DCA Gets A Worthy Overhaul Budget

[Esmeralda]

Thanks for sharing, Bullwinkle! I'm starting to understand the new layout much better now - I see that they moved the main entrance, so that Main Street type concept makes much more sense.

[Cheshire Cat]

Mickey's Fun Wheel ??

I always thought the sun wheel looked so majestic. I hope they're not going to stick a giant mickey there in place of the sun.

[Dr. Ravenscroft]

I never really thought much of it, I guess it is just because I'm never a huge fan of ferris wheels. O'well at least there will be a flying saucer ride.........Oh wait I mean hovering tires.....my bad!!

[DisneyChris]

I cant wait to see all the improvements

[danimal3114u]

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc19 ... CalAdv.jpg

"Luigi's Roaming Tires levitatin' car ride"? That sounds like the freaking FLYING SAUCERS to me!!

Thanks for posting this Bullwinkle!

[Jacca5660]

I never really thought much of it, I guess it is just because I'm never a huge fan of ferris wheels. O'well at least there will be a flying saucer ride.........Oh wait I mean hovering tires.....my bad!!

If only they did an update of the Wonder Wheel!! Now that would be too cool!!!!

[Dr. Ravenscroft]

OMG I forgot about the Wonder Wheel....That would be awesome too!!! I sooo can't wait to see this stuff in person, I wish they were finishing up Toy Story Mania (TSM) before I go next. O well it will be done soon enough and I will try to get out there and report on it, and also try and find some of the secrets too.

[Dr. Ravenscroft]

OK after reading Al Lutz's column ( http://www.miceage.com/allutz/al111307a.htm ) on the DCA Overhaul it looks like it will be a tough few years for Disney to try and get the whole thing up and running. Between offending the already shrinking number of guests that go to DCA and Working on the projects quickly to be ready for the 10th Anniversary and other occasions is really going to be tough for Walt Disney Imagineers (WDI) and Team Disney Anaheim (TDA). I'm not sure how the entrance move will work, I think it will be the most difficult part of the whole project, because you still have to make it easily accessible. If it goes where they say they want it, through the old Millionaire Building, that will mean you would have to go 1000ft. further to the left of the entrance now. Plus they will have to have new security check points.

It is looking more and more likely that the hovering tires won't happen, due to the suits saying it isn't safe and also trying to outfit the individual vehicles with enough power to lift persons of larger dimensions. One really awesome thing is going to be the fact that DCA will now have shade in more areas. Right now if you want to cool off you have to go to one of the ride buildings or stay in the Grizzly Rive Run "land". In the place of the maliboomer there will be a park with lots of trees, fountains, and places to sit down and relax after traversing the new renovated DCA. All I have to say about that is YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have said to many of my friends and I think I have said it here many times too DCA NEEDS MORE SHADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When I travel around the park I feel like I'm in the sun all the time, I burn easily that is why I always think of these things. Most of the time I walk in the shade or I find some shade to be in for a little bit, but in DCA you basically have to be in a building to get away from the sun. So DCA will be getting hundreds of new trees and tons more respect from me at least.


I have to say that after reading the article it has made me very enthusiastic about this re-construction. I was thinking before that it will be good for the Park and the Company, but now I'm thinking it will be great. Now if they get these pesky details worked out soon they can really get started on the project.

[Jacca5660]

When I travel around the park I feel like I'm in the sun all the time, I burn easily that is why I always think of these things.

You most have a hard time at MGM? I'll always call it MGM!

[blinkereye123]

Hey guys. The fact that DCA is getting ANY kind of upgrade should have me turning cartwheels and yet I can't help thinking that there's going to be so much that DOESN'T get done over the next few years that it almost makes me cry. From what I've been reading it looks like Philharmagic and the Hover/Tire/Saucers are already in danger of not happening, (no big loss for me as far as the Floaters are concerned). What gets me is that the company seems to encounter just as many problems taking things out of the park as they do putting things in. At this point let's just hope that the ENTIRE budget doesn't end up being used just to bring everything up to code. Well, until my next rant, peace.

