Disney's California Adventure
Anaheim, California
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Disneyland has grown up a lot over the last 40 years and the time has come to expand the brand. After great success with the Magic Kingdom in Florida, the Disney company began the invention of a WestCOT, to be a west coast version of Epcot. This new "second-gate" was meant to be built on the current parking lot, but between the high price tag of the concept and the recent financial and public relations trouble of Euro Disneyland(now Disneyland Paris), the idea was scrapped in 1995 - just four years later.
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Michael Eisner, Disney's CEO at the time, refused to give up on the site, He gathered company executives and they brainstormed something completely new: a park based around the history and culture of California. Disney executives wanted to give the California shopping and dining experience right there in the resort, and the idea took flight.
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Construction started on January 22, 1998. The adult-oriented theme park wasn't the only item on the menu. There was also plans to build a shopping district and a brand new hotel, as well as renovate the current Disneyland Hotel and Disneyland Pacific Hotel(now the Paradise Pier Hotel). A land filled with pop culture, the idea didn't really sit well with guests. The four lands, Sunshine Plaza, Hollywood Backlot, The Golden State, and the Paradise Pier, were meant to represent different parts of the state. The entrance donned the giant letters spelling California with a backdrop of the Golden Gate Bridge, which the monorail glides over. Sunshine Plaza was supposed to feel like stepping into a "Wish You Were Here..." postcard. The Hollywood Backlot was meant to be a sort of Universal Studios tour. Paradise Pier was to harken to the pier playgrounds of yesteryear. And the Golden State made up the majority of the park, with areas dedicated to the Redwoods, the restaurants of Monterrey and an old airfield all sitting pretty under the Grizzle shaped Peak.
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Opening Day in February of 2001 came with an unexpected surprise. Expecting to have to turn guests away due to overcrowding, the park welcomed an underwhelming 5 million guests in all of 2001, just over a third of the population raked in by Disneyland in its first year. Most guests who did attend the park were dissatisfied with the experience. Guests continued to be disappointed in the park's theming, attractions, and lack of evening entertainment. In addition to this, there weren't enough attractions appealing to children. A Bug's Land was built around opening day attraction, It's Tough to Be a Bug, and featured attractions designed specifically for children. Disney's Electrical Parade was brought to the park, and Tower of Terror was opened in 2004. But after years of suffering, the Disney company decided something needed to change.
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On October 17, 2007, Disney announced a $1.1billion redesign and expansion plan. Toy Story Midway Mania opened in 2008, World of Color premiered in 2010, and the Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure replaced the Golden Dreams theater in 2011. This transformed all of the space inside the park into something more romantic and idealized version of California culture. Sunshine Plaza became Buena Vista Street, starring a replica of the Carthay Circle Theatre that first showed Walt's first animated feature film. Little ties into different parts of Disney all throughout, this was more like Main Street, USA, based off the Los Angeles that Walt stepped into after the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Paradise Pier became a Victorian seaside boardwalk from the 1920's. Attractions were modified or removed to help the feel and flow of the new scheme. The expansion came in the way of a brand new immersive Land built around that Cars series we all know and love. Cars Land was completed in 2012 and the rededication happened on June 15, 2012.
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After this redesign and expansion, Disney California Adventure saw a huge spike in attendance with 43,000 visitors on the day of the rededication. Two days later, the park hit an even new record of 45,000 visitors! Since then, we have watched the park grow and evolve into the park we have today. A Bug's Land closed to make way for Avengers Campus. Paradise Pier was morphed into Pixar Pier and the attractions rethemed to our favorite characters from Toy Story, the Incredibles, Inside Out, and more.
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In March of 2020, the country was hit with a great tragedy in the way of a pandemic, forcing the parks to close on both coasts and across the world. When the park missed its July 17th reopening due to rising cases of COVID-19, we waited in anticipation for the next step. In November of 2020, Buena Vista Street was added as an "extension" of Downtown Disney. In March and April of 2021, Disney California Adventure took back Buena Vista Street for the limited capacity ticketed event, "A Touch of Disney". Potential Guests waited up to 5 hours to get tickets to this limited-time event. Since the announcement of "A Touch of Disney", even more exciting news came by way of the reopening of the Anaheim resort.
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The reopening of the parks on April 30th was exciting as the park attempted to revert back to normal. More rides and attractions are being opened and available each day. Avengers Campus was opened on June 4th and has been widely debated. In general, guests are either very excited about the new immersive land or completely hate the idea.
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More to come as the Disneyland Resort moves forward with their new initiative to expand Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure to create more immersive and exciting entertainment.