Continuing my posts about the five days I spent at Disneyland, today let's talk about the events that were happening at the parks while I was there.
This is a special event where you could pay $180 for the privilege of staying at the park until 1:00am and ride the attractions with lower wait times. That alone isn't worth the cost to me. It's yet another Disney cash-grab for people who are already paying crazy amounts of money for a Disneyland vacation. What does make it worth the money to me are the specialty foods they offer. They're only available to you if you have the magic wristband that says you've paid to be there.
The food at these things is always pretty darn good. Here are some of my favorites. Forgive the bad photos, but it was after dark, after all.
Hands-down the best thing I had that night was Deep-Fried Cheese Ravioli with Spicy Red Sauce at Café Daisy. I fell in love with "Toasted Ravioli" when visiting St. Louis (where it's the city's official dish, I think). Problem is that it was really tough to find fried cheese ravioli. Most of the times it was some kind of meat. Not only was this cheese ravioli, it was exceptional cheese ravioli. Loved it. Wish it was permanently on the menu...
The dessert at Café Daisy was also incredible... Tunnel of Love Donuts, which is sugar donuts with a strawberry cream. I could have camped at Café Daisy and ate ravioli and donuts for five hours...
The drink of the night was a Strawberry-Passion Fruit Lemonade at Galactic Grill. It's perfectly balanced and has very good flavor...
While the Tunnel of Love Donuts were good, the dessert of the night was Sour Cherry Churro Bites, also at Galactic Grill. The churro pieces were perfectly fried and the sour cherry was actually a kind of popping candy, which was fantastic...
In addition to the exclusive food items, you also get a special parade. My friend's favorite Disney animated film is Hercules, and he was really hoping to get a photo with Herc and Meg because we had read that they were at Sweetheart's Night last year. But, alas, the only place you got to see them was on the back of the last float in the Valentine Parade...
This is kinda crappy. All of those famous Disney couples should have been making appearances throughout the park all night long as another perk for that $180 ticket cost. That's what they do at Walt Disney World with their After Dark events.
This event doesn't cost anything additional. If you have a ticket for the resort and have a reservation for California Adventure, you're in. There's not a lot to it. Food booths are selling Asian specialties. The character appearances are dressed or themed around what precious few Asian-themed movies Disney has. Here's Mickey and Minnie in Korean costumes...
And here's a photo opportunity with Mushu from Mulan...
I actually like it when the events are a part of the cost of admission to the parks. Lunar New Year is like an added bonus on top of everything else they already offer. This is a lot like the many festivals at Epcot at Disney World. Just another reason to plan a Disney vacation.
When I was a kid, there was a show called Dancing Waters which played at SeaWorld in San Diego. Since my family lived in the city when I was a kid, I have vague memories of watching the water jets spray water with colored lights shining on things while music was playing. California Adventure has their own version of Dancing Waters in a big production in their lagoon called World of Color. The original (non-"ONE") version I've seen many times because when my mom came with me to work she loved the show so we would always stay and watch it.
During the Lunar New Year celebration, they have a short pre-show the comes before the main event. It's the story of a little red lantern using its heart to find a way home. Or something. I didn't totally get it. After that was spraying water with colored lights and music... and an occasional projection of Disney animated scenes on a water mist curtain. It's a pretty good show...
Now, here's where things were different than the other shows I've attended.
Previously, you could purchase a World of Color Dining Package. You'd have a prix fixe lunch or dinner at one of the restaurants offered, then get to stand in the premium viewing area for the show. I always paid for it because my mom was short and I wanted her to have a front-row standing spot. But now... they have a "World of Color Dessert Party" where you can pay for actual table seating for the show, while getting a tray of various desserts, cheeses, and grapes (along with various beverages, including specialty cocktails). The weather was a bit misty, but not fully-raining like earlier in the day...
I would have loved to have had seating available when my mom was traveling with me. Sure it costs $80 each, but it would have been so much more comfortable for her. And for me. Though "comfortable" was relative this time around. Despite being in Southern California, it was very cold. So cold I bought a sweatshirt so I wouldn't freeze.
And that was the last of the special events available while I was at Disneyland Resort.
Long story short... I was offered a trip to Disneyland when a friend couldn't go, so another friend and I took them up on it. Like my trip to Walt Disney World in August, I'll be posting the good, the bad, and the ugly this week.
