Originally Posted By disneywatcher I just came across this old article from 6 years ago titled "Why Disney's California Adventure Will Be a Smash Success"... http://www.mouseplanet.com/articles.php?art=mt000815dk ...and it reminded me of my sentence (described by some as being terrible or a mess) in my posting above of "DCA may not be the best park imaginable, but its Pier area has a certain attractiveness at night, and the Grizzly raft ride is ideal on hot days...", which I labeled a "fitting tribute to DCA." After going through the reasonable-sounding "Smash Success" article, I'd say it also makes for a fitting tribute to DCA. If David Koenig, who apparently wasn't even a big fan of DCA to begin with, could come up with all sorts of rationalizations for the park's shortcomings, then think of what people directly involved with DCA's development were thinking and saying: "Mulholland Madness isn't poorly themed! It's just different!"
Originally Posted By gadzuux http://www.mouseplanet.com/articles.php?art=mt000815dk I wanted to take another stab at that link - yours didn't light up. And I could be mistaken, but is there a power pole and power lines visible in the headline photo of grizzley peak? How prescient!
Originally Posted By gadzuux An excerpt from koenig's article from 2000 - months before DCA opened. He's trying to put a sunny spin on what a terrific park DCA is going to be. >> With DCA, Disney is trying something fiscally new. The park is an experiment unto itself: to create a Disney theme park on a minimal budget with maximum profit centers. (He actually means this as a compliment!) The competition doesn't have that luxury. With Islands of Adventure, Universal spared no expense and created the ultimate theme park for the guest — but not the shareholder. The park will spend years struggling to reach profitability. But, in a way, Universal didn't really have a choice. If they would have built a second-rate second gate, it probably would have detracted from rather than boosted attendance at the studio park. Its proximity to Disneyland allows DCA to see if it can do more with less. Executives, money men and designers throughout the industry anxiously await tracking not so much DCA's popularity but its profitability. It success should have serious implications on the design, construction, operation and expansion of future theme parks. In the end, we'll learn that short-cuts may not make a better theme park, but maybe a more profitable one. << And this, in a nutshell, was my major concern all during the 'DCA wars' in the first years after opening. Namely, that if disney 'got away with this' and the public flocked to the park in the kinds of numbers they were expecting, it would have been a disaster. The company could then go on into the future thinking that their audience was a bunch of rubes that would accept the empty cardboard box with 'disney' stamped on the outside. So all those 'money-men' anxiously awaiting the numbers after DCA's opening learned a lesson all right, just not the one they wanted - short cuts do not make for a more profitable park. And that's the best result of all for us park fans, otherwise the next disney park would have been teeter-totters and a tire swing.
Originally Posted By Darkbeer ^Haven't you been to Goofy's Playhouse recntly???? Or maybe you went and it was closed since all the playground equipment was too hot due to the sun, and was burning tots......
Originally Posted By danyoung >He's trying to put a sunny spin on what a terrific park DCA is going to be.< I didn't read that at all from David's article. It appeared to me to be a realistic summation of what Disney was trying to do. And now with hindsight we can see how totally misguided they were.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I like how he said that MGM opened without any E-Tickets. While technically there are no tickets of any kind any more, so it would be hard to tell what would be considered to be what, I would pretty much gurantee there were at least two E-Tickets there on opening day. The Great Movie Ride features huge sets, tons of AA's, and something that is rarely done anymore, a live host. Not just that, but two live hosts. I still think that it is one ofthe best attractions Disney has ever made. Sure, it may not have one long cohesive storyline, but how many average tourists know about who Master Gracey is? There was also the Backlot Tour. When the park opened, it was a real backlot. Since then, they have gradually been losing production facilities and things to look at along the route, but when the park opened, the tour was definately an E-Ticket as well. Which brings me to my next point. He says that DCA will have something that MGM had to help it against the competetion: top notch theming. If it is so great, why are there all these rumours about placemaking around the park and stuff like that? And I believe that is a powerline in the photo at the top, but it appears to be a shot from outside the park (at a hotel?) looking in. So, even though you can see the powerline in the photo, it doesn't mean you can see it inside the park. Now the ones behind the pier are a totally different story...
