Originally Posted By oc_dean >>has been quoted at saying that he actually enjoys it << That big pollyanna! Wish I could say the same thing for that cold austere park that I've been in 3 times in two years. :/
Originally Posted By BlueOhanaTerror >>>I can't ever find the freeway entrances here in San Diego. It's like all the on-ramps are a secret.<<< >>>That's to keep the illegal aliens out.<<< It ain't workin'.
Originally Posted By Westsider >>"What's wierd to me is that the San Diego Freeway doesn't actually go to San Diego."<< Sure it does. The San Diego Freeway (the 405) heads south out of the Valley and west LA, skims Long Beach, and then dives down into coastal OC. The San Diego Freeway meets up with the Santa Ana Freeway (the 5) there at the Irvine Spectrum at a place called "The El Toro Y", which is one of the crowning achievements of Orange County engineering and a proud testament to our way of life here, a cultural icon second only to Disneyland. Or maybe it's third, as South Coast Plaza might be second behind Disneyland on the OC hit parade. Regardless, the El Toro Y is a glorious 16 lane wide multilevel interchange where the San Diego Freeway meets the Santa Ana Freeway. From that point south the Santa Ana Freeway ceases to exist, and the 5 is then referred to as the San Diego Freeway until it leaves Orange County and passes into San Diego County at Camp Pendleton. To get to San Diego you are going to have to take the San Diego Freeway.
Originally Posted By oc_dean Way back when OC was a "quilted" layer of agriculture ... you had to take THE old route 101 which ran the course of where THE current 5 Freeway is. But after WWII, THE great freeway projects began ... and work began on THE Santa Ana 5 Freeway where it actually ended in THE city of Santa Ana in 1954 -(which is how a freeway gets it's name - Which ever city it ultimately dumps into). Until work began beyond 4th St. in Santa Ana where THE El Toro "Y" was complete in 1958 .. and THE 5 Freeway was complete by 1968 reaching the US/Mexico border. And what does all this have to do with THE topic at hand????? Absolutely nothing!
Originally Posted By gadzuux My point is that if you're not local you may not know where santa ana is in relation to long beach, pasadena, santa monica or anyplace else. If someone tells you to take the santa monica freeway to the santa ana freeway, you don't know what they're talking about. And you may not know the name of the freeway you're on at any given time. The signs will say "405", not "the San Diego Freeway".
Originally Posted By oc_dean .... and take make things here in wacky LA even more confusing ... THE San Diego 405 Freeway ends at the El Toro "Y" interchange. NOT San Diego! Some 90 miles short. So why they called it THE "San Diego" 405 is beyond me!
Originally Posted By oc_dean When THE Santa Ana 5 Freeway was completed in 1954 (a year before Disneyland opened) it was 'okay' to call it THE Santa Ana Freeway ... today .. if you want to be correct ... It should be called "The Mexico Border 5 Freeway" LOL
Originally Posted By oc_dean Am I boring you all yet? Well here is one more OC freeway tidbit for you to chew on for the moment .... THE 55 Freeway was originally suppose to connect all the way down to PCH/Highway 1 .. and was to be called "The Newport 55 Freeway". But it never touched Newport Beach city limits, and after freeway planners realized their mistake .. took off the "Newport Beach" references sometime around 1980 .. and renamed it accordingly to what city it ends in: THE Costa Mesa 55 Freeway! (Freeway history is one of my hobbies
Originally Posted By Nobody And let's not forget another phenomenon that baffles the uninitiated: The 5 freeway (which runs north and south) intersects the 55 freeway (which runs north and south).
Originally Posted By Sweeper <<Although I am a Floridian. I just spend so much time in LA on business ... But California is a weird, wacky, wonderful place. Where else can one freeway (we call them highways here) have three different names?>> Now that's interesting given that toll roads in Florida are obviously not free and how in heaven's name could they be high? Nothing is high in Florida, except some people. Flattest darn place I've ever been. California Freeways are free...taxation notwithstanding and they are usually elevated or high above the city. Well at least THE 405 is. And San Diegans say THE 15, THE 163, THE 5, etc. And some people mispronounce coupon by saying "Q-pon" instead of "Coo-pon." How's that for a Rovism?
Originally Posted By cheesybaby <<And let's not forget another phenomenon that baffles the uninitiated: The 5 freeway (which runs north and south) intersects the 55 freeway (which runs north and south).>> That's nothing: in the Bay Area, when traveling from Emeryville to Berkeley/Albany/Richmond, you are simultaneously on the 580 West and the 80 East. That's right - you are simultaneously going west AND east! Not to mention the fact that you are actually moving due north!