I haven't been to Disneyland since 2017. My work took me to Disney East far more often than Disney West. But I've still been to the parks many, many times.
Usually when going to The Happiest Place on Earth, I stay at the Grand Californian hotel. It was designed by the same architect that designed two of my favorite hotels, the Wilderness Lodge and Animal Kingdom Lodge at Disney World, Peter Dominick. This trip's lodging was at the new Pixar Place hotel, which I had stayed at when Disney called it "Paradise Pier." It's fresh and fun and probably a better fit now that Pixar franchises are taking over California Adventure...
The lobby is quite nice. They have a big Luxo Jr. lamp on the famous Pixar Ball statue welcoming you as you walk in. When we arrived, Dug (from the Pixar movie Up) was also there to greet guests, sign autographs, and pose for photos...
Above the lobby is a beautiful chandalier with stylized icons of characters from Pixar films...
When we checked in, we got a tip sheet for the hotel which advertised a limited edition Pixar Putt mini-golf course set up in their ballroom through June 1st. At $28 per person ($33 Friday-Sunday), it ain't cheap, but five days at the parks guarantees you'll be riding the same rides multiple times each so it was nice to have something else to do...
The course has holes inspired by Pixar movies. And I'm just going to get this out of the way... the course looks incredible... but it plays for shit. This is an incredibly difficult and frustrating game that posts pars which are hilariously unrealistic. Neither of us were new to mini golf and had a very hard time of it. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for little kids trying to play it.
Take for example Hole #3, which is based on WALL-E. It's adorable and has a par of 3 strokes. You can get it in one stroke if you can manage to hug the rail on the outside edge just right and have it loop into the upper cup with EVE's plant, where it will drop down and roll into the hole...
Except there's numerous problems here. First of all, in order to have the power to get up the ramp in the first place, you have to hit the ball pretty hard. Which almost always flies it off the course because the rail you have to hug is way too short. But even if you manage to do it, getting the ball to go down the upper cup is nigh-impossible. The loop isn't angled right in the EVE loop for a consistent play but, even worse, THE PLANT SHE'S HOLDING OBSTRUCTS THE HOLE! AND IT'S METAL, SO EVEN IF YOU DO EVERYTHING JUST RIGHT IT WILL JUST BOUNCE OFF THE CUP IN A WAY THAT DOESN'T EVEN PUT YOU IN PLAY TO GET THE HOLE IN A SECOND STROKE!
Nope. You have to go up the ramp... again and again and again. And, if you're lucky you'll eventually get the ball in the region of the hole. Except odds are it will get hung up behind WALL-E, adding another two strokes to the hole. OR THREE OR FOUR STROKES BECAUSE MOST OF THE HOLES DON'T HAVE FLAT SURFACES! They're warped so you can't hit to get a specific placement to line up the next shot.
It was so incredibly frustrating to play this course that we weren't even trying by about hole 5 (of 18). We were giving each hole a couple tries until giving up and cheating our way to the hole. WHICH, AGAIN, HAS A THICK METAL POLE WELDED IN EACH CUP, AND YOU ARE MORE LIKELY TO BOUNCE OFF OF IT THAT EVER GET THE BALL IN THE CUP!
I think we managed to get par on a couple holes. Including The Incredibles which not only had a doable par, but looked really cool...
So, yeah... if you're looking for something to do at Disneyland, this probably isn't it. They needed to do a lot more play-testing and gear the game towards playing mini golf instead of gearing it towards just looking cool.
The Pixar Place hotel itself is pretty cool. Like all the Disney hotels around the world, I recommend it if you can afford the absurd cost. The location is perfect... across the street from California Adventure with a private entrance to the park (for Disneyland you have to go through Downtown Disney). It's also well-maintained, clean, comfortable, and beautifully-themed.
Well then. Didn't have a new Defunctland video on my Bingo card.
The channel used to get new episodes fairly regularly. Then the videos started getting more complex and in-depth, which meant that they started taking longer and longer for Kevin to produce. But quality takes time (I'm still amazed by the Disney Channel Theme video from a couple years ago)...
Spoiler Alert: This is only Part One! No idea how long we'll have to wait for Part Two (or how many parts there will be), but animatronics is a fascinating topic, and I'll take as many parts as we can get.
Winter is finally here because there was a dusting of snow on the ground when I woke up this morning, but I can't be out rolling around in it... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Betty Gets Stamped! Betty White is getting her own postage stamp in 2025!
