I'm what you'd call a "Disney Freak." I spend a lot of time at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA, and on the web researching old Disneyland attractions. Anyway, earlier this week the Walt Disney Co. (WDC) released a statement saying that they were going to spend $1.1 billion dollars revamping California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort.
California Adventure (CA for short) has always stood in the shadow of Disneyland (DL for short). While CA attracts about 6 million guests per year, DL attracts 15 million guests.
CA opened in February, 2001. It was essentially a dud. It never met it's expected attendance. For most people, it didn't have that "Disney feel." Many of the original features are no longer there, and many more new ones have been put in to attract more visitors. For instance Wolfgang Puck had a restaurant there that failed. The Monsters, Inc. ride was always there . . . it was known as Superstar Limo. When it was changed, they only repainted the cars and repainted the sets. The track stayed the same; they even kept some of the old scenery. The Tower of Terror was added to attract more guests. They are now even in the process of building a new ride called "Toy Story Mania," which is also being built in Epcot at Walt Disney World simultaneously.
Really, this revamp is to make the park feel more like a true Disney Park, and not a cheap amusement park. They are going to redo the entrance area and much more. It's even supposed to have a Main Street that will be based on old Hollywood buildings.
This is the most the WDC has ever spent to revamp a park. In fact, it cost Disney 1.4 billion dollars in the revamp of the entire resort in 2000. This included replacing the parking lot by building three completely new major things: California Adventure, Disney's Grand Californian Hotel, and Downtown Disney shopping District (For more info on Downtown Disney, look for one of my other articles in the Times' Archive #7116). If you do the math, Disney is spending almost as much as they did to build the park and surrounding areas.
So, by now I'm sure you want updates on what's going on. Well, you can go to www.disneygeek.com to view frequent pictorial updates of the Disneyland Resort. Note: Ask a parent before visiting the site, although it is clean. Whyville does not endorse this site and neither do I.
Who knows what else is going to change. I will try to bring you major updates as soon as it happens.
Signing off, this is Eric5675
