Amazing NY Times article from February 11th, 2001 and Paradise Pier

[Darkbeer]

The New York Times has changed its policy, and now allows free access to much of their archives online (1923 thru 1980 is still a fee-based archive).

So let's go back and check out some of the comments made.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...51C0A9679C8B63

The great variable in this more modestly scaled Disney production will be the crowds, which already promise to be suffocatingly large. (The company projects seven million visitors in the first year.) A two-hour wait in 90-degree heat to get on Soarin' Over California could well dampen some of the attraction's excitement.

But if the throngs can be managed, visitors will be treated to a slightly different experience. Instead of being part of a stampede from one attraction to another, like the old Disneyland (at least for those who go with children), they will be given the opportunity to have some slower-paced fun amid far more handsome surroundings -- all on the assumption that they are willing to shell out what could be hundreds of dollars a day.

Well, still not the suffocatingly large crowds, and now most folks pay little or nothing extra to enter DCA, they get it for basically free if you buy many different types of tickets, like the "2 days free" Advance Purchase ParkHoppers in 2008, the "Pay for Disneyland, get DCA for FREE!" SoCal special, or those who buy Disneyland Annual Passes, and get DCA for no extra amount, unlike the original plan in 2000 where they wanted more money for a 2-park AP.

But the part of the article that talks about Paradise Pier is a classic...

At Paradise Pier, Disney officials acknowledge that the rides lack the imaginative spin on which the company prides itself -- California Screamin' is, plain and simple, a high-speed roller coaster with a superfast start (0 to 55 m.p.h. in four seconds), and the Maliboomer shoots riders 180 feet in the air and then gives them, and the agitated contents of their stomachs, a momentary sense of weightlessness as the carriages plummet. But officials said they felt the attractions fit into the park because they add some spice to a place that risks, if anything, being too laid back. (You can literally watch bread bake at the Boudin Bakery.)

''We always said we would never do rides sans some imaginative twist,'' said Barry Braverman, the senior vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering and the park's design overseer. ''We would say, 'That's our competitors' business.' But when you consider the whole design here, it works.''

Well, Barry, guess it didn't work.....

Bring on the Bulldozers!

[Kath2188]

Great find!
Also good to know that NY TImes has opened their vaults. I hate the old anything older then a few days you would have to pay to see.

[MasterGracey]

Barry Braverman is a hack.

[Mathius]

Nice to see another bashing thread on the park because, you know, we don't have any of those right now.

I find it funny how some will dig up articles from 6++ years ago to bash a park. Can we be a little more current with these articles?

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

But bashing DCA is an officially sanctioned Micechat sport.

[MrLiver]

The article is actually pretty positive on the park and gives a good review.

In fact the title of the article, which Darkbeer conveniently left out is "A Park Adults Can Love"

There is, in short, little hint that Disney's interpretation of the entire state of California makes for a mellower, and occasionally richer, experience than Disneyland proper, with the attractions varying from tacky to pleasant to enriching, even poetic. Yes, poetic.

[...]

It is a rare, and highly successful, occasion when Disney has been content to let the visitor supply an inner narrative of awe -- which is, in a way, a reflection of the California adventure at its best.

It's no wonder that the New York Times gave DCA a positive review, since DCA was designed to appeal to the same kind of people.

[DisneysMagic]

I loved this quote... "Probably the schlockiest attraction in the new park is here, the Superstar Limo"... and they were right... It, I believe, was the first thing to be replaced in DCA.

[Disney Analyst]

I don't consider this amazing..

[MasterGracey]

The article is actually pretty positive on the park and gives a good review.

In fact the title of the article, which Darkbeer conveniently left out is "A Park Adults Can Love"



It's no wonder that the New York Times gave DCA a positive review, since DCA was designed to appeal to the same kind of people.

Maybe its cause the New York Times isn't as familiar with theme parks as other Southern Californian media outlets are. Or for that matter, how familiar Disney fans are with quality entertainment.

The fact that the New York Times put Barry Braverman's quote about unthemed attractions and how they "fit" in the article and didn't question it shows that the NY Times doesn't understand theme parks.

Additionally, I wasn't under the impression that adults weren't able to love Disneyland. I thought Disneyland appealed to everybody. Not just adults like DCA. Gee, California Adventure is truly groundbreaking.

[MrLiver]

Maybe its cause the New York Times isn't as familiar with theme parks as other Southern Californian media outlets are. Or for that matter, how familiar Disney fans are with quality entertainment.

So your response to a positive review to DCA is, that there must be something wrong with the person who wrote the article? That they just don't understand or get it?

Like I said, DCA was built to appeal to a certain type of audience. Why not just accept that those people liked the original concept of DCA?

[Disney Analyst]

I feel everyone has an opinion, i went to DCA in 2001, and I had fun, mind you it was my first time being to the DLR, so I was amazed by disneyland, and just had fun at DCA.... I thought DL was better, but DCA was still a fun park to me.. mind you what do I know, I was only in grade 4 at the time...

[MasterGracey]

So your response to a positive review to DCA is, that there must be something wrong with the person who wrote the article? That they just don't understand or get it?

Like I said, DCA was built to appeal to a certain type of audience. Why not just accept that those people liked the original concept of DCA?

Well clearly not even that audience liked DCA. Elements of the park that the reviewer praises - Steps in Time, for example, was met wih harsh criticism from fans and never found a true audience.

Also, I love how the author praises the park's attention to detail:

The first thing you notice at California Adventure is the attention to detail, a Disney trademark that has only intensified with time. From the weathered, corrugated iron siding of the Cannery Row dining area to the whimsical fountain made from galvanized-steel watering cans at the Bountiful Valley farm and the runway markings on the plaza at Condor Flats, a high-desert 40's-style aviation center, the surroundings are not so much convincing as they are familiar and comfortable. Here, the fantasy is not an animated fairy tale; it's sort of an idealized early-century vision of California as a place filled with hope and naïve optimism, all the hard edges buffed to a smooth sheen.

And yet, later on he has Barry Braverman talk about how there isn't even any theming in one of the park's largest areas. Give me a break!


I'm also amused that the author suggests that DCA evokes certain time periods and is themed to exotic locales and eras... When, we all know that Disney designed the park to reflect a hip and edgy "here-and-now" feel.

Why Disney increasingly prefers motifs from postwar or turn-of-the-century years rather than modern times is a puzzle.
...
THAT bias continues here (even though the park's rides employ impressive new technologies); no attraction is complete without some fiberglass boulder or faux wood detailing seemingly fashioned by an Arts and Crafts period carpenter.

Please.




Much of the article sounds like it was based off the over-hyped writings of a Disney Press Release, not by actually visiting the park. If you think the New York Times author was spot-on with this review, then maybe you can answer me why the park is still struggling to please guests to this day, and why Disney just approved that $1.2 billion budget to fix the place up.

[Druggas]

And if DCA was just another amusement park, then we wouldn't care.

But it isn't. It's a Disney park that should have been built with Disney standards.

[MasterGracey]

And if DCA was just another amusement park, then we wouldn't care.

But it isn't. It's a Disney park that should have been built with Disney standards.

Hear, hear!

[Darkbeer]

And if DCA was just another amusement park, then we wouldn't care.

But it isn't. It's a Disney park that should have been built with Disney standards.

And there is the problem, Barry Braverman states in this article that it is OK to not do it, and he was the person in charge from WDI to build DCA!!!