I'm happy that they used a photo of her when she was older since that's how most people would recognize her. But they could have done a set of four with Betty through the ages since her career has been so long and varied... just sayin'.
• Happy! I want so badly to see Piece By Piece but the price to buy it is still the in-theater price of $25... so I guess I'm waiting a minute. But, come on, doesn't this Pharrell Williams doc look incredible? Genius, really...
If there's one thing I'm certain of, it's that we need more LEGO documentaries like this.
• On The Bayou! Walt Disney World's Splash Mountain has been re-themed into Tiana's Bayou Adventure for a while now, and at last Disneyland's has been transformed as well...
As I said when I took a look at Orlando's ride, I think this was a bit of a missed opportunity in that they should have told the story of the film Princess and the Frog, but they didn't. So that means beloved characters like Ray (not to mention one of Disney's best villains, Dr. Facilier) are missing. That's a darn shame.
• Bug Reports! I've lost count of the number of times that I've reported a bug to Apple that they never address. Whenever you receive an email with a meeting link and click "ACCEPT" to let the sender know that you'll be there, the message is immediately deleted. And, no, it's not because Apple Mail adds it to your calendar with the meeting link. It's because Apple Mail IS A BRAIN-DEAD PILE OF SHIT AND NOBODY AT APPLE GIVES A FUCK!
It is absolutely abhorrent how Apple never seems to care about people trying to do actual work with their stupid shit. I have been reporting this same bug for fucking years now.
• Cheap Danger! You should probably watch this video. It's a sign of what's going to be coming in other industries. Corporations raking in BILLIONS of dollars yet refusing to pay anything to keep workers and customers safe, because there's no repercussions. And now there will be even less, because the next administration has made it very clear that they're going to continue to put corporations over people...
This is going to cost lives. Not even a question.
• Justice! NEWSFLASH: American livestreamer indicted in South Korea over offensive antics. Oh noes. I sure hope that nothing happens to him while he's doing time for being one of the worst people on the face of the fucking planet. He's been terrorizing and disrespecting people, places, and important things for what seems like forever. The number of heinous things he's done is so long that I'm shocked he hasn't been banned from all of Asia. Maybe it's forthcoming.
And now we return to Winter, already in progress.
As I mentioned way too many times, my favorite thing to do at Walt Disney World is eat. I love their beautifully-themed, over-priced, high-end restaurants which have delicious food.
But I also like the snacky things... like the churros, popcorn, and fries. It's all good because you're in Walt Disney World. But you know the one snack thing that I love more than any other? Dole Whip. My favorite is the original Pineapple Dole Whip you can get in Adventureland. But there's also Orange Bird's Sunshine Tree Terrace, which has Orange and other flavors (like Strawberry). Disney Springs and some of the Disney hotels also have various varieties of Dole Whip... all of them very tasty.
I had mentioned to my friends who actually work at the resort how I was sad I couldn't have a Dole Whip Float whenever I want... and how jealous I was that they could have it whenever they want.
They're response? "Oh but you can!"
And they gifted me a big bag of Dole Whip mix (that they got on Amazon)...
The stuff is dairy-free and vegan, fat-free, cholesterol-free, gluten-free, peanut-free, and totally delicious. All you have to do is mix it with water! The bag makes 89 servings(!) and is meant to be run through a soft-serve machine. I don't have one of those, but I do have a Ninja CREAMi machine. You just mix 2 cups of water with 2/3 cup of mix, freeze it in the CREAMi canister overnight, then run it through on the "Frozen Yogurt" setting. Simple.
And it tastes exactly like what you get at Walt Disney World. Probably because it is what you get at Disney World. You can pipe it through a big star-tip if you want it to look more like Dole Whip, but it'll take practice to make it swirl correctly...
Don't worry, my swirl with get better as I work on it!
There's also a "copycat" recipe floating around which you can make in your blender (if you don't have a soft serve or CREAMi machine) that we tried...
It's tasty... but not as sweet as the real stuff (which might be a plus for some people). It tastes much more like actual pineapple than Dole Whip does. It also lacks the various stabilizers and gums which makes the original so darn creamy. We struggled to get my Ninja Blender to mix the stuff properly, so we ended up mixing in more pineapple juice. I think if I would have used more ice cream with it, then it might have tasted more authentic. For what it is, it's a terrific treat. But it ain't Dole Whip.
