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Major Changes for Disney's California Adventure

Mark

Mark

Strata Poster
Well after years of dissapointing attendence figures and see-sawing opinions the park is continuing with some major upgrade works to revive the park over the next 3 years....

I noticed it reported on Wikipedia so thought I best dig around a bit more to get more reliable sourcing. Screamscape has quite a lot of the update details but to summarize: (Includes info from the "Blue Sky Cellar" which is the building Disney are using to house the info releases to the public....)

A new 12 Acre CARS land, themed to Radiator Springs from the film. Rumoured to have 3 new rides one of which including the ride technology from Epcots Test Track.

A whole new entrance re-working. The golden gate bridge facade and fountains are all going in favour of a more 1920's nostalgic California theme.

A new 1'500 water fountain show. [EDIT - currently known as Disney's World of Colour]

Recently the Golden Dream movie theatre closed and will become the Little Mermaid: Ariels Adventure. apparently a dark ride based on the music from The Little Mermaid

A retheme of the paradise pier area to include more references to Disney and it's characters is also planned for the Orange Stinger which will take a classic Silly Symphonies design. The Sun wheel will have a new Micky Mouse face added and rename. Mulholland Madness (wild mouse) is set to get a major new retheme as Goofy's Sky School.

From what I can tell it is going to be quite a major overhaul occuring over the next few years and having visited earlier this year I must admit the changes will really add to the park. I did like it there, jsut felt it lacked something. The only thing I am a little dissapointed to hear is the rumoured removal of the iconic light up Mickey ears from Claifornia screamin'. Be a shame to see that changed if it does happen, which seems likely considering they are adding Mickey to the Sun wheel.

Also, it is rumoured that Mali-worstshottowerIhaveeverridden-Boomer is going to be removed, which is no big lose!

Some brilliant shots of concept Artwork can be found from this page onwards: http://www.disneygeek.com/updates/disne ... 2008_10_17

Other Details can be found on screamscape here: http://www.screamscape.com/html/disney_ ... enture.htm

An article in the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-d ... 6061.story
 
I've heard those ears would be moving somewhere else before. Another topic maybe.

And didn't they used to have a Test Track type ride before, but it was an epic fail.
 
What at Califnornia Adventure? I don't think they have ever had a test track type ride no, i'll have to do some back looking but as far as I am aware there have never been any rides removed from the park as of yet (until Maliboomer of course)

I know that Test Track in Orlando did have a lot of problems to begin with, but I would have thought they have been all ironed out and sorted and therefore this project would show that off.
 
Ah-ha, so I did remember my Disney history correct then!

Out of curiousity UC, what sort of problems does it have now? and is it likely that they would have ironed those out on a brand new version of the ride?
 
Details are still very sketchy at best I guess.

I am just chuffed they are going to be getting the Paradise Pier area sorted out, and it would appear very quickly too, since they have already started work on the Sun Wheel. Most of the cars have been removed from it already.

The plans for the Silly Symphony swing look really good too.

It's also pleasing to hear that they have been listening to what guests are saying. UC pratically guessed exactly what I was going to say when I got back from there earlier in the year. "It just didn't feel very Disney". So it's a very common thing.

I just hope this all works out for them.
 
I am pleased they are making changes to the park and they sound good.

My main concern though is they are not changing the Hollywood part of the park. I liked the pier part, yes some of the rides needed a re theme but the part I did not like was Hollywood. It reminded me of MGM studios gone wrong tbh.

I can understand why the are taking the ears off the coaster, you can not longer see them properly due to the Toy Story ride.

Cars Land will be a great addition, just hope it looks better than Bugs Land as we did not even go in there as there was nothing to intrest us and it looked cheap.

These changes will make me go back though.
 
southend_marc said:
My main concern though is they are not changing the Hollywood part of the park. I liked the pier part, yes some of the rides needed a re theme but the part I did not like was Hollywood. It reminded me of MGM studios gone wrong tbh.
Click to expand...

Well I would have thought there will be some changes since the whole main entrance is being given the idealistic "hollywood as it never was" 1920's vibe. I would have thought that will bleed over into the "Studios" section.

In terms of Cars the current idea is to have some form of Test Track idea which culminates in a showdown duel race... Whether it actually does that remains to be seen.
 
Yeah, it was suggested a little while back...

But judging by the latest info, it is more likely to not be a coaster and more like the Test Track attraction....
 
Yeah Rocket Rods was in the main Disneyland Park and was supposed to be a replacement ride for the People Mover thing that goes around Tomorrowland. They wanted it to accelerate faster and so on around all the corners and therefore tried to utilise the technology similar to that of test track but unfortunately it never quite worked properly and they ended up closing it and leaving all the "track" still there.

Cars isn't the only thing that is going on though, which is a good thing IMO.
 
all good if u ask me, I believe some changes to magic kingdom down in Florida would be more appropriate. Then again magic kingdom is amazing, all disney would do is "spruce" it up. But as I say "GO CHANGE!".
 
A small update on this one.

Work is now pretty much complete on what is to be now known as Mickey's Fun Wheel. I am still not sure about the colour scheme though. It definately brightens it up and attracts attention to the area too. There is just something I am not sure about... I will get back to you when I figure out what that is for myself lol. Apparently the one thing that hasn't changed is the queue...? (In both look and size :p)

Anyways, in a general photo report from the California Resort you can see the pictures of all the work progress. The pictures of Mickey's Fun Wheel are about 2/3 of the way down the page.
http://www.mousetimes.com/forums/showth ... p?p=388628

You can also see the extensive amount of work being carried out in the now hollow lake in preparation for their "World Of Color" show and some other general updates around the park. Also, if you look closely, you can see what the Mouse Ears have been replaced with on Screamin' I wasn't overjoyed to see this, because I thought it was a shame to remove such a nice cute little element, but they obviously have their reasons.
 
Well yeah, of course. I got that part of it. It would look daft and a bit overkill with in both places. Just think it's a shame either way.
 
I miss the ears on California Screamin' :(

I am just happy I went this time last year and not now. Anyone there now is just seeing mess.

There is also a lot of working going on in the main park, and to the hotel.

Just think they can never take that picture of you again with the ears.
 
Nooooo! The mouse ears on Cali Screamin were awesome :cry:

Both parks look like a building site at Cali at the moment, I suppose it has to happen some time if they are to do improvements at a Disney park with no off season.
 
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