Third Gate?

[dshimel]

Not that I think Disney designed DCA to be a half-day park. The first time I went there (July 3, 2001) it was packed to the gills and it took the whole day to do everything. I think they overestimated the success and popularity of their efforts .... expected 45-60 minute wait times instead of 10-20 minute waits. Cutting your line time in half makes a full-day park into a half-day park.

I think they designed it to be a full-day park. The main complaints of DAK were that it was only a half-day park... What, 3 or 4 rides and a couple shows? DCA had like 11 rides, 2 3-d movies, several stage shows, 2 play areas.... Golden Dreams, Vinyard, farm and factories... They REALLY worked at upping the attraction count in hopes this would open as a FULL day park.

The problems with DCA, being half day are 2 fold.
1) As you say... fewer people, shorter lines, faster to do the park.

2) Not all attractions are created equal. Despite having 20+ "attractions" on opening day, Not everyone had much interest in doing more than 6 or 8 of them. Really, out of the 20 attractions, there are only 3 I've done more than about 3 times..... (Soarin', Screamin', ITTBaB) (And of course, now ToT). The result is that it just didn't have enough attractions that people were actually interested in doing.

25-30 tirps to DLR and only 4 attractions in DCA I've done more than about 3 times...


My count:
ToT: 6-8
Soarin: 20+
Screamin: 20+
ITTBAB: 6-8
GRR: 3 (but I usually go in the off-season... I'd ride GRR more if I went in the summer more).

Sun Wheel: 3
Boomer: 2
MM: 3 (Well, 5, but 3 of those were in-a-row without getting out of the car)
Muppets: 2 or 3
SSL: 1
Millionaire: 1
Golden Dreams: 1
Zephyr: 1

Carousel: 0
Stinger: 0
Jellyfish: 0

All of FFF... chew chew trian:1 everything else: 0

Vinyard: 0
Bread: 1
Tortilla: 0 (never watched any of the show, but have gotten a couple free tortillas)

Aladdin: 4 or 5
Blast: 1
Steps: (closed before my first trip to DCA, 8 months after the park opened)




Wait.... how does this relate to the 3rd gate? Oh yeah... DCA needs 3-4 c-d ticlet rides and 2 more E-Tickets. This will raise the park from "a park with 4 or 5 things I like to do", to "a park with 8 to 10 things I like".


Then it is time to go all out on the 3rd gate. Just admit up front it is a hopper park! Don't even try to have 20 attractions at opening. Spend the money on awesome themeing and 4-5 great rides that just about everyone will really want to do (plus some shows, a parade, night time pyro-show). If locals ant to see it, they can spend $75 on a 1-day hopper, or $100 on a 2-day hopper or (by then) $200 on a low-end (off season only) AP.

[disneyfreeek]

Monorail drops would be cool. They should have 1 at every corner, and then we won't have to pay for stupid ART anymore.

[cellarhound]

Back to the original subject tho..... Wouldn't anaheim get way to cluttered with a 3rd park? I mean if they transform the cast parking, then where will they park?? I don't like the idea of more huge structures like the Mickey one, I only parked there once and that was scary!! I think a water park would be cool, doesn't have to be as big, and alot of kids like waterslides. Maybe they could buy out all the hotels across the street, build such a park, and some value hotels!

No, I don't see any crowding problems... Because there ain't much to look at on Harbor much further South of Katella.... And they are willing to ask the city to allow monorail access to get people to more remote locations...

[disneyfreeek]

Back to the original subject tho..... Wouldn't anaheim get way to cluttered with a 3rd park? I mean if they transform the cast parking, then where will they park?? I don't like the idea of more huge structures like the Mickey one, I only parked there once and that was scary!! I think a water park would be cool, doesn't have to be as big, and alot of kids like waterslides. Maybe they could buy out all the hotels across the street, build such a park, and some value hotels!

[cellarhound]

Sorry, didn't mean to be insulting. I just didn't care much about history in school. I care more about the history of Walt and DL.

