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RobRoz
09-10-2002, 08:46 PM
On a recent trip to DCA I over heard a little girl ( I think probley 5 or 6 years old)talking to her mom while waiting in line for a ride ( I think it was Soaring ) She tug at her Mom's arm and said " Mom Can We PLEASE Go Too The Real Disneyland Now" ..lol... I am not sure why ,but it was one of the funniest things I ever heard.
Well after about 3 hours of seeing and doing everything my family wanted too do, over at DCA , My wife and daughter decided that they wanted to go too the real Disneyland also.
But I could not help myself from saying the same line that the little girl said to her Mom, on the way out to a CM. She was the CM standing at the exit gate with the hand stamps. The CM was a lady in 50s with a ear too ear smile ... I said too her we were going to the real Disneyland now..... She look up at me and smile and said ,and I quote " O you mean the better side"

Laffite
09-10-2002, 09:21 PM
WOW! That's pretty powerful, if only symbolically. Even kids know DCA is lacking, CMs know, now does Eisner knows? Or is he still living in his illusion of money and power.

wdtv
09-10-2002, 09:42 PM
Thi is exactly how I felt during my first time at DCA a few weeks ago. I tried having fun, but it was just not happening. And The fact that the paint on the ground in Condor Flats was looking very shabby & was chipping away did "not" help.
While my family & I ate lunch at the mexican place in the pathetic San Francisco area, I was itching so much to just visit the animation building/store (Which are both "AWESOME"!) and get out of DCA as fast as possible!
It might have been just me, but I barely saw anyone smile in DCA (I'm "not" exagerating, either).
Compare this to Disneyland...

Morrigoon
09-10-2002, 09:45 PM
DCA just isn't "magic", it transports you nowhere (Ooh, look mom! We're in Southern California! - doesn't work somehow)

Morrigoon
09-10-2002, 09:49 PM
What they need to do when they plan a park is follow the Rule of Pretend... (I made this up)

Walking through the park, can they pretend they're someone/somewhere else?

Example: Fantasyland - you can pretend you're a princess walking through the courtyard of your noble castle

Frontierland: you can pretend you're Texas John Slaughter a'headin' into town fer some supplies

Adventureland: you're one of those 1930's explorers, journeying through uncharted jungles, avoiding dangerous animals and hostile tribes

etc.

What's the rule of pretend for DCA? You're... uhm.... a tourist.... walking down Hollywood Blvd/Santa Monica Pier/San Francisco. Yeah, that's exciting. I always wanted to be a tourist....

Filbert
09-11-2002, 05:20 AM
That's really funny. When DCA was being built, we were in the what is now the Paradise Pier hotel looking out on the construction from one of the upper floor elevator halls and overheard "That's the new Magic Mountain section." from a mom explaining it to the kids.

Gemini Cricket
09-11-2002, 06:36 AM
Originally posted by RobRoz
The CM was a lady in 50s with a ear too ear smile ... I said too her we were going to the real Disneyland now..... She look up at me and smile and said ,and I quote " O you mean the better side"
Okay, this may seem weird coming from me but I disagree with what this CM said.

I hate DCA. Lots of us do. However, she works there. She should be supportive of the place where she works or leave the job. You can inwardly complain or complain backstage to a supervisor but not in front of the guests. Maybe this kind of CM negativity contributes to DCA's poor performance. Now I didn't say 'was reponsible for', but 'contributes...'

All I'm saying is if you work somewhere, you should back the organization or leave it.

:)

merlinjones
09-11-2002, 06:45 AM
A (non-Geek) friend of mine also reported that his two daughters cried and demanded to go to the "real Disneyland" all day while at DCA.