So...
If you love Dole Whip like I do, buying the actual mix will get you there. If you don't have a soft serve or CREAMi machine, you might try freezing the mixture in ice cube trays and pulverizing the cubes in a blender or food processor with a little pineapple juice to try and get it to work that way.
Then close your eyes, take a bite, and you're at a Disney park!
Did you take your Mouseketeer ears off? Well put them back on, because PART TWO of a very special, all new D23 Edition of Bullet Sunday on Monday focusing on the TV and movies stuff starts... now...
• Agatha! Marvel's marketing for the new Agatha Harkness series has been genius. The kept changing the title, which was worrisome... like they didn't know what they were doing... but then they announce it was Agatha All Along and the joke was too good (IYKYK). And now we have a trailer...
Looks like it could be entertaining. A little sinister. Except it also looks like there's going to be a lot of time of her coven not having powers, which isn't great. One month and some change away, so I guess we'll see.
• Maui! I loved Moana. It was beautifully realized, was funny in the right places, had a good story, and featured amazing songs by Lin Manuel Miranda who, sadly, isn't returning for the sequel...
Still looks stunningly beautiful.
• IncrediSequel! Pixar's gorgeously stylized world of The Incredibles is a real joy in my life. I've watched, studied, and obsessed the two movies over and over. And now there's a third one coming...
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar
Cannot tell you how much I'm looking forward to this!
• More Video! Here's a run-down on all the stuff that was talked about. Think there was also something about Percy Jackson but I don't know what it is.
And that's a wrap on D23 because I refuse to talk about Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's Monster Truck movie... because didn't somebody already make a monster truck movie that failed miserably?
Put your Mouseketeer ears on... because a very special, all new D23 Edition of Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• D23! I've been fixated on all things Disney since I was a kid, and it's not something that's faded away. As I've gotten older I've just shifted my focus to the work that goes into making Disney happen. The animation that goes into the films and shows. The imagineering that goes into the parks and properties. The drive. The creativity. The planning. It's all so fascinating to me. Which means the D23 Expo which Disney puts on to announce the stuff that's going on is something I look forward to each year. So let's take a look at some of my favorite things that happened, shall we?
• Villains Land! While Disney has been teasing this for decades, Universal Studio's Universal Monsters Land at their upcoming Epic Universe park finally made them get off their stupid asses and actually make it happen. For the love of God I don't understand why Disney has been so regressive in their parks given how profitable they are. They limp along, giving us remakes of old rides by slapping new window dressing on them like Tiana's Bayou Adventure... drop new attractions after frustratingly long intervals like Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Mickey's Runaway Railway, and TRON: Lightcycle Run... but the only thing that's really been new-new at the American parks has been Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Land from five years ago. Meanwhile Universal Studios has been eating their lunch by dropping tons of cool stuff at their parks on a regular basis and building an entirely new park. So thank you, Universal, for being the reason that Villains Land is finally happening...
Copyright ©2024 by Disney
Getting new attractions beats having Disney whining about stagnating attendance. BUT WHEN YOU KEEP RAISING PRICES IN A POOR ECONOMY WHILE NOT DOING SOMETHING EPIC TO DRAW IN NEW VISITORS, WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU EXPECT?!? It's like Disney management is brain dead. They just want to keep the status quo, not spend any money to do great things people want to see, then expect people will continue to pay for that just because their Disney. It's just so bizarre.
• Monsters, Inc. Land! Wow. It's like Disney has been reading my blog or something. I have long said that Disney Parks is missing a massive opportunity by saddling Monsters, Inc. with lackluster attractions. Laugh Floor is boring. And the videos of Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! doesn't look much better with its lackluster animatronic retreads from the disastrous Superstar Limo ride that was a total bomb. But creating Monstropolis at Disney Studios and coming up with an actual attraction that's worthy of the movies? I'm all in...
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar
Interesting that Disney doesn't have a suspended coaster attraction and this will be the first one. Looks darn good, if the implementation is anything like the concept art. Reeeeeally going to need to convey massive depth for that to work. Looks like it's not, so I hope that there's an illusion or screen extension or something...
I'm hopeful that Disney doesn't cheap out on this, because it could be such a cool attraction if they put the money into it.
