Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "I guess. I'll wait and see when it's done, but these two examples just feel like lipstick on a .... well, you know." That's exactly what it is, along with much of what is being planned. It'll all be much better, yet, with the exception of Carsland, I don't anticipate that the changes will be quite as dramatic as some people believe.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt "Here's a great site with all the details you'd ever want to know..." Thanks for that. I didn't realize just how bad Great America has become until now. I remember how nice the place was when it first opened, and how management attempted to provide a quality experience for visitors. Wow, has that place deteriorated.
Originally Posted By gadzuux I seem to remember encountering 'smurfs' in Great America. This was some time ago though. I haven't been there in about ten years, and it's only about thirty miles from my house.
Originally Posted By gadzuux One more thing - someone (about a hundred posts back) was commenting on the name with "sky" and "cellar" sitting next to each other. Not much different than "Rancho del Zocalo", which literally means the ranch in the town square. I don't think these are necessarily mistakes, and that they do it on purpose. Pretty wacky, huh?
Originally Posted By mstaft >>Btw, what is the weenie at DCA?<< I'm tempted to say, "Everyone who pays full price to get into DCA in its current state!"
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA I visited Great America in 1980 the first time. It was a pretty, clean, nice, laid back park. We went to Great America a year ago -- and it was incredibly depressing. Dirty, tired looking, confusing, and just bleh. It was easy to see how the design of the place was sort of theme park sprawl. Or even a living breathing example of 'Roller Coaster Tycoon' gone amuck. A ride stuck here -- another stuck here. Very depressing.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>I remember how nice the place was when it first opened, and how management attempted to provide a quality experience for visitors.<< I've shared it 983 times before, so forgive me for saying it one more time, but it's where my wife and I met, both working there. And while it never was Disneyland, Marriott was aiming at that world class level as much as possible. The costumes were themed to the various sections of the park, the attractions were themed to those sections as well -- not E-ticket levels of themeing, but definitely better than average. Background music was piped into the various areas that reinforced each area's theme. And the food, with Marriott's hotel and restaurant background, was really quite good, better than Disneyland at the time by far. Food was prepared fresh in most of the food outlets, and I can tell you firsthand that they were OBSESSIVE with cleanliness, both on stage and behind the scenes. Employees had to conform to very conservative, wholesome grooming standards. There were parking trams transporting guests through the lots and also one that ran to and from the adjacent Marriott Hotel. They had fireworks at night, as well as well-known, pretty big name acts that performed at the park. Plus, an animal show with dolphins, seals, and other critters. And a live musical stage show with a full orchestra. I worked there 3 seasons, and it was a great place to work. I'm always trying to keep up with what happens with the park, but it's also been painful to see a lot of what has gone on in the post-Marriott years. I keep rooting for them to succeed.
Originally Posted By gottaluvdavillains Jim -- they had a really cool coaster a few years ago - the stealth - it was teh most popular in the whole place - They tore it out to put in the water stuff.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Oh, and a circus! They had a huge arena (now where The Grizzly rollercoaster is located) that featured circus acts performed several times a day. It wasn't just a thrown-together, on-the-cheap enterprise at all.
Originally Posted By ArchtMig >>>Not much different than "Rancho del Zocalo", which literally means the ranch in the town square. I don't think these are necessarily mistakes, and that they do it on purpose. Pretty wacky, huh? <<< "Rancho del Zocalo" is actually a reference to the history of that location. When Disneyland first opened, the area in front was a little park called "Zocalo Park", and it is still there. The restaurant in the area started out as "Casa de Fritos" in reference to the original sponsor, Frito Lay. Then the restaurant became "Casa de Mexico". Then it was expanded to include some of the barbeque offerings from the late great Big Thunder (Ranch) Barbeque, so they changed the name to Rancho del Zocalo. And as far as I know, "zocalo" means "park". So it would be "park park". ;-)
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Kar2oonMan -- tell them the other reason 'Great America' will always have a special place in your heart!
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <And as far as I know, "zocalo" means "park". So it would be "park park". ;-)> Kind of like the La Brea Tar Pits. Which, by the way, could be the basis of a ride at DCA if they wanted. You could literally go back 10,000 years. It ain't the theme, it's what you do with it. Are we still having this discussion?
Originally Posted By WorldDisney Yeah kartoonman tell us!! You didnt actually concieve one of your kids at great america did you? If you did, that would be pretty cool .
Originally Posted By Nobody I don't have a problem reconciling "Blue Sky" with "Cellar". One could treat Blue Sky as something like a brand name. It would be along the lines of the Starkist Tuna Cannery. If I've got a problem, it's with the term Cellar, which usually denotes a room or rooms wholly or partly under ground. From what I recall, this room is entirely at or well above ground level. In the fine tradition of not calling attractions by their proper names, I'll probably call this the Preview Center.
Originally Posted By ArchtMig >>>If I've got a problem, it's with the term Cellar, which usually denotes a room or rooms wholly or partly under ground. From what I recall, this room is entirely at or well above ground level.<<< Yes it is. The name's probably a tie in to the former "wine cellar" heritage of that space. Nowadays, wine cellars are very popular in custom homes, wine bars, restaurants, etc. Almost none of them are underground or even semi-recessed. Cellars used to be placed below grade before the days of air conditioning because that was the coolest place available to keep perishables. Modern "cellars" don't require that and it's probably more expensive to force them underground than it is to mechanically cool them.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <Yes it is. The name's probably a tie in to the former "wine cellar" heritage of that space.> That's my point for ragging on the name to begin with. This new preview center is simply being shoe-horned into the former show building for 'Seasons of the Vine' which was a recreation of a wine cellar.
Originally Posted By ArchtMig Disney has officially announced the opening date for the Preview Center - October 20. They will also be offering several days of sneak preview openings for AP holders in the days leading up to the 20th. I don't care what they call the place. I'm very excited and I can't wait to go check it out.
Originally Posted By Darkbeer First off, AP previews start October 16th, nno reservations needed, first come, first serve... And the following link describes the experence in detail, so contains LOTS of SPOILERS... <a href="http://miceage.micechat.com/allutz/al100708a.htm" target="_blank">http://miceage.micechat.com/al...708a.htm</a> So if you like spoilers, go ahead and read the info, but also note that some folks do not like spoilers, so watch what you say in this thread. (In fact, maybe a new thread is needed that has Spoilers in the title, to avoid folks talking about them in this thread....)
Originally Posted By FerretAfros How upset can people be about spoilers for a preview center? Pretty much everything in it has already been seen on the internet, and the whole point of the thing is to get spoilers for what's coming to the park. I noticed that Al went out of his way to say that his description had spoilers too, but a play-by-play of a preview center just doesn't seem even remotely potentially offensive to me. If it was a new attraction that had been full of well guarded secrets, that would be one thing, but we all know what's going to be in there, without having to read Al's version of it.
