My DCA Observations

[larworth]

Thought I'd better get my thoughts down before Testrack gets back with his binder full of note. Looks like a number of us will have visit DCA this summer. Be interesting to compare notes. My assessment and some thoughts for a make-over.

I give about half the park passing marks. This clearly makes it lacking as a stand-alone effort, but the ease of park hopping makes all the difference. With our multi-day hoppers and the short walk across the esplanade, DCA was a welcome respite to escape the afternoon crowds at DL. While not deserted, the shorter wait times (except Soarin) and upbeat atmosphere provided us two enjoyable afternoons entertainment. As an illustration, it is practical to hop parks just to maximize your FP portfolio (different systems).

The California theme? I think most people kinda forget about it. The theme should create a positive baseline for the quest experience. I’ll call DCA a neutral. If they don’t stay true to it (the what do bugs have to do with CA refrain) it probably won’t matter. It offered us about the same number of activities as DAK, but without the escapism punch. Which is due in part to the subject matter, part to the many micro-environments, and part due a less detail.

IMO many of the concerns about lower standards and modest ambitions have merit. The park is not completely devoid of charm and did end up being a nice compliment to our DL visit. It would influence our length of stay, but not to the degree it should have. From a business perspective I walked away thinking it was a needlessly missed opportunity.

ENTRANCE (OK) - I didn’t realize the murals were mosaics for sometime. From more than a few feet away they look like 2D paintings (marginal one’s). The GG Bridge is cute, but too narrow to make a grand statement. Maybe, this was done intentionally so the Plaza seemed more expansive? The Plaza didn’t get much use. The sunthingy is nice, but only a momentary diversion.

CONDOR FLATS (Good) - I liked this area. The deserted airstrip theme didn’t strike me as cheap. It probably helps that is not that big an area. Soarin’s pre-show elements are basic, but it wasn’t a hot button for me. Maybe, I enjoyed the ride too much (especially row 1). I love new experiences and this came in just behind Indy. It was the only ride with 60 minute waits and scarce FP’s. Evidence that people still appreciate novel experiences.

HOLLYWOOD (OK) – Starts off feeling like USF or MGM. The painted backdrop creates perspective for a moment, until you take a few steps in and the effect is destroyed. A sloppy transition from glamour HW to a back-lot look. Enjoyed Blast, Millionaire and Muppets (again). Parts of animation were very good. A quality reincarnation of Superstar Limo and ToT a big help. However, with still have a “been there done that” feel.

PACIFIC WHARF (Fair) – A nice outdoor food court when fully open. Tortilla and bread making exhibits should be restaurants décor elements, not taking up precious attraction space. The tortilla making exhibit seemed especially lame. Does recreate a cannery row type feel if you like faded/aged buildings.

BOUNTIFUL ACRES (Poor) – What is the point? A lot of wasted space surrounding TTBAB. Let’s keep our fingers crossed Flik’s Fair is decent.

PARADISE PIER (OK/Poor) - Screamin is a very enjoyable coaster. Probably the right thrill level for a Disney park. I might concede this being a mini-land? Have Screamin, the Sunwheel, maybe the Maliboomer in a much smaller footprint. The gaudy food and game stalls reminded me of the Jersey Boardwalk (not a positive). Remove these along with the two swing rides (Stinger and Zephyr) and the mouse coaster. I’ll include Golden Dream’s here. Not a bad film, but felt out of place. Did little to reinforce the park themes.

Grizzly Peak (Very Good) – The peak is a great icon and the mountain theming very well done. The raft ride was good (reasonable mix of wet and dry), as was the play area.

Other (Good) – We did enjoy the hipper? feel. Lots of music, and the upbeat mix a good contrast to the more traditional DL fare. Lots of small street performers. We saw many people singing along, dancing as they walked. It created a nice mood. We talk about their repeatability factor, but I was still surprised how small the crowds were for Muppets & TTBAB. Worse, for Golden Dreams. We did two Millionaire shows and both were over 75% full. Is it closing due to lack of interest or network issues?

It doesn’t make sense to start over, so here are some transformation ideas.

1. Drop Bountiful Acres. Becomes a wilderness themed extension to Grizzly Peak. TTBAB in a Redwood forest. Flik’s Fair a meadow.
2. Drop the whole HW backlot look. Everything gets themed to glamour HW. Fix SSL. Muppets becomes Philarmagic.
3. Shrink the Pier as noted and make it a part of the Wharf.
4. The vacated PP space becomes a new land with a new C and E ticket attraction.

