The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (127 page)

One understands how i
n theory, adding a second theme park made sense to execs.  In theory, adding another gate siphons some Guests out of overcrowded
Disneyland Park
.  This gives Guests a second immersive park experience to treasure, and reduces overcrowding in both parks.  Those are the Guest wins.  It also gives the resort a second gate, a second entrance fee, and increased profit.  Those are the
Disney
wins.

The key phrase is “in theory.”  Because diverting Guests into a second park and making profits
from a second gate only works if the new park equals or even surpasses
Disneyland Park
itself.  And the original
DCA
’s slight footprint, slight budget, under-developed story, and lack of
Disney
magic
condemned it to be noticeably inferior to older sister
Disneyland
.

As m
y sister observed,
Downtown Disney
and the
Grand Californian Hotel
were wins because they
complement
, rather than compete with,
Disneyland Park
. 
DCA
, in trying to compete with the original park, was doomed from the outset to come up short.

As it st
ood in the early years of the new millenium, Guests at the
Disneyland Resort
had a choice between two parks,
Disneyland
and
DCA
.  If you were only at the resort for a day or two, which park were you going to choose?  It wasn’t really a fair contest.

So, for years after its 2001 opening,
DCA
was under-utilized, and
Disneyland Park
remained overcrowded on holidays and during spring break and the summer season.  And it was a shame, because notwithstanding its early issues,
DCA
had some stunning features.

The
Imagineers
did their darndest with the limited budget, space, and vision that execs gave them to work with. 
Grizzly River Run
?  Pure immersive fun, realized down to the tiniest detail, including its forested setting. 
Soarin’ Over California
, also designed by
Mark Sumner
, is a lovely experience verging on the mystical.  And the
Tower of Terror
, once it was built, gorgeously enveloped Guests in both the glamour and horror of 1930’s Hollywood, a fascinating time fast fading from living memory.

Instead of adding a
second gate, in retrospect
Disney
might’ve been better served by expanding
Disneyland Park
, keeping it a cohesive, focused entity while adding new lands, hotels, and restaurants imaginatively tied to
Walt
and
Disney
entertainment. 
GRR
and
Soarin’
would have fit thematically in an expanded
Adventureland
, for example, and
Tower
connects to
Walt
’s early
Hollywood
years.

Although
Disney
hasn’t physically merged its
Disneyland
and
DCA Parks
into one mega-park, it’s happening indirectly.  A crucial cornerstone of
Disney
’s phenomenal success is that it listens to its Guests and its customers. 
DCA
is too small?  Doesn’t offer enough attractions?  Has too few kid-and-family-friendly offerings?  Lacks
Disney Characters
,
Disney
themes,
E-ticket
thrills, immersive experiences, and
Disney
magic
?

Step by step,
Disney
addressed those issues.  By 2012,
DCA
had become a whole new world, and by 2013 and 2014 it felt like
DCA
had always been a beautiful, high-quality
Disney Theme Park
.

* * *

One of the first ways that
Disney
addressed Guest concerns about
DCA
was the introduction of the
Park Hopper
ticket to the
Disneyland Resort
.  For one fee, Guests can visit both
Disneyland
and
DCA
on the same day–they can, as it were, “hop” between the adjacent parks.  The
Park Hopper
fee is more than the price of entering a single park, but less than paying for separate admissions to both parks.  Periodically the resort also offers
2-fer tickets
:  Visit one park one day, the second park the next, for one fee slightly higher than individual park tickets.

This somewhat resolved Guest complaints about
DCA
’s separate entrance fee, which cost the same as
Disneyland Park
’s for a less
magical
experience.  A
Park Hopper
or
2-fer
ticket
is certainly more economical and more convenient for Guests that want to visit both parks.  Just as you don’t have to pay a separate entrance fee to go from
Fantasyland
to
Tomorrowland
, Guests with
Park Hopper
tickets don’t pay a separate price to move from
Disneyland
to
DCA
.

Another
swift response to criticisms was the addition to
DCA
of attractions and shows specifically designed to give toddlers and young children more activities to enjoy. 
DCA
was designed for mature Guests and couples, a serene, sophisticated park experience divorced from crowds of families and exuberant kids.  But it quickly became apparent that Guests didn’t want that level of sophistication and maturity.  Guests were clear:  Bring on the
Disney magic
and kid-and-family focused fun!

