Originally Posted By FerretAfros One of the plan drawings shows a nice little patch of trees where the Maliboomer is now. I would see that as being the most likely outcome at this point, but anything can change. I really like what I'm seeing of the main entrance area. I think it's kind of funny that the sign over the gates only says "California Adventure" in all the different renderings, even though they've pushed the "Disney's" at us so heavily over the past 8 years (including making it increasingly bigger on the park logo). Overall, I really like how the entrance is shaping up, and I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's completed. I also noticed in one of the drawings of the backlot, the Hyperion has a proper facade (not the eternal sunset street), which looks really promising. Perhaps with the real(ish) front, they will also be able to add a lobby and bathrooms along the way.
Originally Posted By ArchtMig >>>I really like what I'm seeing of the main entrance area.<<< Me too. I am super thrilled with the prospect for the development of the Buena Vista Street / hub area, and the red car trolleys, and all of that. My only negative is the turnstile structure. I still hate that they can't seem to be more creative with it than just retreading the same old Disney/MGM Studios main entrance structure. Pretty, yes, Unique, no. Gives DCA an identity OF ITS OWN as every park's main entry structure should? Absolutely not. With all of the effort going into the rest of it, I am shocked that this is the best they can do. It's mind bogglingly bad form, on par with Barry Braverman kind of thinking. But for me, it's really just a minor part of a MAJOR, MAJOR upgrade to one of the worst things Disney has ever done in any of it's parks, so while I will always hate the turnstile structure, I will leave it behind the minute I walk past it and gaze my eyes on the beautiful stuff beyond it. Goodbye cheap flat murals, silly squashed Golden Gate Bridge, ugly concrete and stucco and HELLO DISNEY!!! BTW, I hope the name of the park goes the way of the cheap flat murals, too. Anything and everything that's a legacy of Eisner/Pressler/Braverman that gets SCRUBBED from this park is a very welcome and therapeutic thing. >>> I also noticed in one of the drawings of the backlot, the Hyperion has a proper facade (not the eternal sunset street), which looks really promising. Perhaps with the real(ish) front, they will also be able to add a lobby and bathrooms along the way.<<< I saw that too! And thought the exact same thing. Although I am sure there has been mild talk in the halls of WDI to eventually doing that, I doubt that we'll see that sort of thing any time soon. Not in this "phase one" at least. Sadly, I think any work on the Hyperion shall be confined to a few sketchy brush strokes on artwork like this and won't be realized in actual built form for a long, long time.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney <<My only negative is the turnstile structure. I still hate that they can't seem to be more creative with it than just retreading the same old Disney/MGM Studios main entrance structure. Pretty, yes, Unique, no. Gives DCA an identity OF ITS OWN as every park's main entry structure should? Absolutely not. With all of the effort going into the rest of it, I am shocked that this is the best they can do.>> Yeah, that seems to be the biggest head scratcher in all of this. I saw a lot of talk about the entry way on the OTHER site as well and the consensus is even though it fits in terms of the period and from Cali originally, its very jarring when compared to the actual entrance of the park. It doesnt fit at all. Does Disney get a discount if they build two of these things or something? If they arent going to make it more theme appropriate to the entrance which is more mission style, at least change the color of the thing to more of an earth tone or something. I dont really understand why they cant come up with something just more original or fits the entry way much better?
Originally Posted By jmuboy Bob Weiss must love the Pan Pacific Auditorium. He was the one who used it for the MGM front gate in Florida and he is heading the redesign here at DCA. Personally, I'm fine with it but can certainly understand some people's "give us something unique" arguement.
Originally Posted By Britain The Pan Pacific turnstiles work fine for me. In fifty years, people may think that DCA had it before MGM, and it won't matter either way. It's a California icon that appropriately serves as a theme park entrance (as opposed to the Golden Gate Bridge).
Originally Posted By bean I like the contrast of the entrance with the main part of the entrance street. Parts of the first hub and also a couple buildings of the main hub also retrieve a bit from the mission style architecture. I think its very L.A. with its mission architecture found everywhere intertwine with other styles of architecture appearing during that timeline and thruout its history
Originally Posted By WorldDisney ^^Nice save there bean.....punk. Again it's not the WORST thing to have and like everything in life, most people will simply get use to it. Truth is though, its the first time I even paid attention to Disney turnstyles before (I'm not THAT much of a geek ). I mean, they are turnstyles lol, but also the others always just blended in so well, I never gave it much thought. The fact that this one stood out to me--and not in a positive way told me how much of a difference this really is to its entrance. (Bean, could you at least suggest to them to change the color of it then? The torcois (yeah, spelled it wrong ) color is probabably more distracting to most than the style itself.)
Originally Posted By jmuboy No color change. The Blue is the color they should be - historically accurate right?
