Your first time in DCA

My first time was the Thanksgiving weekend the year that it had opened. I still lived in Sacramento at the time. My dad had already been there, so he knew where and what to do. It was really fun and some great memories of just him and I in that park.

We did as many rides and attractions as possible. We saw Blast (the show at Hyperion), Superstar Limo and all the gone attractions. It was raining off and on that day, so at one point we are watching Muppets and the part where they stop the show to look for the bunny they ACTUALLY stop the show and the fire alarms came on. Everyone just looked at each other and there was my dad telling everyone that this is not part of the show. We leave the theater and is was pooring!! We took shelter in the 50's dinner set area.

I also remember ridding GRR in the rain- no line and I was already wearing a poncho! :lol: I had a blast and I still really like the park to this day.

i was really lucky. i saw the park for the first time through my boyfriend's eyes - who helped open the park. i had bought the two of us season passes in 2003 for his birthday (we used to live off of euclid, right behind the park) and that was my first time ever going there. he showed me the wonders of the park - the animation buidling was first on the list, and then he took me on 'soarin'. what's cool about that ride is that his mom helped decorate disneyland that christmas that they filmed, so it made the ride even more cool.

it took him about a year to get me to go on 'ca screamin' but now i go on it every time. maliboomer? yeah right. haven't been on that yet.

when one of my good friends came down from Seattle, we took her to that park first. she had heard horrid things about the park but I told her that she needed to see the park through our eyes. It makes for a much better park seeing it through someone who truly does enjoy it. and guess what? she LOVED the park.

:D

My first trip there was in 2001 or 2002...my daughters first trip to DLR in her life as she was around 2.

DCA did not impress us since there was literally nothing there for my little girl to do. On our way out a Disney census taker stopped us and asked us opinions/questions and that was basically the feed back we gave them. Over the years as they have added to DCA and also as our children have gotten older and can do more we have come to enjoy the "second gate."

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Originally Posted by DarthDucky

What was your first time in DCA like and how has it helped shape your opinion of the park?

My first time in the park I was 11 and very excited about going. My trip was supposed to be 2 days but at the last minute my parents thought that 1 day was enough time for both parks in the first summer of the parks operation. When I went I only got on 2 rides (GRR and Soarin) and saw very little of the park. I also had the feeling that the park was real glamorous (Hey I was eleven) and the lack of experience in the park added some mystery to it, and I believe that these two factors were the start of my love of DCA.

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I was also 11! I immediately didn't like it as much as Disneyland, but, of course, this was in the days before I was so heavily influenced by internet chatter.... :rolleyes:

my first time i didnt have any expectations, so i thought it was great.
The next trip i was more excited about going to DCA than i was about DL itself. Then when they got ToT? oooooooooooooooooooo boy.... i cant go to the resort without going to both parks.....thats just wrong

I think my first time was February 2002, and I experienced SuperStar Limo, Soarin', and most of the Paradise Pier rides except Screamin' and Maliboomer. I thought the park was awesome, and I was very impressed of it. Almost everybody I talked to also was very proud of the park. August 2002, I got to experience Screamin' for the first time, and I loved the park even more! Things got better and better as DCA expanded, and I used to favor it over DL. 2007, suddenly I realized almost everybody hates DCA, and I'm one of the only people who adore it, with or without a billion dollar redo.

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Originally Posted by InnerSpace

My first time was May of 2001 when my brother came for a visit from the Navy. We were thrilled at the place. We did everything and have since enjoyed ourselves everytime we've gone. Everyone we'd spoken to, friends relatives, all had the same compliments to where I didn't think anyone could hate the place.

Then I discovered this site...

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Wow, Christmas shopping must be a breeze at your house with so many easy to pleasers. ;)



The first time I went I though it was fun but like, County Fair fun, not Disneyland fun, it just really paled in comparison to its mother like an ugly stepchild.

My first time was in August '01, going with a group of friends. I immediately loved the animation building with all my heart (still do) and Soarin'. But I couldn't quash the feeling that it all felt like it was built with plywood.