Just like in Walt's old movies - - the child is far more perceptive than the cynical adult who has forgotten the spirit of youth (in this case those who now run the Walt Disney Company).

mousey_girl
09-11-2002, 07:15 AM
On the flip side, my son (he is 5 and will be 6 during our visit this Dec), is BEGGING to go back to DCA!! When we went last year, he had a blast on MM and GRR. He knows he is now tall enough to do more there and is bugging me daily about when we are going to go again. He knows there is not as much to see and do, but he doesn't care. He wants to go on Soarin' again and is excited by the idea of Screamin'. He knew that we didn't spend much time there last year because he fell 1/2" short of 48".


So if anyone wants to visit DCA and see it through the eyes of a GREAT kid that is driving me nuts, I am now taking bids on EBAY. :D
(we will be there Dec 4-7th)

disguy
09-11-2002, 07:44 AM
The second time I went to DCA was during the Soap Opera thing. (that wasn't the reason why I was there :) I watched Millionaire and they gave away a 5.00 gift certificate so I purchased a DCA T-Shirt. As I was walking on to the Coaster. I a cm looked at my shirt and said wow you actually bought a DCA shirt? Then started to laugh. It's funny but it can't help disney getting the public to belive in there new park if the cm's don't even belive in it. I would never pay full price for DCA but that dosen't mean I don't think it's a very nice park. I love going there to get a break from "disney".

hbquikcomjamesl
09-11-2002, 08:00 AM
It certainly does nobody any good to have DCA-bashers on the DCA payroll.

And as to "the mexican place in the pathetic San Francisco area," well, the "San Francisco area" is not "pathetic"; it's just grossly undersized. Nor does it have a "mexican place," or any other restaurants at the moment. The "Mexican place" is in an area that, while it looks rather like parts of San Francisco (and probably parts of any other Northern California waterfront community), is actually modeled after Monterey. Specifically, the Monterey of Steinbeck's Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday (and the Monterey of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical comedy, Pipe Dream, whose "book" was by Steinbeck.

Oh, yes, and as to Condor Flats, considering as how that whole area is supposed to evoke Edwards Air Force Base, and to celebrate the research flight-testing that went on there at the dawn of the Space Age (and that still goes on there today), it wouldn't look right if it didn't look bleached and weathered, any more than Frontierland would look right without a certain amount of heavily distressed woodwork.

disguy
09-11-2002, 08:12 AM
To tell you the truth..I never even knew what Condor Flats was. It seems like DCA was never really explained to people. Except for Paradise Pier and Hollywood backlot. Actually, most of the old pier fair type parks were on the east coast more then they were on the West. Isan't that right?

TerryTiger
09-11-2002, 08:27 AM
Originally posted by disguy
To tell you the truth..I never even knew what Condor Flats was. It seems like DCA was never really explained to people. Except for Paradise Pier and Hollywood backlot. Actually, most of the old pier fair type parks were on the east coast more then they were on the West. Isan't that right?

Misconceptions abound! While Coney Island may come to mind as the most famous pier park, Paradise Pier evokes the old California piers such as Belmont Park on San Diego's Mission Beach, Pike and Nu-Pike in Long Beach, Licks and Ocean and Pacific Ocean Park (POP) in Santa Monica, and the Santa Cruz Boardwalk (which is the only one remaining).

TecTalker2K
09-11-2002, 08:53 AM
Originally posted by TerryTiger
Paradise Pier evokes the old California piers such as Belmont Park on San Diego's Mission Beach, Pike and Nu-Pike in Long Beach,

Funny that these parks would be mentioned. I have been to these parks and they were run down and beat up. You could not really call them family parks sinc they were mostly driven by teens. They did have their hayday when they were swabby hangouts.

opus
09-11-2002, 10:23 AM
I know DCA is supposed to be a stand-alone park, but the way my family and I see it is as a supplement to DL. We had a four-day parkhopper last year, and we spent almost as much time at DCA as we did at DL.

My kids are 8 and 12, and when we let them have the last day to ride all of their favorite rides, we spent almost all day on Screamin, GR Rapids, Mulholland Madness, and (can't figure this one out, except no line) Orange Stinger.

