Originally Posted By DlandDug >>'Popular' to me, suggests that it was well liked.<< You are absolutely correct. I lapsed into Disney-speak, in which "popular" means "crowded."
Originally Posted By DlandDug >>Did you really type "balderdash" Doug...<< Oh yes. I keep trying to find new ways to say "nope."
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Darn, and I was hoping that it was Miss Jane Hathaway. Or maybe Uncle Arthur.
Originally Posted By DlandDug >>They couldn't figure out how to levitate the epiphany above the S on the Esplanade...<< Ah! Best unintentional laugh of the day. So sorry to be officious here, but... you meant APOSTROPHE. And epiphany is literally the appearance or manifestation of Jesus Christ, and has come to mean "a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." (Thank you, dictionary.com.) Sadly, it would seem that the epiphany was removed long ago here, as there is nothing-- simple, homely OR commonplace-- that is destined to bring perception or insight into the endless discourse about DCA!
Originally Posted By DlandDug >>And for a brief moment, sitting in front of the entrance, was the word CAca until some of our neighbors from Mexico riding the monorail became appalled at what they saw.<< You can't just drop this into a conversation without the back story! (Best of all, this one is true!) When they were planning the big letters for the entrance to DCA, they narrowed it down to two possible sizes. In order to really judge them, they made full scale cutouts of the first two letters, and mounted them side by side. And there it was in all its glory: the construction site for Disney's California Adventure, fronted with huge letters reading "CAca." They were immediately removed.
Originally Posted By crapshoot <<Ah! Best unintentional laugh of the day. So sorry to be officious here, but... you meant APOSTROPHE>> Didn't you ever see Hook? It was simply a reversal of Smee's "having an apostrophe" comment.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <That the working studio never really took off is well known. But do note that the response was not to demolish the sound stages and remake the area. And certainly not within the first ten years.> As Jim said, they could have. The response was to leave sound stages they didn't need to. >>Well, it was their basic model 1989-2005, anyway.<< <Balderdash.> "Horsepucky" to your "balderdash." <Here's the list. Now explain to me how each of these was an example of "build cheap and come in behind with real money later:" 1989 Disney’s Hollywood Studios 1992 Disneyland Paris 1998 Disney’s Animal Kingdom 2001 Disney California Adventure 2001 Tokyo DisneySea 2002 Walt Disney Studios Park 2005 Hong Kong Disneyland> Note I didn't say "each." I said the majority of Disney-financed parks. MGM/DHS, DCA, WDSP and HKDL are clearly of that model. DLP is not (then again, it was a first gate, and they didn't realize till HK they could actually get away with it as a first gate). DAK is semi-of-that-model (light on attractions at opening, but long on atmosphere), but even if you don't count it, it's still 4 out of 6. They didn't pay the bills for TDS, of course, so of course they were happy to let OLC pay whatever they wanted for it.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>"Horsepucky" to your "balderdash."<< Fellows, PLEASE! this is a family site. If this keeps up, somebody's gonna drop an F-bomb.* *fiddlesticks, of course.
Originally Posted By DlandDug >>As Jim said, they could have<< Is this a joke? As in: They COULD HAVE closed down DCA and plowed it back into a parking lot. Ergo, DCA was a failure. Does that fly for even a minute?
Originally Posted By ImgineerBob when disney mgm opened it was a huge hit, the parking lot filled up in half an hour on day one!!!
Originally Posted By ImgineerBob something else helping to save DCA now is the abundence of pass holders as well. There are so many more now then there were 10 years ago, that both parks are getting filled to the gills somedays just because DL fills up and there's nowhere else to go.
Originally Posted By dshyates Uni is about to dump a bunch of money into doubling the size of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Just like DCA! So either the WWOHP is a total failure, or DCA was a home run right out of the box.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "As in: They COULD HAVE closed down DCA and plowed it back into a parking lot. Ergo, DCA was a failure." Doug, there are all kinds of things that Disney could have, and would have done, with the valuable acreage that DCA sits on IF it had been deemed more financially prudent to do so. Remember Playland at The Beach, San Francisco's old amusement pier? Well here's an image of what's there now: <a href="http://www.sanfranciscodays.com/photos/large/ocean-beach-condos.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.sanfranciscodays.co...ndos.jpg</a> "Uni is about to dump a bunch of money into doubling the size of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Just like DCA! So either the WWOHP is a total failure, or DCA was a home run right out of the box." Or has the potential to be a home run.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <As in: They COULD HAVE closed down DCA and plowed it back into a parking lot. Ergo, DCA was a failure. Does that fly for even a minute?> I think you missed Jim's point. You said that they tore down sections of DCA. Jim made the point was that although they didn't tear down the sound stages, they could have, since they weren't being used.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <when disney mgm opened it was a huge hit, the parking lot filled up in half an hour on day one!!! > Again, not trying to get into a war of words here -- but Disney-MGM Studios was not a 'hit' when it first opened. There were many, many complaints about how it was a half-day park at full-price tickets. Not enough to do. Boring. Why is the Hollywood Blvd. an attraction? etc.
Originally Posted By dshyates Or has the potential, with a ton of money and talent, to not be a soul sucking vortex.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <There were many, many complaints about how it was a half-day park at full-price tickets. Not enough to do. Boring. Why is the Hollywood Blvd. an attraction? etc.> That was my reaction. It was the first time I felt vaguely ripped off by a Disney park. Much more so than my 2001 visit to DCA. I wasn't floored there either (except by Soarin' and the animation building, mostly) but I thought "well, at least it's better than MGM 1989." I know others disagreed. They hit their attendance marks, though, because the WDW paradigm was already for multi-day stays with multi-day hoppers. So you might as well have checked out the new park, even if you were hopping back to EPCOT earlier than you figured on.
Originally Posted By dshyates 1989 D-MGM would have been a lot better if it had a mad mouse, wave swinger, and Farris Wheel.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 It certainly would have been better if it had something as good as Soarin'. The GMR to me was a missed opportunity.