And then, bad experience: the big orange swings, the CM guy let me and my 3 friends in at the very end, but all they ended up being one seat short--which I let my friend have. I didn't want to stand in the ride area like a big idiot or ride alone on the next turnover like big idiot, so I slipped back through the line to wait for my friends at the exit. The worst part about this is that there was a pregnant lady who didn't like me moving past her and said something pretty rude to me...which made me feel awful. Generally Disneyland guests are the nicest you'd find anywhere but there are some that break the mold, anyways.

Exiting on that note to see the hideous trashy pier did it for me.

My first visit to Disney's California Adventure was in the wee hours on the morning of 17 July 2005. I was there waiting to go inside Disneyland with many other crazed fans. I wandered around the closed park while my father waited in line outside Areil's Grotto.

First time was the Feb, the first year.

Stayed in GCH (which we loved)...

We loved Soari'n which was the first ride that we went on and loved the Animation building.
We were kinda unhappy that Muppets and Bugs Life (despite being good shows) were there
since we've seen them several times in WDW. After seeing the facade, didn't attempt
Limo. Didn't like the Bountiful Valley area...too small and not much to do.

Liked some of the food places (you can tell which direction we went) esp the Boudin
bakery and Mission tortilla but not too impressed. The winery was closed that day so didn't
go there. We liked the Whoopie show enough to see twice. Pretty depressed by the Paradise
Pier since it looked so fake (even for a seaside carnival area) and the rides weren't really themed and there was so much exposed concrete. We were really stunned. Swinging back around, my daughter loved the Redwood Recreation Trail and GRR.

By this time, there just weren't much for my daughter so we turned around the headed to DL. :)
We came back the next day to visit the Animation building. Having seen the original concept art, we were kind of saddened about how the entry looked so "flat"; We always suspected that the golden gate bridge would look weird.

We've continued to like/love some portions of DCA and have used it as a rest stop from the crowds in DL, but several areas still continue to be seriously flawed IMHO.

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Originally Posted by k_peek_2000

My first time in the park was a few days before it opened, I think it was feb 4, it was for one of the CM preview days. I loved it before I realized how much of a poohole it was.

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And yet you have a DCA picture in your signature. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by PirateMickey

We first entered DCA for the AP preview weekend.

We had tix for both the sat and sunday.

It was the first and last time that we saw sell-out crowds in DCA.

On saturday, it was a four hour wait for Soarin. We waited to avoid the line, and by the time that we got into it, they were closing the line down. After a few minutes of begging, they let us in, and we saw that we were the LAST ones in line for it that night.

Our first snack meal were the corn dogs. $20 bucks for corn dogs, chips and soda's for two people! I think that we had an "appetizer" with them too. A zuchinni or something??? Anyway $20 bucks!

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Same here! My family and I went on the Saturday when it was surprisingly warm for a February and wow, the place was packed to capacity. I too ate corn dogs over in Paradise Pier and I regretted it. I got sick off of it's super greasiness and still to this day I have not touched a corn dog that came out of the DLR. I had a lot of fun but remember not going on much. Lines were long, fast passes were gone, and there was hardly any shade anywhere.

I was 11 and I remember being completley enthralled by Soarin'. I was lucky enough to be in the first row for my first ride ever, and I'm pretty sure it was one of the coolest things I had ever ridden at that point in my life. I still love that ride.

The first time we went was in August 2003. The kids were really little then so we stuck mostly to Flik's Fun Fair area. We mainly wanted to see the Electrical Parade though. We really didn't spend much time there after we saw the parade since it seemed a lot of the attractions were for older kids/teens/adults.

Since ToT and Monsters Inc have opened, we spend more time there now.

I visited DCA, first, after not even having visited the Resort for 25 years. The first place I ever went was Bugs Life/Muppetvision ??? (Are those both the same thing? I think it was Kermit the Frog.

I really liked DCA, I just wish there were more details and heavier theming.

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Originally Posted by Diznyfan

The first time I went I though it was fun but like, County Fair fun, not Disneyland fun, it just really paled in comparison to its mother like an ugly stepchild.

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This is something I have heard from others and it always strikes me as odd. Disneyland has been around for 50 years and for MANY adults it holds a lot of childhood memories as well as that magic "Walt worked here" feeling and history.

To expect any other gate to open in Anaheim to be just like Disneyland and to be on the same level as its older and original neigbor is an unrealistic expectation in my opinion. Yes it is across the esplande, but I judge it on its own merits, the good and the bad of it, not by how the original resort gate is/does things.