So, while I agree with it not being the best it could be, my family likes it a lot. We're going back in three weeks, and DCA will be a big part of it.

socabch
09-11-2002, 10:25 AM
Paradise Pier evokes the old California piers such as Belmont Park on San Diego's Mission Beach, Pike and Nu-Pike in Long Beach, Licks and Ocean and Pacific Ocean Park (POP) in Santa Monica, and the Santa Cruz Boardwalk (which is the only one remaining).


I'm confused!!! Are you saying Belmont & Santa Monica aren't remaining? I'm going to Belmont on Sunday and I was on the Santa Monica Pier at the amusment park this year. The difference between Belmont and some of the others mentioned is that Mission Beach never had a pier. But it does have a boardwalk. Here's a link for history on Belmont Park. I didn't know it had been around as long as it has been.
http://www.giantdipper.com/history.html

wdtv
09-11-2002, 11:52 AM
<<Nor does it have a "mexican place," or any other restaurants at the moment. >>

I meant the stand that sells tacos and nachos. But, I should have called it the Monterey area.

And You are right about that area being too small. When I said "pathetic," I was referring to the number of things in it: A couple of restaurants and two exhibits. Even New Orleans Square in Disneyland has two E-Tickets!

Plus, it's a "much" better design...

hbquikcomjamesl
09-11-2002, 12:39 PM
Actually, the "San Francisco" area ("Bay Area") has one C or D ticket (Golden Dreams), no food, no retail, and a bunch of empty storefronts, and in order for it to expand in any logical direction, either the North end of Paradise Pier would have to be torn out (not a bad thing, since it's the end where everything is "off-the-shelf"), or the West end of Golden Vine would have to be torn out, at least at ground level (again, not a bad thing, since that's the end with the wine bar that I've never actually seen in use). The "Monterey" area ("Pacific Wharf") has a B or C ticket (Boudin), an embarrassment of an attraction that would be overpriced as a no-ticket (Mission Tortilla Fiasco), and 3 restaurants (the one that, by rights, ought to simply be a full-menu Boudin bakery shop, the Mexican place adjacent to the Mission Tortilla Fiasco, and the Lucky Fortune Cookery).

wdtv
09-11-2002, 01:41 PM
Okay, I must have gotten totally confused. I thought the mexican stand was in the SF area, and Monterey was just incorporated.

So Where is the SF part, then?

Ghoulish Delight
09-11-2002, 01:50 PM
Originally posted by wdtv
Okay, I must have gotten totally confused. I thought the mexican stand was in the SF area, and Monterey was just incorporated.

So Where is the SF part, then? Technically, the SF area is the empty storefronts where the bathrooms are, and Golden Dreams theater. That's about it.

wdtv
09-11-2002, 03:15 PM
Talk about a "cramped" park!

Dawnie
09-11-2002, 03:25 PM
Originally posted by merlinjones
A (non-Geek) friend of mine also reported that his two daughters cried and demanded to go to the "real Disneyland" all day while at DCA.


Wow. How sad... Those children are spoiled. If my children EVER acted that way, at Disneyland or DCA they'd be on their way home!

wdtv
09-11-2002, 05:10 PM
Well, I don't think this implies that they are spoiled. These kids just wanted to go to Disneyland!
As I said in a previous post, I grew up on Disneyland, and DCA totally contradicts everything that that I -- and past generations -- have come to expect from Disney.
These young kids were really not out of line here.
Damn Walt Disney for creating this reputation, huh? :)

Ghoulish Delight
09-11-2002, 05:48 PM
I have to agree with Dawnie. Think what you want about DCA, nothing (especially not being taken to a theme park!) justifies bratty, whiny behavior.

SimpTwister
09-11-2002, 08:08 PM
Originally posted by Ghoulish Delight
I have to agree with Dawnie. Think what you want about DCA, nothing (especially not being taken to a theme park!) justifies bratty, whiny behavior.



I dunno... I suppose you're right.

But imagine for a second being a kid, thinking you're going to Disneyland, and ending up at... NOT Disneyland.

That would suck.