Welcome to DCA where things don't look like they used to anymore. Soon this too will look very different, but while this still looks the same, later on you'll see an area that looks very different than it may have looked just since your last visit.
So this is going on, but unless you know exactly where to look and when to look there, you'll easily miss any hint of this event's existence.
A more accurate name for DCA 1.0 would have been "Disney's Concrete Adventure." Soarin' Over California still sports DCA's signature unthemed outdoor queue with bare concrete walls, but hopefully these will be spruced up when Grizzly Peak is extended through this area.
For those of you who live elsewhere, it was HOT last weekend. Anaheim hit 95+! When that happens, splashy rides suddenly become insanely popular.
I've always loved this about people. Ride designers can take years and spend millions to create the ultimate can't miss attraction, while just the simple combination of heat and water alone brings people in droves...
Lots of people looking to beat the heat all at the same time creates a rather lengthy stand-by wait time!
If you're of the fatalistic crowd that just hangs their head and gets in that 75min wait along with everyone else out of some feeling of having no choice, you'd be kicking yourself for not getting in this line instead...
...or this one...
Even Space Mountain's stand-by was 1/3rd of GRR's wait time!
The moral of the story: Don't be like these people. Never feel like you have no choice but get yourself stuck in an impossibly long line. There are always alternatives.
Oh right, construction. Well, here ya go!
A little extension is being added here...
No new restrooms here yet...
Paradise Pier's work wall funnel is still very much out in force here. Note the pictures of the old Mickey, the old Grizzly logo, the old Mark V Monorail, and the soon to be old GG Bridge on the cotton candy cart. Good ol' irony. =)
Hey, let's put up a map to show what DCA will look like once all this construction is done. Great idea right?
Only problem is that now many people are horribly confused why they can't find Cars Land or many of the walkways pictured on the map! LOL!
In less depressing news, the Pacific Wharf bridge has opened just in time for the Food & Wine Festival. An amazing coincidence that is, no?
To provide access to the bridge, a pathway has been reopened.
The bridge does see a bit of traffic now as people try to find any which way through the maze of work walls.
I'm a little disappointed that DCA apparently still believes that only one side of the bridge deserves a pretty sign while the other can be bare steel. I thought we'd gone beyond that level of cheapness by now.
For the sign enthusiasts out there, here's the Pacific Wharf sign all beautified and pretty-lookin'.
Since we haven't shown the Pacific Wharf area since the bridge went down for refurb, we'll show it now only to reveal that it looks pretty much just how it did a couple months ago when this work wall first appeared. The future enlarged Cocina Cucamonga shows virtually no exterior changes, but it's still really great that this is being built...
...because the added capacity will do wonders for the clearly insane crowds falling over each other in their attempts to obtain food here.
Moving right along...oh look, a work wall has sprouted over here. I lol'd that they put the door behind the little planter wall. It's in perfect position for someone to take a nice trip. =)
The biggish work wall blocking the World of Color viewing area construction hasn't gone anywhere.
It remains a seriously huge work wall...
Mr. Crane has departed from his sandbox, but left some really huge piles of dirt, as well as lots of constructiony-type thingamajigs.
Here's some dirt and concrete disguising itself as a viewing area and beefy light towers.
The same space that is dirt today will, in a future time, feature, hopefully, a nice looking view area. Same space, different time. H.G. Wells wrote a whole novel based around that very concept. Good story.
In the Bay, this big black thing has spread itself over virtually the entire Bay floor.
Seriously, it covers almost the entire thing.
Work on a concrete retaining wall around the Stinger's base continues...
This rather large black pipe can now be seen snaking its way down to the giant black growth in the Bay...
The pipe seems to be here to stay, though nothing appears to be supporting it for when tons of water are around it.
So let's see if we can work this out. Big black pipe, and pipes are normally used for transporting large amounts of water. Big black stage-looking base, which are normally used to give a ton of fountain-like machines a place to secure themselves. Call me crazy, but I think they're planning a big fountain show here.
And there's lots of pipe left to connect, along with bendy parts to complete the set.
On April 1st, 2008 this is what Paradise Pier looked like. Mickey on the left, Sun on the right, and water in the front. Not so anymore!
Mickey has now moved in where the sun used to be. The best part is, this actually looks like Mickey!
Behold Mickey, and his new wheel o' fun!
Side view shows Mickey for what he is - a basic frame surrounding painted canvas. It's simple but it works pretty well.