• Cars Land... East! California Adventure has had a Cars Land for a while. It features the excellent Radiator Springs Racers attraction, a version of which is coming to... Frontierland in Magic Kingdom? FRONTIERLAND?!? Bonkers. Apparently this will be themed to the American West to "fit in"... albeit in an animated contemporary setting (seriously... this is bonkers). Which is essentially a mountain version of Radiator Springs Racers...
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar
There's also a kid-friendly ride coming, which looks like a retread of Autopia. Something I thought would happen to the literal Autopia in Disneyland and Tomorrowland Speedway in Magic Kingdom...
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar
Don't know if this means that Tomorrowland Speedway will be paved over for something new, exciting, and completely inappropriate for the space... but we can hope!
• Talk About Bruno! It would appear that Walt Disney World is paving over Dinoland U.S.A. in Animal Kingdom to create a Tropical Americas Land. This will involve a new Encanto attraction that's a ride through Casa Madrigal...
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar
And they'll also be tearing out the theming in DINOSAUR to make it become a new Indiana Jones attraction. Which is ironic given that DINOSOAUR is a retread of the much, much better Countdown to Extincion attraction that used to be there. The Indy ride will have a bit of a head start because DINOSAUR uses the same vehicles that are used in the Indiana Jones Adventure ride in Disneyland...
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Lucasfilm
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Lucasfilm
No idea what in the heck these attractions have to do with animals to belong in Animal Kingdom, but here we are. Remember when Disney was focused on building immersive experiences that created entire worlds? Well that's out the window now, apparently (see: Cars Land above). At least Pandora tried to build attractions that have alien animals in it.
• Avengers... Assemble? I haven't been to Disneyland's Avengers Campus because the scathing reviews make it sound like there's just no reason to go. They slapped Guardians of the Galaxy all over Tower of Terror then surrounded it with crap which has impressed nobody. Apparently Disney is finally going to address that by tossing in two new "E-Ticket" attractions. The fist being Stark Flight Lab (featuring Robert Downey Jr.)...
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Marvel Studios
The second ride is Infinity Defense which will have you helping the Avengers battle Thanos in New York...
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Marvel Studios
The ride vehicles makes it look like this is a rehash of what Universal Studios did for their Spider-Man ride. Regardless, it also looks I finally may have a reason to give a shit about California Adventure again. That's nice.
• Coco! And speaking of California Adventure, it's also getting a new boat ride based on Coco, which will hopefully be a wash of color with fantastic animatronics and a good story as promised in the concept art...
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Pixar
Anything less would be a complete waste of everybody's time.
• Avatar! And yet another new attraction announced for California Adventure is something based on Avatar: Way of Water that's, surprise, another boat ride...
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Lightstorm
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Lightstorm
Copyright ©2024 by Disney
I don't know if this will be in California Adventure proper (which seems to be rapidly running out of room) or if it's part of the Disneyland Forward expansion. Either way, it will be nice to get some fresh IP in the park.
• Walt Disney: A Magical Life! The idea of having an animatronic Walt Disney talk to people ala the Abraham Lincoln attraction seems like a no-brainer. Apparently the issue was waiting for technology to catch up to the point where Disney was satisfied that Walt could be brought to life, and now we're here...
Copyright ©2024 by Disney
So as not to enrage fans of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, Walt Disney: A Magical Life will somehow rotate with the existing Disneyland show. I would be very interested in seeing how that's going to work. Are the show stages on motorized engines which slide them into place? Hoping that they release a behind-the-scenes documentary on Disney+ for that.
• Lion King Paris! Apparently Disneyland Paris is bypassing Tiana's Bayou Adventure and getting a Lion King flume ride instead...
Copyright ©2024 by Disney
Remains to be seen if they do something stupid like making the ride be some kind of unwanted sequel to the film like Tiana's Bayou Adventure or actually try to tell the story of the movie which is what everybody wants to see.
• Spider-Coaster Shanghai! And Shanghai Disneyland is getting a roller coaster based on Spider-Man...
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Marvel Studios
I hope they make it more exciting than the crappy Incredicoaster that they made for California Adventure. Slapping static statues on sticks around the track is just sad.
• Spider-Man Hong Kong! Also in Asia? What looks like a Spider-Man drop-tower ride looks like it's coming to Hong Kong Disneyland...
