R.I.P. Golden Dreams and Sunwheel

[ParkHoppa]

I read that they have both oficially closed down. Well, at least i can look forward to the New Little Mermaid and Mickeys Fun Wheel.




To The Disney Vault, You Go.

 

[JaneJetson]

I voted for The Little Mermaid ride because it's my favorite disney movie.

I hated Golden Dreams and The Sunwheel.

 

[Marciern22]

Oh man. We really liked Golden Dreams... We would go in there to get out of the heat. My autistic son thought Whoopie was his friend and I always cried cuz I love California!!! I'm sorry I didn't go in there last week.
Didn't like sunwheel either. Lines always took forever.

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

I'm going to miss the sun on the Sunwheel. I'm glad I saw it the day before the start of the removal though.

 

[fairycat]

I have to say I prefered the Mickey Head on CS, it was more fun and almost like the most obvious hidden Mickey ever. Not as into the Mickey on the Sun Wheel. Golden Dreams was fine, but not anything I was super attached too. I am looking forward to Little Mermaid.

 

[JaneJetson]

So there won't be a mickey head on CS anymore? When are they taking that down?

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

We won't miss either! Really looking forward to the Little Mermaid ride though!

 

[mystic_path]

I am looking SO forward to the Little Mermaid ride because that's my favorite Disney movie EVER! The other things in the vote column are great but the Little Mermaid ride is such a treat. I am starting to feel spoiled. I love it!

 

[TheAXIOM]

I've been WAITING for a ride featuring Ariel!! After having her little abode in DL taken over by Pixie Hollow, I think this will DEFINITELY compensate her and all her fans .

And I've never been on the Sun Wheel, but I am all for the DCA facelift and looking forward to Mickey's Fun Wheel. I've said it once, and I'll say it again; DCA is in dire need of Disney magic to draw in as many crowds as its predecessor.

 

[Disneylvrforever]

I saw that the orange buckets were taken off of the Sun Wheel today. It's started! I'm going to miss everything so much!!!
I have to say that I'm not too excited about the Little Mermaid ride, the Silly Simphony Swings looks fun but I think I'll actually be scared once on it, and I'm totally mad that they're re-theming Mulholland Madness!!!

 

[wmp.dll]

We watched Golden Dreams (I was cold, because I had just gotten off Grizzly River) and we went on the Sun Wheel. Both of those attractions were just ok. That was my problem with Disney California Adventure.

There are some great attractions like: Soarin', Grizzly River, California Screaming, Hollywood Tower of Terror.

But then there are all these mediocre attractions. Golden Dreams, Sun Wheel, Mullholland Madness, Maliboomer.

I think with this huge investment from Disney to make the park way way better, it will be great.

 

[mystic_path]

We watched Golden Dreams (I was cold, because I had just gotten off Grizzly River) and we went on the Sun Wheel. Both of those attractions were just ok. That was my problem with Disney California Adventure.

There are some great attractions like: Soarin', Grizzly River, California Screaming, Hollywood Tower of Terror.

But then there are all these mediocre attractions. Golden Dreams, Sun Wheel, Mullholland Madness, Maliboomer.

I think with this huge investment from Disney to make the park way way better, it will be great.

I agree with you on all these points. Compared to the main park which makes your head spin in all directions with something to see, smell, touch, taste, and hear, you realize how much DCA is lacking. I am welcoming any new change. There will be some amazing new additions and although Disney cant please everyone, there will be something new for everyone to enjoy.

What I think is amazing is that we all know what DCA looks like now, and in even 30 years our kids will see the brand NEW DCA and wont even have a clue as to what it used to look like. Kinda like the other park. Some of us or our grandparents can say "OH I remember opening day", but its different today from what they know. So to be able to say that we got to see the old DCA first to me is a total honor.

 

[Eac_5981]

What is golden dreams?

 

[wmp.dll]

What is golden dreams?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Dreams

Golden Dreams a film about the history of California, was a featured attraction at Disney's California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It opened with the park on February 8, 2001. It started film actor Whoopi Goldberg as Califia, the Queen of California. The last day of the attraction was September 7th, 2008, when the original Cast Member, "Sarah" hosted the last showing of the film to the public and is scheduled for removal to make way for the "Voyage of the Little Mermaid" dark ride attraction rumored to open in 2011.

Guests enter the theater which is a replica of the previously mentioned Bernard Maybeck façade of San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, a famed Bay Area landmark constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition.

As the show began, two tall art noveau statues of a single goddess-like woman, one on either side of a film projection screen, were bathed in golden light. The statue on the right "comes to life," personified by Ms. Goldberg, through a video of her face, which was projected from the rear into the translucent head of the figure. The statue introduced herself as "Califia, the Queen of California." Califia explains that she is the spirit within California, and an inspiration to many famous Californians. Goldberg appears within some of the filmed sequences which follow as Califia -- in disguise -- to comment or offer encouraging words to various characters who find themselves in challenging situations.

