. I had read that originally, there was no path between Grizzly Peak and the Pier area. Is this making sense at all? Can anyone confirm my recollection?
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan I can't remember. Does anyone have a link to the model of the park that was displayed in the preview center? Might be able to tell from that.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "It seems to me that I read somewhere that that connection between that section near the 'Golden Dreams' theatre and 'Grizzly Rapids' was an afterthought." You know, it certainly does look like it was an afterthought, doesn't it? One thing I know for sure is that the area along the waterfront opposite golden dreams was supposed have buildings resembling those from the 1915 San Francsico World's Fair housing small attractions, exhibits, shops and restaurants. Maybe some consideration should be given to resurrecting that idea.
Originally Posted By BrigmanMT 2 So Grizzly was supposed to be a dead end? They already had to widen the path in that area because it wasn't big enough to hold the guests that showed up. Strange.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt It wouldn't have been a dead end exactly since the path circles back underneath the lift around to the area where the geysers are.
Originally Posted By BrigmanMT 2 Right, but that pathway couldn't support the crowd. At least then more guests would have been able to see this great little corner of the park. The Eureka Mine, the ore chutes, the devils post pile dammed up falls, the snowmobile theme and the kayaks are great.
Originally Posted By WorldEpcot <They already had to widen the path in that area because it wasn't big enough to hold the guests that showed up. Strange.> Hmm, but I was always told no guests ever showed up.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 IMO, they ought to expand SF to include the current Route 66 area, and do it properly. Make it the New Orleans Square of DCA.
Originally Posted By crapshoot <<IMO, they ought to expand SF to include the current Route 66 area, and do it properly.>> What does Route 66 and San Francisco have anything to do with each other?
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <He means drop Route 66 and make it all San Fransisco.> Exactly. In my dream scenario, first I'd relocate the Zephyr, JJ, and possibly the Orange Stinger to the other side of the pier. If there wasn't room for the orange over there, I'd just lose it. Then I'd extend the area from the Golden Dreams building (which looks nice and very SF) into about half of what's now Route 66 and create a proper atmospheric San Francisco, the "New Orleans Square of DCA" as I said. That could be mostly shops and restaurants, much as the bulk of NOS is, really. But, of course, interesting shops and restaurants, a la NOS. It would have nooks and corners, easy to get lost in/immersed in, like NOS (which creates its atmosphere with a very economical amount of space). It would be an area long on charm, and with at least one nice restaurant - I'd like to have two, actually; a reasonably priced Chinese buffeteria, and a higher-end pan-Asian restaurant with "sidewalk" seating (so passers-by could see the unusual concoctions and want them themselves). In the other half of the space, since it's technically the "Bay Area" I'd create a silicon valley sub-section whose largest feature would be a double-decked attraction. In the lower part, a rectangular building would house the new E-ticket dark ride with a computer theme; think a cross between Adventure through Inner Space, the Toyko Pooh, and Horizons. The conceit is that you are miniaturized and sent into a computer (almost Tron-like if they wanted that tie-in somehow), but your vehicles would have the trackless Pooh technology. The vehicles in your group would split apart and come together at different times, perhaps as "different bits of information" coming together as a cohesive whole or something like that. Some visuals would be the same each time; the Horizons-like part would be an interactive element that would allow the vehicles of your group to choose what subject comes up on the video segments (like Pooh has): majority rules. So you could learn some new tidbit about how computers work, etc., that might be different each time. This would obviously be a unique attraction, found nowhere else, which DCA needs. On top of this rectangular building would be a hedge maze like the one they have in Paris (a first for a US Disney park), themed to a green circuit board (and would look like a circuit board from the air (say, from the Sun Wheel). In the center could be the CPU, with capacitors and other things scattered about to find. Perhaps each of these could be a little kiosk in disguise with an interactive element (more info-tainment of the sort Disney used to do so well.) Lastly, I'd enclose MM, and theme it to an SF-style building as well. Put faux brick under the upper section of track (hairpins), faux buildings along each side of the upper track - in other words, make it look like Lombard Street - and call it Lombard Lunacy. Then make the lower hilly section very dark, with "headlights" coming at you in the opposite direction. This turns what is essentially an eyesore (especially from the Grand) into an appealing visual element, and turns a nothing-special ride into something fun and unusual.
