Why not MERGE Disneyland and California Adventure?

[disneylandguru]

California Adventure (DCA) has struggled to make it on it's own since the day it opened. Although I like many things about it even more than Disneyland (outside of the nostalgia we all have for Disneyland) ... I've always wondered why Disney doesn't just merge the two and make them a SINGLE PARK.

I know money is of course at the heart of their decision, but I have to believe that it's a pretty small percentage of visitors who don't already purchase Park Hopper tickets when they go.

Maybe just consider DCA another themed land inside of Disneyland .... say "CaliforniaLand".



It's always such a pain having to exit one park and then enter the other. Plus, you have the different hours of the two parks. I've always thought it would be great to hangout in the late evening over at DCA, but only Disneyland stays open until Midnight.

Anybody else have strong feelings one way or the othere about this idea?

 

[DoomBugger]

It will never happen.

What would be the point? You would still have to walk the same distances, making them one park would not move them closer together.

Disneyland Park will always be as it is in it's current layout.

Once the billion plus goes into CA maybe you will feel differently, that it stands on it's own. It wil never be DL but it has great potential as a compliment to DL.

I do think a cool addition would be to have a Monorail that links the two parks but that will probably never happen either as WDC does not seem interested in connecting the two parks that way on top of the fact that Monorail systems are very expensive.

Maybe once CA becomes a great park and the visitorship goes up hopefully they will keep it on the same hours as DL but it will have to be justified by the larger crowds entering CA.

 

[deej696]

Overall I think the addition of DCA has accomplished what Disney hoped, which was to turn the resort into a multi-day destination. For example, I just made my first visit to DL earlier in the year. We decided to stay for 5 nights, versus what would have probably been only a 2 or 3 night stay had there been only one gate. Being that the parks are so different, to me it does not make a lot of sense to combine them into one gate. I think once the upgrades are all put in place, DCA will stand alone as a great park and will win over a lot of the locals who dont currently go through the turnstiles as often as Disney would like.....

 

[DLR29]

You say that merging the two parks would create convenience (not that park hopping at DLR is inconvenient right now, especially compared to WDW). However, not allowing people into the esplanade w/o a ticket would create an even more inconvenience to offsite hotel guests staying on Harbor or Katella. What if they want to go to one of the hotels or Downtown Disney. They'd have to walk all the way around, which would be a huge pain. DTD would lose money because offsite guests would just go to a restaurant on Harbor or the new Gardenwalk restaurants.

I agree with the previous posters in that in a couple years when all of the new additions are in place, DCA will be a much better place and be able to stand alone easier.

 

[brocklesnar69]

I think a better question would be: "Where are they going to put this 'Third park' they've been talking about?" I mean, after the DCA Billion Dollar overhaul is finished, I heard a few years after they might consider a new park.

 

[relspeak]

DCA will become a better park after the upgrades. We all have heard the complaints about EPCOT and Disney Studios when they opened that they were not worth going to. It will be great to have another excellent park next to Disneyland. Still am concerned about the expansion perhaps not being able to do what the want for the $1.2 billion. Things may cost much more than they expect.

 

[Tink208]

I do think a cool addition would be to have a Monorail that links the two parks but that will probably never happen either as WDC does not seem interested in connecting the two parks that way on top of the fact that Monorail systems are very expensive.

But would it really be that expensive to just add a stop on the existing line? It goes through (over) DCA already. Before we first went down to DLR after DCA opened, I had actually assumed they had added a stop at DCA on the Monorail line, and was very surprised they hadn't. I think it would be an awesome idea!

 

[DoomBugger]

But would it really be that expensive to just add a stop on the existing line? It goes through (over) DCA already. Before we first went down to DLR after DCA opened, I had actually assumed they had added a stop at DCA on the Monorail line, and was very surprised they hadn't. I think it would be an awesome idea!

I agree, that could be neat with another stop but it would slow down the Monorail even more than it is right now. Granted, in another year or so when they finally get the fleet of Mark 7s running that will help but I just get the impression that WDC wants to keep the Monorail as a DL attraction and having another way to enter and exit DL is cool the way it is.

I thought the same thing too when it first opened that the Monorail would link the two parks (like MK and Epcot) but I too was disappointed!

I don't think WDC wants to have any more complications than having the park entrance/exit options any more than they are now.

I seriously doubt if we will ever see a Monorail link between the two parks but I too hope for a inter-park link attraction.

Shoot, I'm still hung up on The Peoplemover!

Never gonna happen but just for fun; how about a Peoplemover type attraction that went from Tomorrowland to Hollywood Backlot / ToT area?

 

[kiwitravel]

How about a wide walkway in the style of the Golden Gate Bridge? over the top of the Esplanade? You could still have ticket scanners up there so Disney would still be able to sell park hoppers, moving between parks would be a lot easier, it would ease congestion in the Esplanade, you could still have different opening hours at CA, DLC might actually sell more hoppers as people can enter DL from the usually much shortler lines at CA during the busy times of the day, would attract more people to CA as it is somehow "connected" to DL and as a bonus it would provide shelter over the entrance queues in inclement weather. I would make it about 6 car lanes wide with a row of parked cars along the outside of each side to both make it look authentic from the ground and to prevent people throwing things over the side.

 

[DoomBugger]

How about a wide walkway in the style of the Golden Gate Bridge? over the top of the Esplanade? You could still have ticket scanners up there so Disney would still be able to sell park hoppers, moving between parks would be a lot easier, it would ease congestion in the Esplanade, you could still have different opening hours at CA, DLC might actually sell more hoppers as people can enter DL from the usually much shortler lines at CA during the busy times of the day, would attract more people to CA as it is somehow "connected" to DL and as a bonus it would provide shelter over the entrance queues in inclement weather. I would make it about 6 car lanes wide with a row of parked cars along the outside of each side to both make it look authentic from the ground and to prevent people throwing things over the side.

I think your idea has merit but I would hate to see the entrance area covered up. Inclement weather is not frequent enough to justify blocking the beautiful California sun!

How about the existing Monorail system with an added station at CA that had two tracks at the staion so some trains could be designated to stop there and the others would move on to the DTD station as they do now?

It would link the two parks via an attraction and also would retain the original path of the Monorail so the trains could run between the two existing stations as they do now as well.

Fun to talk about but it will probably never happen in any incarnation.

 

[kiwitravel]

I think your idea has merit but I would hate to see the entrance area covered up. Inclement weather is not frequent enough to justify blocking the beautiful California sun!
.

Maybe put it up one end say at the DTD end. Then the bulk of the Esplanade will be open and you can have some turnstiles under cover. As you say not very likely but who knows...