Originally Posted By Neologos I don't think Disney wants to make a better park than Disneyland. I don't think that is bad either. The original idea of a second park was to keep people for a half a day. DCA then evolved into a full (almost) second park. Everything that Disney has around Anaheim is to keep people for more than one day. DCA, Downtown Disney, Angels, Ducks and a third park/waterpark are things to do after you go to Disneyland. Disneyland is the heart and soul of The resort.
Originally Posted By woody It seems to me building a better park than Disneyland makes financial sense. People will go for sure. There will be lots of people attending. That's a good thing.
Originally Posted By Park Hopper Sure. Build a better park then Dinseyland if they can. I just don't think they can. But it would be fun to see them try.
Originally Posted By jonvn Consider the amount of investment in Disneyland. It has to be billions of dollars and a lot of trial and error over decades. Things put up, tore down, moved, planted, replanted, and so on. I don't think they can from scratch build something better than Disneyland. They can build something that has the potential of being better, but I don't think right out of the box you can get something like that.
Originally Posted By Shang Capt >>I don't think they can from scratch build something better than Disneyland. << That kind of thinking makes Imagineering look like a bunch of doofuses. Do you mean that they haven't analyzed how their own parks work (or don't work)? Neologos had an excellent point that Disney didn't want to build a better park, just one that would keep people on their property for an extra day or two. If Imagineering was given free rein and adequate budgets, I'm sure a much better DCA would have been created. As it is Disney seems to have been more interested in adding luxury hotels and shops than creating a park that match or exceeded DL. For me, I would have loved to have seen a park that was better than DL. I would happily forked over the bucks for an AP and joined the ranks of the rest of the AP weekend warriors. I guess I'll have to spend what money that would have gone to an AP seeing "Shrek" about 20 times this summer. ;-)
Originally Posted By FaMulan Actually, I think that's just what a lot of people expect. Just my opinion, but based on the way the Company hypes the new parks, one would think they outshine the original. I haven't been to any of the Florida Parks, so I cannot speak for them though many have posted about their feelings, I don't like to speak of something I have not experienced. You all know I am a DCA defender based on the fact that it is new and has tremendous potential. I also think it is a victim of its hype. It was touted as the latest and greatest thing in everything I saw and a lot of people feel it hasn't lived up to it (attendance figures, thank you Galaxie). I think it's perfectly fine to create a park that's better than Disneyland, but the marketing group should be careful of how they hype it.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: Of course it would be all right, Doobie, duckling! Only, I don't think the nasty little accountants would have approved of the obvious expense it would have created to come up with 'something better'. ORGOCH: They would've had ta turn the idea over ta the Oriental Land Company in order ta make it come out right! Current toads at Disney would just botch the whole thing up and ya all know it!!!
Originally Posted By Jim in Pasadena CA <And sorry, Jim... I'm calling you on your prejudgment of TDS, before it opens. You can't pass judgment like that, until it opens, and folks actually walk in and visit. Folks here and on other websites did that with DCA, before it opened, and got rightfully slammed for it.> My point, Judi, is that there will only be one Disneyland -- which to my mind is THE BEST Theme Park in the world - bar none. (including Tokyo DisneySeas) It has nothing to do with pre-judging a Park before it opens -- it has to do with my opinion that any other Disney Theme Park is just a copy of concepts and rides that Disneyland does better. Either way, let's plan on NOT taking a family vacation together, eh?
Originally Posted By lookcloser15 Doobie, absolutely! I want Disney to outdo itself! I want them to continue to add really cool attractions to Disneyland, and when they build new parks and ask for more money from me, I want to be rewarded with really cool attractions in the new place as well.
Originally Posted By jonvn "I haven't been to any of the Florida Parks, so I cannot speak for them though many have posted about their feelings, I don't like to speak of something I have not experienced." None of them are better than the original. Some have a feature or two here and there that are nicer, but none are better.
Originally Posted By Park Hopper I find myself agreeing with Jim in Passadena and Jonvn at the same time. It must be armageddon – oh wait, that got scrapped.
Originally Posted By MGuttag Certainly it's okay to build a theme park better than Disneyland. Because of DL's historic nature, there will probably always be limits on just how much Disneyland can be altered and how fast it can be altered. For example, I don't think it would be easy to let's say demolish the Matterhorn to install a better mountain-based coaster. Also, I doubt most people would be willing to demolish the buildings on Main Street to make Main Street wider to handle more traffic. A new park isn't bound by such constraints and, therefore, could be made better than DL. Mark
Originally Posted By Neologos When we were at DCA. My wife and I were talking to a travel agent that was there as part of some promotion. She told us that the original Disneyland was more detailed and a better experience. That is about all I know.
Originally Posted By dismom I have been mulling this question over for a few days and here is my considered opinion--I think it would have been in Disney's best interest to build a better park. For those of us that are out of towners and get to DL on an occasional basis (once every couple of years) we expect certain things from DL and don't want to see major changes, however as soon as the word was out that a new park was being created everyone's imagination started to soar. The expectation here is that the new park will be better than DL.
Originally Posted By AgentLaRue For what it's worth, Doobie, I don't think Disney could have built a park "better" than Disneyland, only one that people like more than DCA. Disneyland is more than a park for most, it is a nostalgic trip to their youth, with years of memories temporing any potential negatives. No new park could ever achieve that today, as Disneyland was the first of its kind, whereas any new park will be judged based on comparisons to numerous other parks in existence, Disney and others. Disneyland will always be special because of its history. A new park may have newer, more advanced attractions, but I question whether it could ever be considered "better" than Disneyland, just different.
Originally Posted By karlg For me, the "spirit" of Disneyland is to always try and keep plus'ing. In that spirit, I would have loved for DCA to have better attractions and design that DL. AgentLaRue makes a good point that a new park cannot compete with memories of the original. But given 10 to 20 years, new memories will be made. I’m nostalgic for the Mine Train, but I can’t imaging them ripping out Thunder Mountain to put it in today. The sad thing about DCA for me is that they did not even seem to try to build anything better than the best of DL. It seemed "different" was an excuse for not even trying to be better. It seems that Disney has lost their nerve for doing new and great. Karl
Originally Posted By daliseurat I would be delighted to see Disney top itself. To me, that's what Disney used to do best. Walt was never satisfied with things being as good as they are. He wanted them to be better. A better park than Disneyland would bring in more money, which would help Disneyland and the new park get even better. Building a better park than Disneyland wouldn't diminish the accomplishment of those who created the original. Disney has built attractions that outdo original attractions. They'll do it again. And yet, people still ride Pirates of the Caribbean and continue to talk about it.