Unfortunately the backside of Fun still looks like the backside of Sun. I hoped for a Mickey here too, but, doesn't look like I'll get my wish. =(
Here's the Fun Wheel structure circa April 2009.
Closer look reveals...no Mickey. =(
So the Fun Wheel is scheduled to open on May 8th, but for that to happen, a few other things will have to happen first...
The most prevalent being exactly what is going to happen to the queue here? The Victorian-style roof's money was shifted elsewhere, so that's not happening. Everything still looks pretty much how it did in the Sun Wheel days. Are we just going to have bare concrete again or what?
2 weeks is not long enough to build an entire loading area of any kind of quality. I'm afraid here.
Here's a look at the Bay under construction, but now with a big base for future fountains, and Mickey.
Mr. Crane was absent but in his place was found his teenage nephew - Xtreme Forklift!!!
This is the most depressing picture in this entire update. Knowing that there are still some parts of DCA that look like this...wow. Remember this park charged the same amount for admission as Disneyland since Day 1. Amazing.
Fortunately, Disney is spending big bucks to transform buildings that look like that, into buildings that look like this!
The work walls are all gone. Games of the Boardwalk is finished and now open!
At night, still looks awesome.
Games of the Boardwalk features exciting games of skill and chance...and a pole.
So if you wish to partake in the games, this will be your first stop. Here's where all your games will be pre-paid for via purchase of charge card-style cards and points.
The pricing structure is pretty basic. The point is that thanks to these machines, no CM at the games need handle cash. All cash/credit transactions are handled here. However, do note that the minimum purchase to play any game is $5. $5 can buy you two games, but there's no option to make any less than a $5 purchase here.
So let's have a gander at the games shall we? Under the blue facade we find...
...the Bullsye Stallion Stampede! It's your basic roll-the-ball horse race skill game that I believe made its debut at the Excalibur Hotel in Las Vegas 20 some odd years ago. A game of this type can now be found at pretty much any midway nowadays.
The orange facade looks nice. What game is under that?
It's another common midway game - throw the ball in the hole. Only this time, it's themed to the old Disney cartoon 'Casey at the Bat'.
The game might be basic, but then again this whole re-theme effort was really for the nostalgia right?
The longer Games of the Boardwalk facing features two games under it.
Again, a very common midway skill game involving squirting water onto a target. Basic game, but, again, the only one of its kind to be themed to a Disney character!
Noted!
The fourth & final game is "Goofy About Fishin'" which is actually the only game of the four that guarantees you won't leave empty handed.
Each fish has a dot under it, and here's what all the dots mean. Note how trading up is not allowed here, and no trading between any game booths is allowed.
Speaking of prizes, here's a display of what you might win depending on what fish you turn over.
For midway game background art, it ain't half bad.
So there you pretty much have it - Games of the Boardwalk 2.0 is here and waitin' for ya!
So earlier we showed you how Mickey replaced the Sun. Well, guess what has replaced Mickey's outline here? Yep...
OMG they're flying too close to the sun!!!
Hey it's night! What's the sun still doing out??
So here's how the most photographed view in DCA history looks now...
Looks pretty good when the lights come on too!
Midway Mania now has a proper backdrop for all its elaborate goodness. There is certainly no shortage of light fixtures in this area...
Hi scorez winz teh lolcatz. I can has hi score?
King Triton's Carousel of the Sea remains under tarp, despite its roof fixture's current state of denial.
One last night shot of the new Paradise Pier sign and sunburst, just because.
So to wrap things up, in the span of 12 months give or take a couple weeks, Paradise Pier has gone from this...
...to that! TA-DA! Cool isn't it? But what gets me is after all of this, all that's ultimately happened is Mickey and the sun have switched places. Each one looks better than it did, but yeah, just one big swap here.
Unfortunately Mickey's lights aren't working quite yet...
That'll about do it for this time out in DCA. Next up we'll take you to Disneyland where spring has sprung, and that means a whole lotta new to check out! But before we go there, here's a couple future Wallpaper submissions for ya!
Wallpaper Submission #1: California Screamin' loops around the new sunburst, under it's new Paradise Pier sign and light fixture.
Wallpaper Submission #2: This one may or may not make the ultimate cut, but is a nice nighttime view of the first mostly-completed part of DCA's huge refurb.
That will conclude our DCA section for this time. Please follow the links below to continue enjoying our update. =)