No, my comment wasn't was from insult... - just something that popped into my mind...

[disneyfreeek]

You haven't studied History since you built your mission model? Do you remember which mission it was?

Mission Carmel!

[disneyfreeek]

Sorry, didn't mean to be insulting. I just didn't care much about history in school. I care more about the history of Walt and DL.

[Giant Panda]

LOL nope! 4th grade was a long time ago. I know there are hospitals named John Muir.......

You haven't studied History since you built your mission model? Do you remember which mission it was?

[cellarhound]

I don't care about California history either, and I think our quarter is ugly (who the heck is John Muir??.)

(For all you gamers in the early 90's, visions of Sam and Max, Hit the Road just popped into my mind for some strange reason... To bad Melvin isn't around to explain who John Muir is...)

[Giant Panda]

You know I haven't even seen Golden Dreams, partly cause I don't care, partly cause I would rather be riding Screamin'. I guess next time I have to go see what you are talking about. I was born and raised in the Bay, now I live in the valley. I have never visited the redwoods, or Hollywood, or Yosemite. Maybe DCA was built for the Californian like me, who has never seen the real things??? I don't care about California history either, and I think our quarter is ugly (who the heck is John Muir??.)

When did they stop teaching History? John Muir kept Kaufman-Broad and the other developers out of the Yosemite Valley ... .... someone from Modesto should know better!

[ah schucks]

LOL nope! 4th grade was a long time ago. I know there are hospitals named John Muir.......

Thats somewhat insulting. John Muir was one of the foremost architects of our National Park system. A man who explored Yosemite before most other men and saw the tides of progress and his work protected natural treasures. This isn't just 4th grade stuff, its the sort of thing people should know and appreciate and pay homage to.

[disneyfreeek]

LOL nope! 4th grade was a long time ago. I know there are hospitals named John Muir.......

[ah schucks]

You know I haven't even seen Golden Dreams, partly cause I don't care, partly cause I would rather be riding Screamin'. I guess next time I have to go see what you are talking about. I was born and raised in the Bay, now I live in the valley. I have never visited the redwoods, or Hollywood, or Yosemite. Maybe DCA was built for the Californian like me, who has never seen the real things??? I don't care about California history either, and I think our quarter is ugly (who the heck is John Muir??.)

Thats the problem with people. They don't care. About history. Events. It kills me. I pray you are being sarcastic about not knowing who John Muir is.

[disneyfreeek]

Ummmm.... NO.

I think must people would leave Golden Dreams thinking....
1) Wow, people suck.
2) How were all those people in the montage
and
3) How can I get that 15 minutes of my life back...


Unless you live in CA....
Then it is either one of the above, or "Everyone wishes they were me and could live here..."

No, no we don't.

You know I haven't even seen Golden Dreams, partly cause I don't care, partly cause I would rather be riding Screamin'. I guess next time I have to go see what you are talking about. I was born and raised in the Bay, now I live in the valley. I have never visited the redwoods, or Hollywood, or Yosemite. Maybe DCA was built for the Californian like me, who has never seen the real things??? I don't care about California history either, and I think our quarter is ugly (who the heck is John Muir??.)

[Giant Panda]

Something to consider:

It's been documented, or at least speculated, that DCA was created to generate additional hotel stays. If DL proper is assumed to be a two-day park, then one additional park of half-day "duration" is all that is needed to add an additional hotel night. But a third gate would need to be more than just a half-day park in order to generate an additional hotel stay.

Not that I think Disney designed DCA to be a half-day park. The first time I went there (July 3, 2001) it was packed to the gills and it took the whole day to do everything. I think they overestimated the success and popularity of their efforts .... expected 45-60 minute wait times instead of 10-20 minute waits. Cutting your line time in half makes a full-day park into a half-day park.

[cellarhound]

Unless you live in CA....
Then it is either one of the above, or "Everyone wishes they were me and could live here..."