Copyright ©2024 by Disney and Marvel Studios
I can't think of drop rides in Disney Parks with the exception of Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror in Magic Kingdom, the former inferior duplicate in California Adventure (which now has a Guardians of the Galaxy makeover, and another copy in Disneyland Paris. It will be nice to see a fresh take on the concept.
Sorry Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea, nothing new for you!
And that's a wrap on D23 PART ONE. See you next entry!
Back in 2001, Disneyland finally got a second park. Walt Disney World had gotten a second park in 1982 (Epcot), a third in 1989 (Hollywood Studios), and a fourth in 1998 (Animal Kingdom)... so it was a long time coming. The difference being that Walt Disney World has vast amounts of land to expand, whereas Disneyland doesn't. Sure, there's going to be a planned expansion to the Disneyland Hotel side of the street, but it's just not a lot of land because there's hotels there. Nope... whatever was going to end up across from Disneyland was the only shot they had at doing something truly spectacular.
But instead we got California Adventure...
Filled with a bunch of cheap, boring, off-the-rack rides that were themed to the idea of "California," the park was hardly worth waiting for. It was shit. I mean, seriously, Superstar Limo?!? My God. Disney had so badly lost its way that one can't help but think that Walt Disney himself would be disgusted in what's been attached to his name.
The exception being the fantastic attractions Soarin' Over California and the California Screamin' coaster, which were the only reason to waste your time walking over from Disneyland. An argument could be made that Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was also an exception, but it was a seriously dumbed-down version of the spectacular original from Walt Disney World, so I disagree.
But anyway...
Disney found out immediately by the overwhelmingly negative response to their cheap-ass abomination that they done fucked up (I made a special trip to see it and was livid that it was such a waste of time and money). You can't make a theme park on the cheap and expect people will embrace it just because you slapped the Disney name on it. They were forced to start revising things almost immediately, then announced a major renovation in 2007, just six years after it opened.
Eventually we got "Cars Land" which had the excellent Radiator Springs Racers, and "Pixar Pier" which had the fun Toy Story Midway Mania but that was it. Everything else that they've slapped on this massive failure has been mediocre to awful.
The nerfed Twilight Zone Tower of Terror became Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout, which was okay, I guess. But they slapped it in the middle of "Avengers Campus" which is horrifically bad. This new "land" was ill-conceived and, shocker, cheap.
California Screamin' got re-themed to The Incredibles' Incredicoaster which is so cheap as to be embarrassing. They just plopped a bunch of static characters around the coaster, including the infamous Jack-Jack "babies on sticks" and Violet's disembodied head, and took away many of the things that made California Screamin' such a fun coaster. Which is to say that it was a massive downgrade.
Despite being a cheap-ass park, California Adventure was at least thematically cohesive. They did their best to actually adhere to the concept of "California" and make sure that everything was beautifully-appointed and had good flow. But now? It's a disjointed, incohesive mess that keeps having less and less to do with California. An obvious re-skin done on the cheap with precious few good attractions (and that beautiful World of Color show) to make it worth visiting.
So what to do?
The Pixar Pier section of California Adventure is the place for all things Pixar... but not including the Cars movies or the Monsters, Inc. movies, which both have rides in other sections of the park. Which begs the question... why not just convert the entire park to become Pixarland... the perfect compliment to Disneyland. But stop being so fucking cheap about it.
Build out a cohesive game plan for how the park "lands" should be defined and how they flow into each other [Cars Land, Toy Story Pier, Monsterstropolis (the Monster's, Inc. city), Metroville (the Incredibles city) etc., this is not rocket science]. Then go attraction by attraction to revise or replace the cheap crap and turn it into something Disney-worthy. Start with Incredicoaster... re-track it to not be so rough, then make it worth being associate with Disney by adding animatronics and decent effects instead of babies on sticks and other stupid crap. Then move on to the next. Then the next.
No idea how to integrate Soarin' (which was ruined when they turned it to "Around the World" instead of "California") but Imagineers are clever. Maybe it could be a ride where you're soarin' like the house in Up or something. Avengers Campus can just be scrapped entirely. And if you can slap a Guardians of the Galaxy Band-Aid on Tower of Terror, then how hard is it to do it again with a Pixar property? Doing a Coco-themed drop-ride that takes you through a colorful adventure through the Land of the Dead could be so cool. And can you imagine if the rest of Avengers Campus was turned into the city of Santa Cecilia that's celebrating Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) 365 days a year? Make it colorful and fun... so cool...