[Cheshire Cat]

Looks like the imagineers have come to the first hurdle (of probably many) in redesigning DCA.

JHM:
http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_hill/ ... -park.aspx

I don't really know how to feel about this. I kind of understand why the imagineers don't want to theme it around Walt. I get that weird feeling of "this is a statue of a man who did something significant a long time ago in a place far far away" when I visit Hersheypark. I don't want to feel that way when I visit a Disney park. Those drawings of the DCA "Partners" give me that weird feeling though. Then again, I think it's great that they want to make a huge tribute to Walt. I'm sort of borderline on this issue.

I am without a doubt, completely, full heartedly, most definitley, totally opposed to the Mickey Wheel however . I like Mickey and everything, but putting a Mickey face on something doesn't make it "better". The Sun Wheel looks great the way it is, I'd rather have the money go to a better cause than that. Plus it would look rather strange to have the full color mickey, right next to the golden mickey from the CS loop. It seems to me to be monontonous, and clashing.


lol, my quote before the drawing was released:

I always thought the sun wheel looked so majestic. I hope they're not going to stick a giant mickey there in place of the sun.

(I still have no idea what it is about the Sun Wheel that looks so appealing to me, but I will fight for it until the end gosh darnit )

"DCA is failing because Mickey's face isn't on the Ferris wheel.
Haven't you heard?"
~Miceage

[Captain Schnemo]

If the company itself hadn't become embarrassed by Walt and his achievements in the Eisner era, I think kids would have a much stronger association between that weird-looking old dude from ye olden tymes and all the stuff they like about what they think "Disney" is.

I agree that there is no correlation between all that garbage on the Disney Channel and anything that wouldn't make Walt slap an Imagineer silly, and the Pixar stuff is only tangentially related to "Disney".

If the Imagineers were clever enough to make the area fun and not like a museum, it could be great. They'd have to actually do some thinking about that, and I haven't seen much of that from them lately. Attempting to target specific demographics shows that they've already strayed so far from the path that they probably haven't even heard the stories of the existence of the path from their ancestors...

In Philadelphia, they have a kiosk with the "ghost" of Ben Franklin. You can ask him all kinds of questions and he'll answer them. It's incredibly useful if you've been sightseeing all day and have built up a number of questions in your head about what you've seen.

Probably be a bit creepy to have Walt take questions directly, but there are effective things along these lines that can be done that would have more meaning than another Partners statue. Statues bore kids and remind of them history, which sounds a lot like homework.

[danimal3114u]

Great article, Chesire! Thanks for posting that. At the very least it's an interesting read and brings up some important issues that I for one hadn't really thought about. After reading it, I agree with the argument that making to new Main entrance a shrine to Walt Disney might not fit well with the park in general, but more importantly, with the park's target audience.

[Captain Schnemo]

I think the Seuss area of Islands of Adventure is a possible manifestation of the Walt "shrine" theme. It's incredibly fun, interesting, and visually appealing if you've never heard of Dr. Seuss or are a rabid Seussophile. The "Hidden Geisel" is a nice Easter Egg if you know what you're looking for, or just another whimsical image if you don't know or care.

[Cheshire Cat]

In Philadelphia, they have a kiosk with the "ghost" of Ben Franklin. You can ask him all kinds of questions and he'll answer them. It's incredibly useful if you've been sightseeing all day and have built up a number of questions in your head about what you've seen.

Wow... that is pretty neat! I think they should do something like that at the end of "One Man's Dream" at MGM or better yet in that new theater that they're building in DCA. They could use the technology from Monsters Laugh Floor in a replica of Walt's office and have Walt talk to guests. That may get a little tricky though for the amount of guests it would probably attract and for the CM doing the voice. Maybe just a video in some attraction where Walt is present, talking to the audience supposedly in modern day. An attraction in Tomorrowland perhaps where Walt has been transported in a time machine from the past? In the words of Jules' Verne from Timekeeper, "In the future anything is possible."

I think that's what's really lacking. They can build statues and tributes all they want, but it's nothing compared to a living person.