Originally Posted By fkurucz >>Have you never ridden the Seuss Dark Ride at Islands of Adventure? It actually is more satisfying (to many, and to me) than DCA's MONSTERS ride, and I like DCA's ride quite a bit.<< Its been a while since I've been to IOA, but I think that I liked Monsters better than Seuss.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt Speaking of Thinkwell, has anyone else seen this: <a href="http://www.miceage.com/guest/gu072406a.htm" target="_blank">http://www.miceage.com/guest/g u072406a.htm</a>
Originally Posted By dennis-in-ct <<<Have you never ridden the Seuss Dark Ride at Islands of Adventure? It actually is more satisfying (to many, and to me) than DCA's MONSTERS ride, and I like DCA's ride quite a bit.>>> When I rode it, I remembered thinking "THIS is the definitive template for what a modern day dark ride should be" It is fantastic and VERY well done.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA I did see that Hans. That overview of the studio looks so much like the overviews that were done for Disney's California Adventure, I have to think it's a former Imagineer. Or else, when they were planning DCA, they used Thinkwell to do the renderings of the parks.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>It is fantastic and VERY well done.<< Some thoughts: I recalled it being a little plain. The cars spun around corners faster than I cared for. It was fine. But we didn't feel compelled to ride it again. We did ride Spiderman 3 times that day.
Originally Posted By BrigmanMT 2 "One of my big problems with the recent developments in Disney parks is that they don't seem to use space well at all." Here Here Ferret! This was their oppertunity to do something right. Space has always been mentioned as the biggest problem with designing in Anaheim. Here they had an oppetunity and they missed it. Why wasn't their a utilidoors or something like that. A subbasement would have added greatly to the available space. Missed oppertunities like the above and other obvious things like no show space in the lagoon continue to lead me to beleive that that the majority of this park is a placeholder. $300 million is a lot, but with the way Disney overspends I dont see it being able to do much to fix this problem. "A totally new park assuming demolition and hauling away existing structures would be easily 2 billion+ . Islands of Adventure in Orlando was approx 2 billion and that was built in the late 90's and universal started with a clean slate(but I believe that figure also included "City Walk")" Not counting the Grand Californian or DtD DCA cost under $700 million, including the old parking lot destruction.
Originally Posted By BrigmanMT 2 I thought the Cat in the Hat ride was nice, but didn't deliver the goods. My friend had ridden it before. He pointed out a spot where some impressive Thing AA's were supposed to be following us. They weren't there. I thought the warehouse ceiling was too obvious, especially in scenes where you have to look up to see the action. The art direction morphing the physical world with the 2D drawings was an interesting take, and I liked it, but I just felt that each of the scenes was too sparse. I love the Dr. Seuss characters, but this ride left me cold.
Originally Posted By barboy Downtown Disney and the Grand California cost about the same as DCA to build? Because the whole the whole project was maybe 1.4 billion.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt ^^A lot of that cost was absorbed by some major infastructure changes around the resort including the mammoth parking structure. I actually think that DCA was somewhat of a bargain compared to some other recent Disney theme park projects.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I liked Cat in the Hat and Monsters about the same. Both good dark rides that nonetheless I kept thinking about ways to make better...
Originally Posted By ni_teach The Cat in the Hat is a great ride, it's bigger than Monster and was not a overlay over an old track. Monster's is great and just what the DCA needed. As for the rest of the overhaul, I would really like to hear more about it before I give it a thumbs up or down.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "And it shows..." Yes, in some places it does. But compared to $30 million for Pooh and $100 million for Tomorrowland '98....
Originally Posted By mstaft Yes, $100M for this version of Tomorrowland was a waste- and a huge disappointment for the visitor. At least Tomorrowland is "balanced out" by the greatness of Fantasyland, New Orleans Square and Adventureland- top notch attractions and theming. Wish you could say the same for DCA.
Originally Posted By mstaft ^^DCA is still spotty at best. The park needs new attractions that are excellent and "placemaking" that is top notch as well. Then, there will be a "balancing act" in this park as well to make up for Paradise Pier, the Wharf, Sun Court, etc.
Originally Posted By mstaft ^^^ HPB is starting to become excellent in many ways. Enclosing the Hyperion theater, opening Hollywood and Dine as Sci Fi Dine In and adding one new great ride where Millionaire was would really do the trick in making this land great.
Originally Posted By believe >>>>Downtown Disney and the Grand California cost about the same as DCA to build? Because the whole the whole project was maybe 1.4 billion.<<<<< It's a good thing they opened in 2001. Because of the housing/construction boom in the So Cal area (since 2001), they would have spent twice as much to built the same thing today. The good news is, the boom is slowing down, and construction costs may go down as well, so if they are to do major placemaking, they will get more bang for their buck.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "At least Tomorrowland is "balanced out" by the greatness of Fantasyland, New Orleans Square and Adventureland- top notch attractions and theming." Why are you making excuses for Tomorrowland '98 by making references to Fantasyland, New Orleans Square, et al? Oh, that's right.... it's the old Disneyland Double Standard again. Sorry, I keep forgetting. Silly me.
Originally Posted By pitapan16 The visual intrusions in DCA's Hollywood backlot near TOT and Hyperion are terrible. That is a place needing major work.