The 70-mm film highlighted admirable and regrettable eras and incidents in the history of California, including vivid picturizations of injustice which do not sanitize reality. Scenes featuring Chumash Indians living a peaceful life on the shore, for example, are followed by the same Indians being held captive by Spanish missionaries and conquistadors.

After the establishment of California, events such as the troubles endured by Chinese laborers working on the railroad and miners during the Gold Rush of 1849 are presented. The immigration issue faced by Japanese women seeking to live in the United States, more specifically California, is also shown. Japanese and many other Asian people were denied entry, although wives of established immigrants were allowed to enter. Many women became "picture brides," agreeing to marriage on the basis of exchanged photographs in order to come to the United States. A powerful dramatization of the crushed hopes of one young picture bride whose husband is far older than represented in the photo he has provided, is particularly affecting. The film continued into the 20th century, with the stories of the famed and infamous water and civil engineer William Mulholland, the hardships of those seeking a new life during the Great Depression, film producers of the 1930s, and women taking over "men's jobs" to achieve victory in World War II. Still photos of the Japanese brides and of impoverished women in a migrant camp in the 1930s are the work of noted photographer, Dorothea Lange.

After the war, thousands of people moved to California to seek good living, sunny weather, and suburban life. The new luxuries of freeways, amusements (more specifically - Disneyland), and easy life are shown. After the 1950s, the turbulent counterculture of the 1960s was depicted. Finally, the technology boom of the later part of the 20th century is featured, with the story of Steve Jobs and the creation of the personal computer.

The film, among the most sophisticated in any of the Disney parks, ended with a montage of notable events and Californians. The montage is reminiscent of a similar finale to the American Adventure film in the U.S.A. Pavilion in the EPCOT Center, World Showcase, in which a cavalcade of fading images of noteworthy Americans and historical incidents is similarly and effectively set to a stirring orchestral score. A concluding salute to discovery, fortitude and imagination is given by Califia. Her eyes then close as her face falls back into statuesque repose, the light within the statue fades, and the house lights come up, and then her face briefly reanimates to remind a lady that she left her purse as guests walk out of the theater.

The 22-minute film was directed by Polish director Agnieszka Holland

 

[ParkHoppa]

I saw that the orange buckets were taken off of the Sun Wheel today. It's started! I'm going to miss everything so much!!!
I have to say that I'm not too excited about the Little Mermaid ride, the Silly Simphony Swings looks fun but I think I'll actually be scared once on it, and I'm totally mad that they're re-theming Mulholland Madness!!!

Are you sure that we arent twins? I feel exactly the same. I just really hope by some miracle of God, that they keep the maliboomer.

 

[prettyprincessbelle]

Are you sure that we arent twins? I feel exactly the same. I just really hope by some miracle of God, that they keep the maliboomer.

Meh, me too. Too bad they probably won't keep it. They're replacing it with some parachute thingy. I wonder if they know the exact day they're closing it? I really like that ride, it's so much fun.

 

[bumbershoot]

So there won't be a mickey head on CS anymore? When are they taking that down?

They are taking Mickey off of Screamin' and putting Mickey on the Wheel. Strangest move I can think of.

I love DCA, even the stuff I won't go on, but I especially loved the lovely sun on the Wheel. You won't catch me on it, but I have probably 50 pictures of it b/c it's so lovely! But not anymore...

Are you sure that we arent twins? I feel exactly the same. I just really hope by some miracle of God, that they keep the maliboomer.

Hubby hopes the same thing. Because of a combo of broad and heavy back and a sumo belly, he hasn't been able to go on it yet. The clip thing won't clip. So he's been madly losing weight in part for Maliboomer, and hopes he can go before they close it, because he KNOWS that under the terms and conditions of our marriage, he can't go on a ride like that anywhere else. I trust Disney much more than I trust other theme parks (or Buddha forbid a state fair etc) so that ride was IT for hubby.

 

[hoosiergirl7]

I didn't realize they were getting rid of the Sunwheel. Granted I don't pay a whole lot of to what goes on at DCA & DL since I moved away from CA and don't visit often anymore. I was so looking forward to that next week

So where can I go find updated info on DCA & DL happenings? Is allears.net a good place? I read that all the time to find out about WDW since it will soon be in my backyard when I move in Dec.

 

[DahliaRW]

A CM told us the sunwheel will stay, it's just being rethemed with Mickey instead, but will essentially be the same ride. Has that changed? The reason they are doing that is because people have said that DCA doesn't feel "Disney" enough. I really don't think that moving a mickey head will change that. To me DCA felt too generic theme park and didn't have all the little details and magic that the waiting lines and such for rides at Disneyland have. The main exceptions would be Soarin, Tower of Terror, TSMM, and Muppet Vision.

 

[wmp.dll]

Sun Wheel is staying. But instead it will have a Mickey head on it.