Disney Park & California Adventure

[mousecrazy]

I heard from an executive at Pixar that John Lassater is pushing for DCA & DL to be come all ONE park! One entrance One Admission. No more park Hopper tickets!

Reason being that if it were all one park many would likely go to DCA more than if they didn't necessarily have to leave DL and come back. DCA attendence numbers are extremley low since its opening.

NOW this is all rumor until of course Disney notifys the public, but I do have it on good authority that this is coming.

I personally hate the idea!!! pooh pooh pooh!!!! Leave my disneyland ALONE I say

[PeoplemoverMatt]

Well the only thing that'll change is the elimination of the one-day one park tickets which Magic Mountain has already priced themselves over. No one in their right mind buys 1-day 1-park tickets to DCA so it'll mean everyone just buys park-hoppers & they'll get $25-30 more per person. Makes sense business-wise.

-- PMM

[Mortimer]

Blending the parks together would neither help nor hurt either park.

A few more people might drop by DCA to go on Soarin', Screamin', TOT and catch the Aladdin show. That should take them an hour or so, then they'd come back to Disneyland and still spend the rest of their day there. DCA isn't empty due to people not wanting to cross the Esplanade to get there. They simply don't want to go.

I actually visit DCA every time I go to Disneyland. I like Tough to be a Bug and Muppets. I wish the Animation exhibit had more stuff but I always stop by. And the Electrical Parade is more than enough reason to go anywhere. DCA isn't awful, it's just poorly conceived and could have been so much more.

If the rumored enhancements to DCA are substantial enough to truly improve the park, if they bring some of the inspiration and imagination to DCA that it's been lacking, or if they retheme DCA the way the park's critics have been suggesting, they actually could charge a separate admission and people might actually pay it.

[mousecrazy]

Originally Posted by PeoplemoverMatt

Well the only thing that'll change is the elimination of the one-day one park tickets which Magic Mountain has already priced themselves over. No one in their right mind buys 1-day 1-park tickets to DCA so it'll mean everyone just buys park-hoppers & they'll get $25-30 more per person. Makes sense business-wise.

-- PMM

Argh I didn't think of that Matt.. It is all about the money isn't it! DUH!! lol

[ttztotdca50]

I just can't see this happening. As Mortimer said, it would neither heal nor help DCA.

[HMF]

If this really happens i will question what is wrong with Disney these days.

[Mortimer]

It wouldn't bother me if they hook DCA and Disneyland together, I just don't see any real purpose in it. I still think they should turn DCA into a Disney Studio park but I doubt they'll ever do that. However, lumping the two into one park is interesting to speculate about. Mousecrazy said there would be one entrance. How would that work?

Downtown Disney merges with the Esplanade from the West. And the walkway exiting the resort heads to the East. If you guess they won't block the East walkway, which would impede traffic to and from the Harbor Boulevard hotels, how could one entrance allow access to DCA?

You could consider that both entrances might remain in place. Perhaps they would build a monorail station above the DCA toy shop allowing cross-park transportation. But this rumor is suggesting that both parks would actually merge. One can safely assume the Disneyland entrance is the one that would remain and the DCA entrance is the one that would be eliminated.

But where would the two parks connect together? The only possiblity would be to dig a tunnel beneath the Tomorrowland train station that goes to DCA's Hollywood Backlot. It would be similar to the way you get into Toon Town but the walkway would actually have to go underground.

The only real solution is of course to improve DCA so it draws more people on its own. But if they actually merge the parks, it would be interesting to see how they do it.

[PeoplemoverMatt]

'Park merge' probably only means the elimination of the turnstiles in front of Disneyland & DCA. If that happened then the main entrance would be just past the ticket booths that are set up on either side of the Esplanade. All they'd need to do is install new sets of turnstiles & it'd work. No access issues would arise from anywhere. Then the DCA entrance from DGC would just be that much more attractive because they would never have to wait in line to get into Disneyland either.

Just think how it would be if there were no admission gates between Disneyland & DCA. That would be quite nice, actually, to only have to wait in 1 entry line per day unless I went into DtD & came back for some reason. It...makes a great deal of sense, now that I think about it.

-- PMM

[ttztotdca50]

Yeah, but then here come the problems:

1) Confuses tourists
2) Drops Disneyland's rating due to DCA
3) Most people would still refer each park by the name already given.

There are probably more, but I have to go to a party and I don't have enough time.

[dougeebear]

Originally Posted by PeoplemoverMatt

'Park merge' probably only means the elimination of the turnstiles in front of Disneyland & DCA. If that happened then the main entrance would be just past the ticket booths that are set up on either side of the Esplanade. All they'd need to do is install new sets of turnstiles & it'd work. No access issues would arise from anywhere. Then the DCA entrance from DGC would just be that much more attractive because they would never have to wait in line to get into Disneyland either.

I thought of that myself, but since I stay off resort on Harbor yet visit DTD to shop and eat, I'd have to cross the newly gated, turnstiled Esplanade to go to and from my hotel. And all of the off-resort bus transports let guests off there, so they'd all have to have some way of getting from DTD back to the busses. Sure, they could use a re-entry pass, but suppose someone didn't go to the park that day? Should they be forced to use a day's admission simply to cross the Esplanade to get to DTD?

