Saturday, October 20, 2007

Sticks & Stones...


I was thinking back on all the names that Disney's California Adventure has been called over the last six years. We're talking bad ones here, not good ones of course...

I thought I'd list a few of them cause more than likely, in five years most will have been forgotten... left in the trash heap of theme park history:

Disney's Berry Farm

Disney's California Misadventure

DisneyLame

DisneyLite

DisneyKnott(as in: we can go to Disneyland or Disneynot)

Disney's Parking Lot

Knotts Magic Kingdom

Mickey's Magic Mountain

Parking Knotts

Pressler's Folly

Six Flaggs Anaheim

And the lists goes on and on...

Then there is the rivalry between the two parks. Both are Disney employees, but there are some, particularly at Disneyland that look down the noses of their brethren across the Esplanade. Almost as if they had designed it and were to blame. The two most common remarks made are calling it "The Spare Park and "The Other Park"...

Five years from now, sticks and stones may brake my bones, but words and names...

They'll be washed away like tears in rain.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

DCA will still be a shadow version of Disneyland in a decade. The attractions that are being added may be slicker and more spendy, but the concepts driving them are as vapid as those that influenced DCA v1. The extra kicker now is that the park is conciously trying to be derivative of the mother park across the Esplanade.

I could care less about how many more people visit DCA in ten years. I'm sure I will visit more if there is more good stuff to see. But it doesn't erase the fact that this billion dollars is being spend on ideas in need of Viagra.

Michelf said...

My friends and I are annual pass holders and yes, we do tend to call it "The other side" if we don't call it "DCA". But it's not so much a negative thing as a statement of a fact.

I think it's a good value add, though it would probably be better if they could have dropped the price of the park hopper pass... :P However, when DCA closes there's a very noticeable increase in how crowded Disneyland gets. Hopefully, with the new night shows, that means that they'll start leaving the other side open as long as the Park and that will make me very happy.

Anonymous said...

Nice Blade Runner ref :)

Anonymous said...

Geeze, do the other parks in Florida call each other names too? Come on. Grow up, if you don't like DCA don't go because no one wants to hear your crap about the park after you go. I am looking forward to the changes, not the construction walls, but would continue to go and enjoy it without all the new stuff being added. It is Disneyland's sister park and that is good enough.

Honor Hunter said...

"MiklCraw4d said...

Nice Blade Runner ref :)"

Caught that huh? Yup, that's my second fav movie of all time. I just saw the final cut in Los Angeles last week... loved it. Loved it.

Anonymous said...

As a Disneylander, we always make fun of DCA Cast Members. There is a brotherhood of Disneylanders that DCA kids don't have. How could you be weathered and share a bond when you only have 15K guests on a Saturday? The same Saturday, just like today, when Disneyland had 60K guests. Fantasmic! at 9:00pm has 15K guests just in the viewing area alone. Then there's the Hub at pyro, two parades where the route is packed, etc., etc.

At DCA they don't even use ropes for their Guest Control because there aren't enough people to rope in. DCA's parade route uses tape, TAPE!, on the ground for Guest Control. No wonder they are made fun of.

And when the DCA Cast Members come to Disneyland to pick up Over Time shifts on Guest Control, you should see the look of terror in their eyes then they face a Hub packed solid with swarming tourists who actually paid full fare to get in the park and demand top notch service! It's enough to send any DCA kid running back to the Golden Zephyr in fear. Oh, nevermind, the Golden Zephyr is down for wind yet again.

Yeah, us Disneylanders call it the "Spare Park". And our managers make fun of it as a park that is "Only open for Brunch". HA!

Anonymous said...

I recall that when they opened DCA, cast members were told, in no uncertain terms, that the name of the park was Disney's California Adventure, NOT DCA. They were adamant that the park should not become known by it's initials. Little good that did. I think they are glad when that is the term used for that park now considering the alternatives.

Anonymous said...

Well, anonymous,

I hate to tell you but DCA does use ropes. They're used all over the place for parades like Block Party Bash and the Electrical Parade. Maybe since you don't like it you haven't been over enough to notice. The tape, just so you know is only used in certain sections of Sunshine Plaza. Also kind of hard to imagine 15k for Fantasmic tonight. All fireworks shows were cancelled because of high winds.

Grow up and quit acting like a little child on a playground.

Anonymous said...

i remember years ago when i worked at the Disney Store, park CMs would come in and act like they were gods walking the earth. big deal buddy. you work at Pirates of the Caribbean making minimum wage.. im selling t-shirts...making minimum wage.. get over it..

when I would visit the parks and show my id for my discount i would occasionally hear.."oh Disney Store..thats not real Disney"..lol... yeah ok whatever makes you feel good..

Anonymous said...

solomon bundy, look at the time stamp on my post. 3:15AM on 10/21/07. That means my reference to "tonight" was for Saturday, October 20th. It may come as a shock to a DCA guy, but there are some theme parks that stay open until Midnight and keep their CM's on the clock until 1:00am. Then those CM's go to Denny's until 2:30AM, then go home and check the Internet.

So.... On 10/20/07, just before I posted here, Disneyland had 41K in park at 9:00pm and the first Fantasmic! show viewing area had 15K watching the show. I know that because I'm one of the GC Leads that gives that info to River 1 so they can give it to Theme Park 1.

As for the spare park, all us Disneylanders are pulling for you. Enjoy those brunch hours while you can, because once Uncle John finally fixes the spare park you will actually have legit crowds and real operating hours to deal with. Enjoy the slow times while you can. They won't last much longer.