| Disney's Changing Adventure
(continued)
Not to worry
though, as the preview center concept is something very near and dear to John Lasseter's heart. He was the one who pushed for such a concept to be included in
not just DCA's makeover, but at all the Disney properties around the world.
DCA's Preview Center should be the first to debut, if it can still open
sometime later this year.
Instead of being inside the park however, the current
frontrunner location is out in the Esplanade between the two parks, near where
the first DCA Preview Center was located back in the late '90s. That location
would require only a semi-permanent structure however, as once the DCA main
entrance opens in 2011 a new location for a permanent preview center would need
to be found inside one of the parks, with DCA still the most likely location.
The original
DCA preview center had a viewing platform.
The Esplanade location has some people in TDA excited, and others concerned.
There's a thought that having a rather lavish preview center in front of DCA
while the main entrance undergoes major construction would help get the word out
to arriving tourists exactly what was going on behind the walls. But others are
concerned that the sight of a walled off front entrance with a prominent preview
center would only reinforce the belief that DCA is closed while it goes under
the knife. As the preview center has a great deal of political clout behind it
at WDI however, the hesitation about placing it for a few years in the Esplanade
is something that TDA is simply going to have to get over. And quickly too, as
John Lasseter wants that preview center opened as quickly as possible.
A bigger fish
The best news about this move however comes from the new ride that is going
to cause the restroom relocation in the first place. The Little Mermaid attraction
slated to take over the current Golden Dreams area, and its surrounding
backstage real estate, is looking very promising. We'd told you before that WDI
was hesitant to label this one as an "E Ticket" due to it's tame family friendly
ride system and G rated plotline. But with the scope and scale of the major show
scenes all now decided, anyone who considers the Haunted Mansion an E Ticket
will consider Little Mermaid a major E Ticket attraction as well when it opens
in 2011.
The Omnimover ride system for Mermaid is panning out to just under an 8
minute long ride, which compares favorably to the Haunted Mansion's length of
Omnimover at Disneyland which takes just barely 7 minutes to ride through. And
the special effects and artistry planned for the big show rooms along the ride
promise to provide multiple "WOW!" moments. Also of note will be the clamshell
vehicles traveling up and down from above the waterline down to the ocean floor
giving a range of motion unseen in Omnimover attractions of the past.
The Little Mermaid DVD has a
virtual ride video of the never built Paris attraction.
While the
ride will use all of the major songs from the movie, it's the big, lavish
production number slated for the "Under The Sea" segment that will have people
running from the exit to get back in line again. That one show scene alone has
taken on the physical size and scope of the sprawling graveyard from the
Haunted Mansion, just to give you some idea of how grand this ride is planned to
be. So you can understand why the Imagineers want every piece of property they
can get their hands on, which now includes the restrooms near
the Golden Dreams theater.
Water Works
Knowing however that the World Of Color will be bringing in big crowds to the
area roughly a year before the Little Mermaid ride opens, replacement restrooms
had to be configured into that section of the park, and so the preview center
had to give up that space. The exact debut date of World of Color is still not
known, but it's been pushed back since we last updated you. Originally slated
for a winter 2009 debut while Fantasmic! was down due to the Rivers of America
draining planned for '09, the debut was then pushed out to summer '09 to
accommodate the completion of the custom amphitheater and the surrounding
Paradise Pier makeover projects.
But now the opening has been pushed out to the late winter
or early spring of 2010, for a couple of reasons. The first issue has to do with
the continuing tinkering with the Paradise Pier makeover construction timeline,
as neither WDI nor TDA wants to cram huge crowds into the area if it is still
under construction. Until the new Victorian era remake is completed on the south
and west end of the lagoon, and the huge Little Mermaid complex is well underway
to the north, no one is feeling too comfortable trying to debut this very
expensive and very large new water show.
With that slip of the schedule however
the folks in marketing jumped on the idea of making the 2010 debut of World of
Color as part of their 55th Anniversary promotion for Disneyland. Much like the
50th Anniversary, the majority of the attention will be placed on Disneyland in
2010. However, the marketing team always likes to be able to tout something
happening at DCA whenever they send out a marketing message regarding the Resort
as a whole, and so now World of Color's debut will be folded into the overall
55th Anniversary marketing message for calendar year 2010.
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