Disney California Adventure held its grand opening on February 8, 2001. Now known as DCA among Disneyphiles, the park is a bouquet of contradictions conceived in Fantasyland, starved in utero by corporate Disney, and born into a hostile environment of Disneyland loyalists who believe they've been handed a second-rate theme park. The park is full of old technology. Its parts are stunningly beautiful yet come together awkwardly, failing to compose a handsome whole. And perhaps most lamentable of all, the California theme is impotent by virtue of being all-encompassing.
The history of the park is another of those convoluted tales found only in Robert ludlum novels and corporate Disney. Southern California Disney fans began clamoring for a second theme park shortly after Epcot opened at Walt Disney World in 1982. Although there was some element of support within the Walt Disney Company, the Disney loyal had to content themselves with rumors and half-promises for two decades while they watched new Disney parks go up in tokyo, Paris, and Florida. For years, Disney teasingly floated the "Westcot" concept, a California version of Epcot that was always just about to break ground. Whether it was a matter of procrastination or simply pursuing better opportunities elsewhere, the Walt Disney Company sat on the sidelines while the sleepy community of Anaheim became a sprawling city and property values skyrocketed. By the time Disney emerged from its Westcot fantasy and began to get serious about a second California park, the price tag—not to mention the complexity of integrating such a development into a mature city—was mind-boggling.
Westcot had been billed as a $2- to $3-billion, 100-plus-acre project, so that was what the Disney faithful were expecting when Disney California Adventure was announced. What they got was a park that cost $1.4 billion (slashed from an original budget of about $2.1 billion), built on 55 acres, including a sizable piece carved out for the grand Californian Hotel. It's quite a small park by modern theme-park standards, but $1.4 billion, when lavished on 55 acres, ought to buy a pretty good park.
Then there's the park's theme. Although flexible, California Adventure comes off like a default setting, lacking in imagination, weak in concept, and without intrinsic appeal, especially when you stop to consider that two-thirds of Disneyland guests come from Southern California. As further grist for the mill, there's precious little new technology at work in Disney's newest theme park. of the headliner attractions, only two—Soarin' over California, a simulator ride, and Toy Story Mania!, a "virtual dark ride"—break new ground. All the rest are recycled, albeit popular, attractions from the Animal Kingdom and Disney's Hollywood Studios. When you move to the smaller-statured second half of the attraction batting order, it gets worse. Most of these attractions are little more than off-the-shelf midway rides spruced up with a Disney story line and facade.
From a competitive perspective, Disney California Adventure is an underwhelming shot at Disney's three Southern California competitors. The Hollywood section of DCA takes a hopeful poke at Universal Studios Hollywood, while Paradise Pier offers midway rides à la Six Flags Magic Mountain.
Finally, the whole California theme has for years been the eminent domain of Knott's Berry Farm. In short, there's not much originality in DCA, only Disney's now-redundant mantra that "whatever they can do, we can do better." Finally, after more than eight years of basically being in denial about Disney California Adventure, the Walt Disney Company now seems willing to admit that this theme park (which only pulls in about a third of Disneyland's attendance annually) needs some help. To address DCA's problems, the Mouse is poised to spend some serious money on an extreme makeover. Over the next 10 years, as much as $10 billion will be spent on Disneyland Resort, with the lion's share going to DCA.
Starting at the park entrance, the Imagineers are looking to work their magic on DCA. they'll be pouring on the theming, enhancing detail wherever they can, and adding three new e-ticket attractions, all with an eye toward eventually making California Adventure a worthy companion for its sister theme park across the plaza.
Imagineering and the Disneyland Entertainment staff will be pulling out the stops to transform DCA into a must-see park. This means everything from adding a Vegas-quality water show to Paradise Lagoon to reworking entire areas of the theme park so that they celebrate particular Pixar films. Speaking of which, the Pixar characters are going to play a very big part in DCA's revival. For openers, a new street parade was introduced in 2008, featuring characters from every Pixar film ever produced.
Mind you, the rest of the Disneyland Resort will also be experiencing its own gussying up. look for Downtown Disney to increase in size, adding at least five new shops, clubs, and restaurants to its lineup. likewise, the Disneyland Hotel will experience a face-lift as festive new furnishings and the most up-to-date amenities are folded into the 58-year-old resort. there's also at least one new hotel on the drawing boards, plus a Disney Vacation Club property. According to the rumor mill, there might even be a third theme park in the works, possibly to be built on the Disneyland employee parking lot.
Meanwhile, as the Disneyholics churn up cyberspace debating DCA's theme and worrying whether the budget for the makeover will be torpedoed like the budget for the original park was, the rest of us will have some fun enjoying the park that is.
