Originally Posted By AutoPost This topic is for Discussion of <a href="http://www.LaughingPlace.com/Lotion-View-1089.asp" target="_blank"><b>LP Lotion: Disney California Adventure Construction Update</b></a> The off season is here and changes are full steam ahead at Disney California Adventure. Here are more than 100 pictures taken this week.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt It could be Doug. When I was looking at your pics I wondered what DL might have looked like when Small World, Tomorrowland II, and New Orleans Square were under construction in the late 60s.
Originally Posted By CuriouserConstance How many of those 5 walls up now will be down by next spring break?
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Pretty soon there's going to be more than those 5. The murals on the entrance walls will be dismantled beginning on Monday. <a href="http://www.ocregister.com/news/features-265588-set-disney.html" target="_blank">http://www.ocregister.com/news...ney.html</a>
Originally Posted By avatarmickey115 WOW! Im really liking the artwork on the Carsland walls and the other Paradise Pier walls for the restaurants and Maliboomer...i like how the time era of the boardwalk ties in with the style of the kinds of the characters... its 2:20am so i dont know how to explain this...but basically what im trying to say is that i like how the characters are drawn how they were in the actual time period the boardwalk is supposed to be in.......kinda.....
Originally Posted By FerretAfros It's interesting that the CMs at the Maliboomer were wearing the new costumes that Screamin' got a few weeks ago, since the attraction wasn't opened long after the change. From what I could tell from my visits, the other PP CMs still had the old ones. And I had no idea that the basketball game was called Reboundo Beach. That's kind of clever. I was there on Monday, and my friend wanted to play for the last day (since neither of us ever had), and the manager was there and just kept giving us extra balls. There were a couple other groups that showed up while we were there, and they kept getting more balls too. It was really kind of fun, but also funny since nobody could score. Not even the CM's who worked there! : ) As nice as I'm sure the new stuff will be, I will be sad to see Pizza Oom Mow Mow get rethemed. I ate there on my first DCA visit, and I've always thought it was one of the best themed places in the park. It really managed to capture the feeling of the soCal surf culture, both in modern times and in the early 60's. It was nothing fancy, but it was very effective. I hope they can find a way to still incorporate that side of California into the park somehow (Screamin redo, anyone?). But it is always nice to see progress!
Originally Posted By TP2000 I agree on the Pizza Oom Mow Mow interior. That was an unsung corner of DCA that actually had great theme and design once you got inside the doors. So much wonderful old (and genuine) surf memorabilia on the walls! It was a shame the exterior didn't quite have the same oomph. They themed it a bit, but it was like they stopped at the 80% level instead of take it to 110%. That was likely due to budgetary concerns, as was the case all over DCA circa 2001. But the interior of that restaurant was done extremely well, and was a treasure trove of fabulous finds. So funny to reflect on all of this, and realize how so many areas of DCA just didn't quite make it to the excellence level. Many DCA facilities were glaringly mediocre, some rose to the level of very good, but nothing really seemed to get to the excellence level. Pizza Oom Mow Mow was close though, and only let down by the merely good enough exterior design.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 I agree with the comments on Pizza Oom Mow Mow ... it really was one of those examples were they got it right, but it didn't matter because the parts never added up to a quality whole/park. Surf culture is huge. And the place paid homage to it in a fun well-themed way ... but now that isn't going to fit the new Victorian look. The sad thing is that it COULD have worked, so much of the original DCA COULD have worked if they put the $$$ and effort into it ... if the PP area didn't have half (I've heard it was more like 2/3rds) of its budget cut, maybe it would have worked to begin with. So many areas were close ...but that doesn't count in Disney theme parks.
Originally Posted By TP2000 Wow Spirit, Paradise Pier had at least half its budget cut? That makes images like this of the Pier circa 2001 make a lot more sense now. No wonder the park performed like it did for at least the first half decade. <a href="http://www.yesterland.com/images-caladventure/strips_d2001ah.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.yesterland.com/imag...01ah.jpg</a>
Originally Posted By Ohana I loved Pizza Oo Mow's interior also, but the food was not very good. sorry, off topic.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< That was an unsung corner of DCA that actually had great theme and design once you got inside the doors. So much wonderful old (and genuine) surf memorabilia on the walls! It was a shame the exterior didn't quite have the same oomph. They themed it a bit, but it was like they stopped at the 80% level instead of take it to 110%. That was likely due to budgetary concerns, as was the case all over DCA circa 2001. But the interior of that restaurant was done extremely well, and was a treasure trove of fabulous finds. >>> <<< The sad thing is that it COULD have worked, so much of the original DCA COULD have worked if they put the $$$ and effort into it ... if the PP area didn't have half (I've heard it was more like 2/3rds) of its budget cut, maybe it would have worked to begin with. >>> I've made this observation before, but now's a good time to repeat it: if you look at the various things at DCA 1.0 carefully, in addition to many (most?) parts of it looking like it was done with a low budget, there is a certain disjointedness about it that points to budget cuts being done after initial design was completed, and in some cases rather late in the game. There will be places in the park where you look in one direction, and everything seems fine by Disney standards. But then you quite literally step over a seam in the concrete or look the other way, and you see the "let's do it on the cheap - nobody will notice" mentality at work. It seems very clear that the cuts were made as the design process was going on, and in a disjoint manner.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "It seems very clear that the cuts were made as the design process was going on, and in a disjoint manner." There was no other section of DCA where this was more obvious than in Sunshine Plaza. It has to be the most anti-climatic beginning to any Disney theme park. Even lame little DSP has a better entrance. Buena Vista Street, in my opinion, will be the most significant game changer of the entire renovation.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney ^^That probably explains the entire Route 66 area . They got REALLY cheap at that point and just said, "The hell with it." DCA had some of the worst theming in a Disney theme park ever done. I still cant believe it got approved. Anyway, I applaud what they are doing and they managed to get rid of the 3 of the 4 most offensive area's: Route 66, Sunshine Plaza and the farm. Paradise Pier is/was pretty bad in general, but since they cant completely destroy and start over like those other places, they at least bringing it up to some amazing Disney standards. Looking at that picture showed how bad so much of it was just a few short years ago. And in the last 2 years alone it looks like a different place. And the Farm wasnt THAT bad, but it was just 'blah'. Nothing about it stood out so thankfully its gone like the Maliboomer. Can you imagine if they didnt short change us (and themselves) and gave us a proper park from the beginning, think how much money and headache they wouldve saved themselves today?
Originally Posted By CuriouserConstance Where in sam hell have you been World Disney?! You missed our whole thread about you dancing at our party.
Originally Posted By TP2000 I totally agree with you Hans about Buena Vista Street. That project is the sleeper hit of the whole 1.2 Billion dollar process. Redoing the entrance as they are is the most dramatic change any Disney theme park has ever gone through, and this one is a doozy. They've never done anything like that to the entrance of an existing Disney park before, and it speaks volumes about how flawed the original product was. Where did all those DCA cheerleaders of 2000-03 go to, anyway? If they are still around here in 2010, they've gone awfully quiet.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 "Redoing the entrance as they are is the most dramatic change any Disney theme park has ever done" It's the biggest re-do of an entrance, but not in general.
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 Wow, thanks for all the great pictures Doug. Although I find some of them kind of depressing I had no idea they were taking away the whole Farm area. Man that's a lot of walls up at one time, I'm feeling claustrophobic just looking at the pictures. It won't keep me from going but all that change at once is mind boggling.
