Anaheim, Califorina - .On February 8, 2001, a new chapter in the Disneyland Resort was born. Disney had just constructed a new park across from Disneyland; the new park was unique and unlike anything Disney had done before. It was called Disney’s California Adventure

It sounded too good to be true, and for a long time, it was. By most accounts, Disney’s California Adventure was a failure, and never reached near the popularity of its other parks. At least it was, that all changed on June 15th, 2012.

Today we'll be taking an in-depth look at Disney’s California Adventure. I’ll be investigating what was California Adventure and more importantly, why did this park fail? Then we’ll take a look at how Disney California Adventure (The apostrophe in the park name was dropped a few months ago) has evolved for a future success.

To understand the present, we must first look at the past.

• 1991-Disney announces plans to build WestCOT.  WestCOT would’ve been a west coast EPCOT that would’ve been the companion park to Disneyland.  The park was estimated to cost more than $3 Billion.
• 1992-Euro Disneyland opens.  Euro Disneyland was an initial finical failure.
• 1995-Euro Disneyland is considered a financial failure and Michael Eisner cancels WestCOT.
• 1995-Eisner holds a  retreat in Aspen, Colo., where about 30 executives come up with an idea for a California-themed park that will celebrate and pay tribute to California,
• providing a similar experience to stepping inside a California postcard.
• 1998-Construction on Disney’s California Adventure begins.  The $1.4 billion project in Anaheim includes California Adventure, a retail district and hotels.  The park itself cost around $800 Million to construct.
• 2001-On February 8th Disney’s California Adventure opens.  Disney has high hopes for the parks as stated in this quote from the L.A. Times.

Senior Disney officials acknowledge that there will be days when California Adventure will have to turn patrons away, particularly in the first weeks after the park opens, during spring break and again in the summer.

Company projections show Magic Kingdom attendance falling by 500,000 per year, to about 13.3 million, and California Adventure visits rising to 7 million. Thousands more visitors each week are expected to stop by Downtown Disney, which has no admission fee. 

• 
2001- The park does not meet expectations. Visitors complained it was light on rides and that the ones there lacked the imagination.  Paul Pressler says
• “We missed the mark on was not having enough for young kids compared to the Magic Kingdom” 
• 2002-Attractions begin to close.  The first casualty is a dark ride called Superstar Limo
• that was criticized for ”lacking or poor in concept and limited in motivating story”.
• 2002-2005-Attractions are added to the park in a desperate attempt to boost popularity.  These attractions never boost DCA’s attendance.
• 2005-On March 13th Michael Eisner announces that he will step down as CEO of the Walt Disney Company.  Robert Iger is announced as his successor.
• 2007-On October 17th Bob Iger announces a $1.4 Billion dollar expansion of the park.

Iger would later refer to DCA as a failure saying at one time:
“We’re still working to assure our second gate is successful,in the spirit of candor, we have been challenged.”

• 2008-2012- Over the past 5 years elements of the new park have begun to open.  Today the final parts of that expansion were unveiled!


Let’s take a look at what fantastic attractions were added to Disney California Adventure. The following are descriptions of the attractions from the Disneyland Resort Media site.

• Toy Story Mania! opened in 2008, inviting guests into an interactive, ride-through, attraction where they enter a 4-D carnival midway hosted by characters from the Disney●Pixar movie “Toy Story.”
• “World of Color,” the nighttime water spectacular, debuted in 2010 and the popular show has been seen by more than 5 million guests.
  
  © Disneyland Resort
  World of Color nightime spectacular
• In 2011, the park reached its next milestone with the premiere of The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, a ride-through attraction based on the Disney animated classic movie.
• Additional highlights include new entertainment such as “Phineas & Ferb’s Rockin’ Rollin’ Dance Party,” new restaurants such as Paradise Garden Grill, and the enhancement and re-theming of such attractions as Mickey’s Fun Wheel, Games of the Boardwalk, Silly Symphony Swings and Goofy’s Sky School.

Disney’s California Adventure’s final components opened on June 15th, 2012. They were two brand new lands. The first is called Buena Vista Street.

Disney describes it as “Buena Vista Street welcomes guests to a very specific “Disney California Adventure,” the adventure of a young Walt Disney stepping off the train from Kansas City and into 1920s Los Angeles, the beginning of a wonderful, inspirational period of his life. The dynamic themed environment transports guests to another era, along this boulevard of dreams.”
This area looks amazing. It is exquisitely themed. This is the entrance area of the park. Disney has spend the past year remodeling the front entrance of the park. This is the first time in Disney history that the entrance to the park was re-built from scratch.

Highlights of Buena Vista Street include the Red Car Trolleys, The Carthay Circle Theater Restaurant. Buena Vista street also has many other shops and restaurants one of which is the first Starbucks inside a Disney park (Which is heavily themed).[/rightbox]

The Red Car Trolleys were inspired by, and lovingly modeled on the historic Pacific Electric Railway system which operated in Southern California from 1901 through 1961, the Red Car Trolley runs through Buena Vista Street and into Hollywood Land, making multiple stops until it arrives at the Hollywood Tower Hotel, aka The Twilight Zone™ Tower of Terror.

The other big addition to Disney California Adventure is Cars Land. Disney says It’s like stepping right into the “Cars” movie!  Route 66 leads guests at Disney California Adventure Park into Cars Land, a fully detailed, immersive re-creation of Radiator Springs, the setting for the hit Disney●Pixar animated film “Cars.” Guests will be awed by the panoramic vistas of Ornament Valley, experience the thrills of three new attractions and even get to interact with some of their favorite fuel-driven friends.

Radiator Springs Racers is the E-Ticket (meaning best of the best) attraction that anchors Carsland. Located in the back of Carsland this ride takes somewhere around 6 acres making it one of the biggest attractions at the Disneyland resort. Radiator Springs is a hybrid dark ride/ thrill ride that uses the same ride system as Test Track at Epcot in Florida. Radiator Springs Racers takes place around and inside a 125 foot mountain range, the peaks of the mountain range, from left to right, represent Cadillac tail fins from 1957, 1958, 1959 (the Pinnacle), 1960, 1961 and 1962. The rides starts out taking guests on a leisurely tour around Ornament Valley (the mountain range), guests then enter the show building to prepare for the “big race”. Near the end of the dark ride portion the track splits into two different scenes, the cars then proceed to race around Ornament Valley. This ride has already become extremely popular. On it’s first days of operation Radiator Springs Racers was posting wait times of up to 6 hours!

Other attractions in Carsland include Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree, a spinning hybrid whip ride and Lugi’s Flying Tires. At Lugi’s flying tires guest board oversized tires and float on a cushion of air (Imagine riding the puck on an air hockey table). The attraction is similar to bumper cars, but much more high tech.

11 years later, Disney California Adventure can truly be called a Disney Park. It is a park that has finally achieved the level of quality that a Disney Park should have. But the real question is how guests will respond to the changes. Since the re-opening Disney California Adventure has beat Disneyland’s Capacity level (a feat never achieved) quite a few times. Time will tell if the levels hold up.

Disneyland President George Kalogridis sums up the expansion by saying “The completion of this expansion does not mark the end of our California Adventure journey, but rather, a new beginning. Walt Disney once said, ‘We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.’ Our “new path” is built firmly on Walt’s legacy, enriched with traditions that could only be found in the park that felt his footsteps.”