Originally Posted By WorldDisney ^^I dont know, is it? I guess it is, but the only picture I ever seen of the original looked white and beige, BUT it's obviously been out of use for decades and left for tatters from the pic I seen of it, so I'm guessing in its heyday it was the color of MGM's now. (But I doubt anyone would notice if they changed it ;D)
Originally Posted By spacejockey Maybe Disney's Hollywood Studio's will get a new entrance that looks more "Hollywood".
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Here's a picture of the Pan-Pacific Auditorium. You can see the turquoise color -- and that it's ON FIRE!!!!! <a href="http://www.lafire.com/famous_fires/890524_PanPacificFire/052489_panpacific_fire_xlg.gif" target="_blank">http://www.lafire.com/famous_f..._xlg.gif</a>
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "Pretty, yes, Unique, no. Gives DCA an identity OF ITS OWN as every park's main entry structure should?" How do you feel about WDW's Magic Kingdom's entrance? It's almost identical to Disneyland's. Actually, from what I can tell, HKDL's entrance really is identical.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt What's troubling to me is that there seems to be very little content to this multi-million dollar expansion. The redo will undoubtedly help Disney keep people in the park longer and encourage guests to spend more money. However, there really doesn't seem to be a lot being added in terms of rides and attractions that gets me excited. The details are lovely, but this project looks like it will be more shops and more restaurants and more spinning rides - all things that people complained about when the place opened.
Originally Posted By mstaft I think they are first focusing on the areas that die-hard fans have complained about. Not a bad plan.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney ^^Agreed mstaft! They seem to be focused on the stuff people complained the loudest about: The entrance, Paradise Pier, more family rides, shade, dark rides etc. Of course more stuff will come in the future since from what I heard they are not spending the entire billion in this first go around and things have been dropped, so I imagine those other things will come later, just more focused on changing the look and overall vibe of the park. (God, everytime I come here, I find myself defending DCA now....I need a shower.)
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt >>(God, everytime I come here, I find myself defending DCA now....I need a shower.)<< I was thinking that while I was reading your comments. What's wrong with you? LOL. In all seriousness, the content (the actual attractions being added or changed) isn't hugely different from what is there today. Just look at Paradise Pier. The big stuff that people said they hated (Orange Stinger, MM, etc) are still going to to be there, just dressed differently. It's all quite nice, but I don't see what there is to crow about just yet.
Originally Posted By ArchtMig Rather than turquoise, I think the color of the original Pan Pacific is more sea green. Those elements are representative of the "Streamline Modern" style, which was a modernized form of Art Deco during its time. And it is very distinctive. I don't think simply a change of color is enough to distinguish it from the one at DHS. My problem with it is not that it is of a radically different style compared to the mission style facades behind it. My problem with it is that it is a nearly identical duplicate to the DHS main entrance, all the way down to the widely spaced red sans serif capital lettering on top identifying the name of the park. After it is built, take a close-up picture of it and one of the DHS main entrance from the same angle, photoshop out the letters and show the two pics to the average Disney theme park goer who has been to WDW, and I bet 9 out of 10 of them would not be able to tell which park each gate was from. Worse yet, I would guess that if you show a pic of the DCA gate with the letters photoshopped out to the average Disney park goer nationwide who has visited WDW, they would say it is the entrance to DHS (or more than likely "the MGM park"). I would be thrilled with it if this was the only time they used it as a signature entrance structure. By virtue of it being a rip-off of an idea they used for a park they opened almost 20 years ago now, I think the idea is horrible. There Hans - right there's a PERFECT example of taking an old theme from a previous park and adapting it to Anaheim because they're too cheap or lazy or un-creative to come up with something new.
Originally Posted By ArchtMig >>>How do you feel about WDW's Magic Kingdom's entrance? It's almost identical to Disneyland's. Actually, from what I can tell, HKDL's entrance really is identical.<<< WDW Magic Kingdom's main entrance (I assume you are referring to the train stations?) is NOTHING like the one at Disneyland. Look at pictures of both. The new one at HKDL is practically identical to Disneyland's. That was their game plan. I don't like it one bit. It is scary surreal to look at pics of the train station, castle, and most of the Main St. buildings from HKDL and see how well they duplicate Disneyland's originals. I would prefer that all the parks signature structures be somewhat unique. HKDL is the most blatant rip-off yet. The castle at Tokyo is almost an identical copy of the one done for WDW. That was the only time they did that until HKDL's version was copied from the Disneyland original. I think that making such blatant duplicates tends to diminish the integrity and "unique" character of the original. For the WDW/TDL castles, I didn't really have a personal stake in the matter, but I take the matter of HKDL ripping off (and therefore cheapening) original Disneyland's signature structures much more to heart. But at least the new one is halfway across the globe in Asia. And by all accounts it is a beautiful park, in a nice setting, with lovely landscaping, but rather skimpy initially. Which is telling, since Disney took the cheap route full force in ripping off the original Disneyland designs instead of spending time and money to do a new and unique take on it for Hong Kong.