But that is what the film makers had planned to have everyone think... Of course they live here and know what a big unbelieveable lie it is...

The intended audiance is clearly someone from outside California...

Of course, who ever gave it an award needs a kick in the head....

[Jspider]

I disagree with you, but that's OK...

1. If it was targeted for NorCal folks why house it in the Palace of Fine Arts... if you wanted to go for realism, put an exploration sciance musium in the building... Morons...

2. After seeing that movie, you think about how much you want to move here... I already do thank you... Most NorCal's like SoCal's don't give a RIP about Cal history... Tourists however do... But if they are interested, then go see the actual places...

Your logic, dshemil is like saying DCA is for SoCal folks because they placed a "Hollywood Backlot" on it... which we both know is BS...

Originally the Grand Californian was supposed to have a DVC connection which was scrapped...

That is why I believe DCA was supposed to be for people who are non-native Californians... Like Eisner and half the Disney suits, who are from out of state with buckets of cash...

I'm going to agree

it's pretty obvious that they built the park to local standards aka six flags and knotts rather then Disney type standards and they figured that they could still attract tourists via the theme (which is a gimmick and very tourist trappy in nature)

they then tried to appeal to every market except the one they already had, I mean there's nothing wrong with going for larger markets but it needed more infulstructure to support the market they already have (aka get family's in to the area and while the family might only have a few great things to see the TEEN of the family would go on all the thrills and then go away and get his friends to come back, instead family's have little to do and teens arn't interested enough to try something with the "disney" name on it)

[dshimel]

2. After seeing that movie, you think about how much you want to move here...

Ummmm.... NO.

I think must people would leave Golden Dreams thinking....
1) Wow, people suck.
2) How were all those people in the montage
and
3) How can I get that 15 minutes of my life back...


Unless you live in CA....
Then it is either one of the above, or "Everyone wishes they were me and could live here..."

No, no we don't.

[cellarhound]

People that live outside of CA, don't give a rat's behind about CA history.... They won't recognize more than a hand-full of the faces in the montage at the end..... Why on EARTH would Golden Dreams be targeted at people that don't care and don't know...

No, Golden Dreams HAD to be targeted at the people that live in CA, have some kind of pride about their history, and actually recognize the faces they are seeing in the finally....... That, or the people that designed the park are MUCH bigger idiots then I ever suspected... And I expoected they were pretty big idiots!

I disagree with you, but that's OK...

1. If it was targeted for NorCal folks why house it in the Palace of Fine Arts... if you wanted to go for realism, put an exploration sciance musium in the building... Morons...

2. After seeing that movie, you think about how much you want to move here... I already do thank you... Most NorCal's like SoCal's don't give a RIP about Cal history... Tourists however do... But if they are interested, then go see the actual places...

Your logic, dshemil is like saying DCA is for SoCal folks because they placed a "Hollywood Backlot" on it... which we both know is BS...

Originally the Grand Californian was supposed to have a DVC connection which was scrapped...

That is why I believe DCA was supposed to be for people who are non-native Californians... Like Eisner and half the Disney suits, who are from out of state with buckets of cash...

[Jspider]

I think they'll eventually reroute Harbor and Katella out and around the 3rd gate site to reconnect it to the main property without the major roads down the middle.

My guess for the 3rd gate... a cross between Epcot and Disney Seas.

I'm also unsure about the rerouting but the plans back in the day (which included Westcot) would have deffinatly had several land bridges going out to the land (the entryway should be built on the land bridges in my opinion)

I agree on the theme it should deffinatly be a cross between Epcot and Disney Seas

possibly with room for a ride like Expedition Everest from AK in some corner of the park (basicaly a park about exciting things around the world)



I'm going to dissagree with some of the posts here that say that DCA will be an overflow park and that long term it will remain as such, I think that DCA will grow and eventualy in one way or another have enough attractions to warrent a full day at that park (and that one day might only be ten years away)