I dunno. Maybe Pixarland isn't the answer... but there's gotta be an answer somewhere. Because right now California Adventure has very little to do with California and is a cheap, shitty park that nobody want's to bother with because there's limited E-Ticket experiences and precious little Disney magic to be had.
Disneyland deserves better.
As do Disney parks fans.
As a kid, I was a massively huge fan of Disneyland. I dreamed of going for years before my family finally made the trip down to California. Once I got there, it truly was the most magical place on earth... at least it was to me.
It was from that point on that I became a hardcore Disney Parks geek. I would visit Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and even Tokyo Disneyland over the years just to keep up with whatever cool rides and experiences they had added. That lead me into becoming once of those infamous "Disney Adults" that keep getting trashed by assholes who are mad that they have to stand in line with their bratty kids to ride the rides... using the justification that "Disney is for kids."
To which I say "Fuck off" because kids invade my space all the time. So even if I bought into the argument that "Disney is for kids" (which I do not), I wouldn't care.
But anyway...
I haven't managed to make my way to any of the Disney parks for years. I really want to see the completed Pandora - The World of Avatar land in Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World. And Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at either USA park. But I have a serious problem with the way that Disney is letting the parks go downhill thanks to shitty decisions made by CEO Bob Chapek. The gutting of perks from staying at Disney hotels. The total shitshow that's the "Genie+" service (pay more to get less!). The meandering lack of direction and general stagnation. It's as if all the things that make Disney parks a magical place have been falling by the wayside.
Meanwhile over at Universal Studios...
Yeah, Universal is slowly starting to eat Disney's lunch. On top of investing a lot of time and money into cutting-edge experiences and maintaining hotel perks, they're building an entirely new park in Orlando. Not an extra land, but a whole new third park.
Called Universal's Epic Universe the information coming out of its construction is pretty amazing. We're getting four dedicated lands: Super Nintendo World, Universal Monsters, Wizarding World, and How to Train Your Dragon... along with a central hub (complete with its own attractions) and plenty of room for expansion...
Photo by @BioreConstruct with overlay by @TonyHawkins
This isn't just "Blue Sky" promises about stuff that might happen, this is Universal literally building their future.
So I dunno. Maybe Disney will pull through and actually manage to get Disneyland Westside going. Maybe their rumored "Disney Villains" land and "Frozen" land will actually happen in Orlando. Maybe they'll start adding perks back to the hotels so that the massive price tag is worth it.
But until then... I just don't know that a few new rides is enough to make me book a trip to Orlando.
But Epic Universe is shaping up to be something that might.
As I mentioned a while back, I pre-spent my tax refund money on a new desk chair and an Xbox
Halo Infinite is pretty darn good. It's open-world, which is tasty, and the graphics are pretty spectacular. But I'm not going to talk about Master Chief and Halo. I'm here to talk about a game that has really been wasting my time: Disneyland Adventures (which is included in Xbox Game Pass).
Now, here's where things get weird.
As a GAME, Disneyland Adventures is 100% shit. You play "attractions" so that you can perform tasks for various Disney characters. But the "attractions" have shitty controls, are frustrating for me as an adult (NO idea how kids are supposed to play this crap), and I hate them.
But as a SIMULATION of literal Disneyland? This is one pretty great experience. I've been to Disneyland a bunch of times, and they got so much of it right. I mean, some things are missing... licensed properties like Star Tours and Indiana Jones Adventure are missing (the game was made in 2011 before Disney bought Lucasfilm) as is stuff added after 2011 (like Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge). And Jack Sparrow has been replaced by "Black Barty" for some reason. But still... if you've been to Disneyland, it's pretty amazing to see how faithful they tried to be to the park...
Now, as I mentioned, the controls are shitty. It was originally designed to be played via Kinect, a motion controller, but I don't think that Kinect works with
So that's what I've been doing.
Alas, since the mini games are so awful to play with a controller, there's only so far in the game I can get. You perform all kinds of favors for the Disney characters, but eventually they want you to do something inside an attraction, and I'm not up for the frustration, so I'm blocked from continuing. Eventually I'll be blocked from finishing the game completely and won't be able to finish at 100%, but that's okay. In the meanwhile it's a fun way to visit Disneyland in these COVID times.
Even if my avatar in the game looks creepy as hell.
Atom Entries Feed Comments Feed