 

[Peter Pirate]

I agree with most of what larworth has said. From a visitor with Park hopper's perspective, DCA does no harm and is actually a plus...But from the 'what it should have been and how easily this could have been done' perspective I have to cry foul...

Condor Flats: Soarin' is as good as they say and is one of the few attractions anywhere that could stand on its own.
Hollywood: Very MGM feeling. ToT will enhance that (and the traffic). Add a GOOD improvement of Superstar Limo & you would have a 'no problem' area.
Pacific Wharf/SF/Bountifal Farms: They're all located close in proximity so I'd jumble a little. I'd lose the farm (making ITTBAB totally out of place) and add an inside attraction featuring a SF trolley rolling through the steep hills and sights of SF. I imgine a cross between GMR & the Indy technology.
Paradise Pier. This areas not bad & Screamin' is very good. I agree that the spinners need to go (stinger & Zephyr) and a quality attraction needs to be added - To PP or seperately I don't think it matters.
Grizzley Peak: Much,much better than Kali & all I'd do is add water guns for the non-riding guests (so everybody participates).

The enterence is impressive and with having DL, DTD & DCA all virtually connected is very cool. The GC was so convenient, it was great knowing that your hotel room was never much more than a 10-15 minute walk from anywhere!

DCA misses the mark though & I can see why local residents did not take to it, but I do not think it's auful (just a ridiculously ill prepared start fro a Company that should know better).

I'll be happy to answer any questions as I'm sure larworth will, as well...

 

[Douglas Dubh]

Pacific Wharf/SF/Bountifal Farms: They're all located close in proximity so I'd jumble a little. I'd lose the farm (making ITTBAB totally out of place) and add an inside attraction featuring a SF trolley rolling through the steep hills and sights of SF. I imgine a cross between GMR & the Indy technology.
Paradise Pier. This areas not bad & Screamin' is very good. I agree that the spinners need to go (stinger & Zephyr) and a quality attraction needs to be added - To PP or seperately I don't think it matters.

I'd rather they extend SF into Paradise Pier. That Route 66 area could easily be changed into a SF/Berkeley Summer of Love area, and Mulhullond Madness enclosed and rethemed to a runaway trolley car, with some nice show effects.

A pirates-type ride, set in Old California, could be built just behind where the wharf connects to the farm. The showbuilding would be themed as an old mission, uniting the two areas and providing a top notch family attraction.

 

[Bob O]

I hope the park is better than what i have read about it!!! Most comments here and other places have been negative about the park as a whole even though some things are nice.

 

[stlphil]

While I am very down on DCA, I find that I agree with much of what larworth has to say. DCA has some nice parts (there, I admitted it). But to me it is not a Disney theme park, in part because "nice" is not sufficient.

My biggest specific disagreement with larworth regards Condor Flats/Soarin'. I've been to the desert airstrips, and the main thing that characterizes them is that they are wide EXPANSES of flat land (hence the name "Flats"), and not the most claustrophobic area of the park tucked in behind a mountain that you find at DCA. I agree that it doesn't feel cheap, but it in no way captures the feel of what it is supposed to be. Totally unlike the safari ride at AK, where I am transported to Africa. If you don't have the space to capture the theme, pick a different theme. This is just one of many examples of what seems (subjectively) to me as the amateurishness of the design of the place.

I was also disappointed with Soarin'. I agree that the minimal queue/pre-show was not a hot button for me. Neither was the lack of transitions between scenes. A bit of a hot button was having the ride machinery, screen, and other riders in plain view, thus effectively eliminating any illusion that you were boarding a hang glider. But the worst problem was riding in row 2 or row 3, and having rows of other people's legs dangling right in front of you throughout the ride. No way this is even close to an E-ticket in rows 2 and 3; it is a completely different ride from row 1. While no one item above was fatal, it all added up to a serious disappointment.

So, can DCA be fixed. In my (admittedly, only one person's) opinion yes... and no. DCA has lots of problems, but I think the two biggest problems are the lack of "Wow" factor, and the theme.

Wow factor is what I have come to expect from Disney parks, and it is just not there at DCA. I actually find that there is more to do at DCA than at AK, but I much prefer AK because the wow factor is there. While AK feels incomplete, at least it feels "Disney". As I stated above, Soarin' misses the mark for me, and while not universal, I know a lot of other people feel the same way. The closest thing to Wow was walking into the lobby of the Animation attraction; it was like walking into the middle of Fantasia 2000. (And if you go to DCA please don't skip this, thinking you have seen it all at MGM.) Other than that, nice here, good there, lousy here, ok there sums up DCA. So one way to fix DCA is to add Wow factor, and obviously this is at least possible.