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "From that point south the Santa Ana Freeway ceases to exist, and the 5 is then referred to as the San Diego Freeway until it leaves Orange County and passes into San Diego County at Camp Pendleton." I stand corrected. Thanks for the clarification.
Originally Posted By markedward First, of course I haven't read all of the 170 some odd previous posts, but ... I think an un-park would have been a good way to go IF that is what had been originally done. There are a lot of fun pay as you go attractions that a resort needs that Disneyland lacks - miniature golf and wintertime ice skating come to mind. Paradise Pier is more successful as atmosphere than as an attraction. Restaurants and a hotel would be able to really take advantage of that atmosphere in an un-park. But ... That isn't what was done, and un-parking DCA after the fact just wouldn't work. Though Paradise Pier offers the right kind of atmosphere, the rest of the park doesn't seem right. "Hey, whose up for a movie and a white water raft ride?" I completely understand the people who say that DCA's theming and or aesthetic issues are huge and must be addressed. Though I'd like to see aesthetic and thematic improvements, I think most of the problem really is the tiny number of attractions. I mean, the tiny number of attractions per demographic. How many people find Big Thunder too rough and never go on it? How many find Peter Pan's Flight too childish? Not many. But how many people find ToT or Screamin too rough? Or A Bug's Land too childish? Because of a) the low total number of rides and b) the niche audience for many of the attractions, there just isn't enough to do. Yes, I'd like a theme park to be beautiful instead of looking like a studio back lot. But total amount of time I can enjoy doing stuff is really important.
Originally Posted By jonvn Yes. I agree. We all can go on nearly everything in Disneyland. But that's because most everything was built a while ago, when that was a design aspect. It's not just DCA that they are building these generally bad rides in. Pooh in Disneyland really is not targeted to anyone over 5. Indy, is way too rough for anyone under 6. For example. Disnelyand can take it because of all the attractions put in when they actually knew what they were doing. They don't seem to be able to create whole family attractions, or properly themed ones anymore.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo What about the Nemo Ride and Show at WDW? They are perfect family fare. (Though I know they tend to be the exception these days).
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "What about the Nemo Ride and Show at WDW? They are perfect family fare." But isn't that just a refurbished ride that was built "when they actually knew what they were doing"?
Originally Posted By markedward Our seven year old found A Bug's Land okay, but wasn't interested in doing anything twice. Our two year old tried several of the rides, but found them two scary (the Chew Chew train sprays you with water, the ladybug boogie is too fast). So, overgeneralizing from our experience, 7 is probably too old, and 2 is too old. That leaves 3 to 6. Now that's what I call fun for the whole family. Oh, and the above could be applied just as well to Winnie the Pooh. Why is Pooh such a dud - apologies to its fans - while Peter Pan works so well? Detail. Pooh would be just fine for people over six if they plussed it. And then plussed it again. That an organization that could make Pirate of the Caribbean forty years ago today comes up with a nearly static plastic bear swinging from a balloon. It's sad. If you build it, they will come. If you build it well, they will come back.
Originally Posted By gadzuux Ironically, pooh swinging from a balloon used to be trixie coming through the trap door and singing 'rainy days and mondays'. Quite a step backwards I'd say, but if it wasn't for trixie's already extant infrastructure, they probably wouldn't even have pooh up there in the first place.
Originally Posted By disneywatcher As I was reading the following portion of an article about Disney World at miceage.com, regarding the multitude of sit-down restaurants at Epcot being fully reserved on a particular day -- which is astonishing by the standards of DCA, or even Disneyland, for that matter -- it reminded me that one reason the DisCo executives responsible for DCA thought they could cut corners and still come out a winner was because of the amazing saleability of Epcot, or the Florida parks in general: >>>>> More serious was this other comment, heard at Epcot's Guest Relations, where they now have an A-frame set up to display which restaurants still have reservations available (on this day, NONE of them had it by noon). The lady I overheard said: "You have to get here by 9:00 a.m. sharp if you want dining reservations." <<<<< <a href="http://miceage.skyfirehosting.com/ky120506pics/ky120506aa.jpg" target="_blank">http://miceage.skyfirehosting. com/ky120506pics/ky120506aa.jpg</a> Michael Eisner, Barry Braverman and others probably would have been far less confident in developing DCA if the DisCo had stumbled as badly before 2001 as they've done (certainly image-wise, if not from a standpoint of success in ticket sales too) since 2001, with the opening of the Disney Studios park in Paris and the second park in Anaheim, if the company's operation in Orlando rarely or never was able to, as one example, fully book all its restaurants at Epcot.