Based on the
successful 1998
Disney-Pixar
computer-animated film
A Bug’s Life
,
“a bug’s land”
was constructed in a swath of park property bordered by
Sunshine Plaza
(now
Buena Vista Street
),
Hollywood Pictures Backlot
(now
Hollywood Land
), and the now-vanished
Bountiful Valley Farm
area.

The centerpiece of
“a bug’s land”
is
Flik’s Fun Fair
, a menagerie of five small, carnival-type rides packed into a landscape of oversized, discarded cartons and containers and giant flowers and foliage that make Guests feel as tiny as ants.  It launched in 2002, less than two years after
DCA
opened its gates.

The
Disney
theming and the overall charm of the fanciful environment save
Flik’s Fun Fair
from feeling like a mere carnival.  Tucked away off the beaten path, this enjoyable little demesne was one of the park’s first substantial additions of
pixie dust
.

As time
passed, more and more
Disney
magic
was woven into
DCA Park
.  Park leaders understood that it was vital to infuse the park with
Disney Characters
and flavor. 
Mickey
and
Minnie
made
DCA
appearances. 
Disneyland
’s
Main Street Electrical Parade
, which had made its final bow in 1996, was scheduled for a
Disneyland
revival, but was instead installed at
DCA
in summer 2001 and renamed
Disney’s Electrical Parade
.

In 2003
Hollywood Picture’s Backlot
welcomed
Playhouse Disney – Live on Stage!
(now
Disney Jr.
) which presents performances by favorite
Disney
characters that are the Frank Sinatra, Elvis, and Beatles of the preschooler set, and
Disney
’
s Aladdin – A Musical Spectacular
, a high-quality musical based on the animated
Aladdin
film.

Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!
is an entertaining dark ride based on the 2001
Disney-Pixar
film
Monster’s, Inc
.  The attraction opened at
DCA
in 2006 as yet another kid-and-family-friendly activity in the
Hollywood Pictures Backlot
.

By 2008 the
Disney-Pixar
movies had all proved to be box office and critical successes, and their characters were becoming as beloved and as closely associated with
Disney
as earlier, classic
Disney
characters.  Hence the introduction of a retooled
Pixar Play Parade
in spring of 2008.  The parade featured characters from the
Pixar
pantheon,
A Bug’s Life
,
Cars
,
Finding Nemo
,
The Incredibles
,
Monsters, Inc.
, and the
Toy Story
films.

In autumn of 2008,
DCA
welcomed the lively
High School Musical 3
parade based on characters and music from the
High School Musical
movies that first aired on the
Disney Channel
in 2006. 
High School Musical
and
High School Musical 2
were such popular
Disney Channel Original Movies
(
DCOM
s) that
High School Musical 3: Senior Year
was released in theaters.  It debuted in October 2008, and
DCA
’s updated parade launched at the same time, aimed at entertaining the tweens, teens, and parents who were fans of the
HSM
series.

By 2008,
Disney
had clearly made significant progress in providing Guests with more
Disney Characters
and family-friendly attractions at
DCA
, but there was still something essential missing.  Even with
Mickey
dropping by, and attractions like
Playhouse Disney
,
Monsters, Inc.
, and the
Pixar Play Parade
,
DCA
still had an identity problem.  Nothing less than a massive re-imagining was going to transform
DCA
into a real, live
Disney Theme Park
, and the
Imagineers
and
Disney
leadership embraced the challenge.

* * *

When
Disney California Adventure Park
opened in 2001, Guests were disappointed and bemused by the preponderance of California theming and the absence of
Disney
.  In retrospect the park’s concept seems incredibly odd.  Dedicating a theme park to the glories of California–its forests, mountains, farms, beaches, architecture, aviation, entertainment, and cuisine–is grand, but why was
Disney
the entity to take it on, and why next door to the unsurpassable
Disneyland Park
?  With this theme, how could
DCA
ever, in a thousand years, be a profitable second gate?

Well,
nothing’s easier than being a Monday morning quarterback.  In truth, the designers of the original DCA
Park
were tapping into something powerful; they just didn’t take their vision far enough, nor did they have the budget at that time to do so.

By 2008,
Disney
realized that there was still a void at the heart of
DCA
, a park which remained lightly attended even after most Guest complaints had been painstakingly addressed.  What was the park’s quintessential problem, the elusive but gargantuan elephant in the room that no one had quite identified, had quite pinned down?

Even the most vociferous and cruel critics of
DCA
were hazy on the fundamental problem with the park.  No matter what the park added and improved, naysayers still squawked.  The park continued to fall short of the
Disney Theme Park
goal of creating intense happiness for its visitors.