I just don't see this happening. The idea behind a second gate is to increase revenue. "Joining" the two parks won't increase revenue, it will only artificially inflate DCA's attendance numbers. It will actually hurt attendance numbers at the resort overall, since a parkhopping guest is currently counted twice and under a joined system would only be counted once.

While this may be an idea that has been tossed around, economically it makes no sense. Lasseter would do better to improve DCA and get attendance numbers up through those improvements.

[PeoplemoverMatt]

Originally Posted by dougeebear

I thought of that myself, but since I stay off resort on Harbor yet visit DTD to shop and eat, I'd have to cross the newly gated, turnstiled Esplanade to go to and from my hotel. And all of the off-resort bus transports let guests off there, so they'd all have to have some way of getting from DTD back to the busses. Sure, they could use a re-entry pass, but suppose someone didn't go to the park that day? Should they be forced to use a day's admission simply to cross the Esplanade to get to DTD?

The only way I can think of to solve that is close off Harbor Blvd. entries to theme park guests only. Any & all DtD only shuttles would then be required to drop their guests off at Downtown Disney's drop-off point in front of the Rainforest Cafe & ESPN Zone. DtD guests being dropped off in front of DtD sounds like a pretty good idea to me. The current Transportation Hub can then be reduced in size creating room for additional ticket booths & turnstiles that might be needed on that side.

Originally Posted by dougeebear

I just don't see this happening. The idea behind a second gate is to increase revenue. "Joining" the two parks won't increase revenue, it will only artificially inflate DCA's attendance numbers. It will actually hurt attendance numbers at the resort overall, since a parkhopping guest is currently counted twice and under a joined system would only be counted once.

It will increase revenue in that everyone will then be park hoppers & pay the park-hopper price. That's at least $20 more per person. Whether they still distinguish between the parks (which could easily be done) or not, it'll just mean only 1 ticket gets you in anywhere. Buy the ticket into the Theme Parks, where you go is up to you, but whereever you're going, you need this one ticket.

And you're right, each guest counted twice will then be only counted once. That means the current numbers are cloudy at best. What joining will do is erase the glaring embarassment that is DCA's attendance numbers & group them into a general theme park attendance number. Sure 50K Disneyland & 15K DCA might end up being 55,000 total, but then they can tout there's 55,000/day that can go anywhere. Individual attraction attendance numbers can then be used. But I guarantee you, if all those 1-day 1-park'ers to Disneyland were allowed to ride Screamin' & Soarin' on their ticket, they would. It would be a great thing for DCA.

Originally Posted by dougeebear

Lasseter would do better to improve DCA and get attendance numbers up through those improvements.

That is a long term problem that only has a long term solution. DCA's life is a close mirror to the early days of Disney MGM Studios. That park still experiences attendance problems & would have much more severe problems if it was where DCA is today. MGM has the luxury of being 1 of 4 theme parks in a huge place where people feel they have to see EVERYTHING no matter what it is. In California, people don't think that way. People don't come here to blow every dollar they have in a blind fantastical vacation like in FL. DCA can have all the improvements it can stand, but that is a very costly & very long term solution. I like it as a long term solution, but in the short term, opening it up to everyone who buys Disneyland attendance no matter what would be a very good thing for it.

-- PMM

[navas]

i heard about this from my cousins friend whos a CM he said that they might take away the california sign, the golden gate bridge, and the sun fountain

[mousecrazy]

I just wish they had let Disneyland be Disneyland and never introduced DCA at all. I rarely ever go there anyway..

[ttztotdca50]

I feel sorry for you then. It really is a nice place... you just have to ignore what other people say and learn to appreciate it for yourself. I hated DCA for a while too... but, after visiting it for a couple of days (I'm a passholder), I really learned to enjoy it.

[PeoplemoverMatt]

It's very possible to have an enjoyable day at DCA. Then again, it's possible to have an enjoyable day playing Twister in a swimming pool. (Take the snorkel away & it's even more fun )

The grief that I think many of us have with DCA is that DCA is more like Twister in a swimming pool. Decent enjoyment possible but seriously minimal effort involved. Again I keep going back to Tokyo DisneySea as a park that's done right. The level of enjoyment there is off the charts compared to DCA. Why? It's not because they're rides are more 'thrilling'. Sure Journey was simply awesome, but all they've really got is a small coaster (Raging Spirits), Indy, boat ride (Sinbad), 3D show, and a Bug's Land themed to Little Mermaid.

What makes that park the greatest theme park ever built is the extreme effort put into all the themeing & the 5-star treatment from the CMs. TDS has a volcano, a huge interactive fortress, life-size Cruise ship, and a fully authentic Arabian village without the bombs & smell. And they're all just supplemental themeing! The mentality that DCA was built with would NEVER have things like that. If it did, NO ONE would have any problems paying the same admission price to DCA as Disneyland & these attendance problems simply wouldn't exist.

-- PMM