But that brings me to the other problem which is theme. Speaking as a Californian displaced to the midwest, I think the theme will forever kill it. I went there out of curiosity and despite the theme, and really have no desire to go back to DCA on my future visits to DL. The theme will never capture the imaginations of the California residents who make up the bulk of the guests, and is only marginally interesting to those actually visiting California (yes, I know these are hardly original comments). larworth stated that he thought that most people "kinda forget about it". Probably true, but he was just refering to those people who actually were in the park, and not the many more who weren't there because they weren't interested.

I recently asked my brother, who lives in central California and is a much bigger Disney fan than I am, why he hasn't been to DCA yet and he said that it just didn't interest him. Then I asked him what the buzz was that he heard about DCA and he said "apathy". I think this derives directly from theme, and that DCA will never be successful with its current theme.

 

[Captain Crook]

It's too bad that many would still not like the park due to the theme even if it had been done well...But thats not really too important.

I can't see how Soarin' could dissappoint anybody! Even from the second row it was spectacular! But we're all different aren't we.

I was just discussing the park with a CM at WDW and I told her the two biggest misses Disney made with DCA (IMO) was (1) underestimating the local demographic (as AV always points out) & building attractions, as Bob would say, "on the cheap". DCA is very pretty IMO, and has some very nice things to look at. I think many medium & lesser things that they gave us could have been overlooked or maybe even apprecited if it were viewed on a different level. For example the tortilla making factory. It's interesting enough and nice diversionary thing to do if it were a secondary attraction to a fantastic dark ride for example. The same with the vineyard. It's beautiful and worthy as a second or third tier diversion if something more substantial had been given first. Even the cheap carney rides and boardwalk could have seemed acceptable to many if they'd built a Disney class, carney inspired haunted house for example...They simply installed three nice E ticket rides and thought that would carry the park...What a mistake that was.

Whether people will like DCA is all taste and perspective. We enjoyed our first trip to DL and DCA added to that enjoyment. Could they have done better? Most certainly and I'll add that they should have, but to the out of state visiitor DCA adds a little more bang for the buck (though it could have been a lot bigger).

The real problem is that all important California demographic. They had better find a way to draw them or DCA will just become another land to DL...

 

[Planogirl]

We spent three days at Disneyland with one morning at DCA and we also returned that evening to see ELP and to give DS a McDonald's fix. I agree with most of what everyone else said but have a few comments.

The strangest area to me was Hollywood particularly in the evening. We strolled around and discovered an outdoor stand selling Muppet merchandise with a bored CM working alone. We chatted with her and she said she was glad to see ANYONE because very few people every bought anything there at night. If you check that area, it includes a closed-down Superstar Limo, WWTBAM which is only open in the afternoon and the Hollywood & Dine food area which was also closed down during our visit. The new ToT won't help this since it's being built on the other side of Hollywood. Odd...

I was also struck by the lack of crowds. We ate lunch at Avalon Cove which had poor service but OK food and real good character interaction. The restaurant was mostly empty even though we had 6 characters in the place. We saw the wonderful ELP that evening and it was easy to find a place to watch along the parade route DURING the parade because the crowd was so small. I was very surprised to see this parade get so little attention. We went over to Downtown Disney afterwards and there did appear to be quite a few more people there.

We definitely enjoyed some things. Soarin' is great and DS had a lot of fun in the Redwood Trail. ITTBAB and the Muppets were good as always and I liked the movie. The Coaster looks good and I wish that I could have ridden it. Even the tortilla factory thing was so lame that it was funny to us.

DCA has all kinds of potential but has a long way to go IMO.

 

[WDWHound]

My wife and I found DCA a pleasant diversion, but not up to Disney standards. There is not enough to do and Paradice Pier is everything Disney should never have built. Its not the pite of boredom that I thought it would be, but its nothing special. It has little or no repeat value except possibly as another land for the real park across the way.

This park can be save (though the theme will make saving it harder than it needed to be). I'd say 3 E ticket attractions and a couple of c's or d's would get the job done.

Bob: Don't worry, you will have a pleasant time in DCA. Its not a bad park, its just not what I would expect from Disney.Its more like a really nice 6 Flags Park.

 

[Bob O]

Im used to SF parks so that will be easy to handle!!!