Disney California Adventure: A Theme Park Redeemed

Disney California Adventure's New Gate and Entrance 

It's been a crazy 11 years. What was once a heavily criticized theme park is now becoming a truly realized theme park. Disney California Adventure opened on February 8, 2001 to really unexpected crowd levels. No, not the crowd levels that would cause long lines and crowded walkways, the crowd levels of a Ghost Town. The park was built to celebrate the history of California. A way to keep guests in the park, a way for them to see California at once. But then again, why have themed to a state that its already in and most of the stuff in it can be easily reached in a day? The park suffered low crowd levels due to various criticisms such as:

1. Theme- The quality of the theme was terrible. Paradise Pier was especially targeted with its cheap look, off-the-shelf rides and more. 

2. Value- Most felt that the park wasn't worth the cost of a 1 day ticket. Some didn't understand why it was priced the same as Disneyland and yet it offered less.

3. Attractions- The only well done attractions was Soarin, California Screamin and Grizzly River Run. Others were thought as cheap and unoriginal. A strong complaint to a company that thrived on originality.

To add even more salt to the wound, Tokyo Disney Sea opened 7 months later on September 4th, 2001. A week before the 9/11 attacks. While the Tokyo Resort isn't owned by Disney, the Imagineers gave the park the quality of theme that Disney is known for as Disney's own Imagineers work on Tokyo Disney Resort Projects. 

The executives tried to make the park appealing and tried many methods. But ultimately, these would be short term improvements. In 2002, a year after it opened, they brought in A Bugs Land based on Pixar's A Bugs Life. While the rides wasn't original, it was the first step in the right direction. The following year, Disney's Aladdin A Musical Spectacular opened in Hollywood Pictures Backlot and immediately became a local and guest favorite. Then the year after that, Crowd levels rose with the opening of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, also in Hollywood Pictures Backlot. While it wasn't record breaking crowds, it gave the park a boost of crowd levels during certain times of the year. 

A Disneyland favorite returned in the parks first summer. A parade that supposedly glowed away forever, glowed back into DCA. The Electrical Parade returned as Disney's Electrical Parade. It became the parks nighttime show but it wasn't enough to keep people in at night. That would be solved 9 years later.

From 2005-2006, the park added 3 new things. The daytime parades returned with Pixar's Block Party Bash. This moving street party became a favorite and ran until 2008 when it would be replaced by its successor: Pixar Play Parade. A Monsters Inc attraction opened in the vacant space that was occupied by Superstar Limo. Then finally the Disney Animation building got Turtle Talk with Crush.

In 2007, it was announced that the park would undergo a multi-billion, multi-year renovation project to bring it up to Disney standards. The following would be the major additions to the park:

1. Toy Story Midway Mania at Paradise Pier-Summer of 2008

2. Disney's World of Color at Paradise Pier- Spring of 2010

3. The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure at Paradise Pier- Spring of 2011

4. Cars Land- Summer of 2012

5. Buena Vista Street- Originally Spring of 2010 but delays forced it to open in the Summer of 2012

In addition, the existing areas of the park would be remade into better themed areas. Paradise Pier was first, going from a 50's boardwalk of California to a Victorian Era Pier of the early 1900s. Sunshine Plaza was to be transformed into Buena Vista Street. A representation of Los Angeles in the late 20s as Walt Disney saw when he first arrived to California. The street would have the parks new icon: Carthay Circle Theater, the theater that Snow White had its premiere in 1936.

Toy Story helped addressed the lack of attractions in the park as it was criticized of having less attractions. When it opened in 2008, the line went as far as the park entrance! And to this day, maintains a 45min wait even with a Wii version available for the home. The attraction also began the project as well as the retheme of the Pier.

In 2010, Steve Davison of the Walt Disney Creative Entertainment Division of Imagineering brought World of Color to Paradise Pier. This show was the companies first approach to Dancing Fountain shows as they never done a full-on fountain show. This show got rave reviews and increased park attendence by 20% and brought a fully realized nighttime spectacular to the park. 

In 2011, the park finally got an actual dark ride with the Little Mermaid: Ariels Undersea Adventure. This attraction that replaced Golden Dreams became a favorite and brought more life to the park. The transformation of the pier culminated with the Paradise Gardens Dining Court, removal of Maliboomer and the retheme of Muholland Madness and the Sun Wheel turning into Mickey's Fun Wheel. 

Carsland is a brand new land that not only represented Pixar's Cars, but also represented the famed Route 66. A massive mountain range was built and the land replaced the Timon Parking which was another major parking area for the resort. The highlight of the land is Radiator Spring Racers, the west coast version of Epcot's Test Track. It will also see the return of the flying saucers.

Buena Vista Street was imagined as the Main Street equivalent of Disneyland's Main Street. This street represents the LA of the late 20's and will feature the Red Car Trolleys that ran through LA a long time ago. The trolley will run from Tower of Terror to the park entrance.

Its a fun experience to visit the park as it underwent its renovations. Every month, there was something different and I gotten used to walls and such. The park will be different when the finals walls come down in June. And the park will be the park it was meant to be.

 Buena Vista Street will be done soon.

Carsland is nearly complete.

Happy Birthday Disney California Adventure!