The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (128 page)

Some opined that
the initial vision of a park dedicated to California was hopelessly flawed.  After all, most of the
Disneyland Resort
Guests are Californians.  Why would they want to pay to visit a theme park dedicated to California?  They can visit the real Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Francisco, Napa Valley, Big Bear, Yosemite, and so forth whenever they want.  Right?

Not quite
.  That criticism, though widely
bruited
, isn’t quite accurate.  Many Californians can’t afford to dash up to San Francisco or down to LA and Hollywood whenever they like, can’t afford white-water rafting trips and camping excursions and ski adventures and studio tours and weekends at quaint Napa Valley B&B’s.

The truth is, many Californians don’t have the disposable income to take trips all over their own state, and didn’t even before the widespread economic implosion of 2008.  For many families in
both the urban and rural communities of California, it’s tough enough to save up for a one or two-day trip to
Disneyland Resort
, let alone multiple trips all over the state.  So it’s a lovely thing for Californians that
DCA
gives them a single destination where they can sample so much of the diverse beauty, culture, history, and majesty of their state.

T
he fundamental vision of the park wasn’t wrong, it was just incomplete.  And as long as it remained incomplete, it didn’t help simply to add
Disney Characters
and touches to the mix.  Yes, the
Disney Characters
, attractions, shows, and themes made the park more fun, but they still didn’t provide the cohesive story and heart that mark a true
Disney Theme Park
.

By 2008,
Imagineers
had realized this, and had been given the budget and freedom to address the challenge comprehensively. 
Walt Disney Imagineering Blue Sky Cellar
opened in the
Golden State
(now
Pacific Wharf
) area in October of 2008, giving Guests a fascinating glimpse into the
Imagineers
’ creative processes and the astounding future of
DCA
.

Disney
had finally drilled down to what the park was missing.  It was missing
Walt
.  And–especially because the park was originally named
Disney’s California Adventure
–it was hugely problematic that
Walt
’s vision, heart, personality, and life were largely MIA from
DCA
.  Until these qualities were added to the park, in generous, far-flung, glittering handfuls of
pixie dust
,
DCA
would never be truly alive.

* * *

Walt
loved his adopted home of California.  When
DCA
was first conceived, that had to have been the understanding that fueled the design process.  Unfortunately, that concept was nearly invisible in the final design. 
Walt
loved California, but where, in
DCA
, were the connections between California and
Walt
?  In places they were clear (for example, the
Hollywood Pictures Backlot
) but in most cases they were unstated, almost subliminal, and in some cases they were absent altogether.

Hollywood Pictures Backlot
(now
Hollywood Land
) was the only land with a fairly obvious connection to
Walt
, who had moved to Los Angeles and Hollywood in 1923, and ultimately founded his animation empire there, first with the imaginative
Alice
films (originally launched in Kansas City, Missouri, they combined the live-action performance of young actress
Virginia Davis
(1918 – 2009) with an animated world), next with
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
, and then with
Mickey Mouse
.  So most Guests know that
Walt
had a Hollywood connection, even if they don’t know the detailed history.

What, however, was
Walt
’s connection to California in general, to its agriculture, aviation, wine country, and forested mountains?  That was obscure, and that’s why even Guests that adored
Soarin’
and
Grizzly River Run
and the
Bay Area
,
Golden Vine Winery
, and
Pacific Wharf
districts of the
Golden State
experienced a cognitive dissonance, that sense of “Er, tell me again:
Why
is this a
Disney Park
?”

In terms of
relevance to
Walt
, the most problematic land in
DCA
was always
Paradise Pier
. 
Walt
wasn’t a big fan of the typical seaside pier park, places that were often unimaginative and not cleanly.  Those were among the types of fun parks that inspired
Walt
to build
Disneyland
as an elegant antithesis of every grubby, dull park on the planet.  Would
Walt
have approved of the original
Paradise Pier
, its pay-as-you-play games, generic coaster, and minor rides, or its layout, which lacked shade and forced Guests to walk a long, meandering loop around its central waters?

Emphatically, no!
 
Walt
always demanded the highest quality, incredible creativity, astounding cleanliness, and unsurpassed convenience for the districts of his park. 
Paradise Pier
, while providing some stunning views, hit none of those standards when it opened.

Students of
Walt
’s life, standards, and methods could identify seven major areas where the entire park fell short and had to be enriched to be a success.  What would
Walt
have done, that hadn’t been executed in the original
DCA Park
?


        
Spend lavishly
.  Spare no expense. 
Walt
knew that Guests, however humble their background, would sense quality and respond to having lots of money spent on them.  It would enchant them, move them, and make loyal customers and ambassadors of them.  It was a smart investment.  Spend lavishly on the Guests and you’ll make it back.


        
Include a high level of detail in the park environments and attractions, even the minor ones
. 
Disneyland
Guests are used to the high level of detail in
Disney
shorts, films, and
Disneyland Park
.  Any sketchy, half-hearted, incomplete, or glossed-over attractions and environments ring cheap and hollow to Guests.


        
Create kinetic, active landscapes that engage Guests
. 
Walt
never wanted to present still, static vistas
for his Guests.  Anywhere they looked, Guests were to see motion, sparkle, and activity.  Big, motionless landscapes weren’t good enough.


        
Design around fun, coherent stories that link to Walt, his life, his interests, or his creations
.  Guests should feel at every moment as if they’re living a story from
Walt
’s life or one of his television shows or films. 
Disneyland
was always about immersing Guests in story, and it had to read quickly, clearly, and entertainingly.


        
Build to delight all Guests, especially children
. 
Walt
would literally crouch down to kid level to observe how different parts of his park would appear to kids, and he demanded that his team always think of a child’s perspective when designing park elements.


        
Install plenty of shady nooks and transportation.
  One of
Walt
’s pet peeves at amusement parks, museums, and fairs was that you had to walk and walk and walk–hence the innovative hub-and-spoke design of
Disneyland
that made it easy for Guests to move from land to land, to experience and find everything that interested them with a minimum of walking and backtracking.  He also ensured that plenty of shady trees, benches, and restful nooks were included in the park design because Guests would still get tired at some points, and he demanded that there be plenty of transportation within the park, from the
Disneyland Railroad
to the
Main Street Vehicles
to the
Skyway
and the
Monorail
to help Guests get around.  The original
DCA
had
no
in-park transportation, a confusing, looping layout, and long stretches of walkways open to the pitiless Southern California sun.


        
It’s all about the Guests.
 
Walt
’s entire career was founded on making his audiences and his Guests happy.  Especially when designing and building
Disneyland
, he was constantly preoccupied with how Guests would like this or that element.  Would this attraction appeal to Guests?  Would this show entertain them?  Was the park pretty enough, interesting enough, efficient enough, welcoming enough?  Cast Members were to be courteous and positive at all times, and the Cast Members as well as the grounds were to be impeccably groomed. 
Walt
understood that if you treated your Guests like royalty, you had everything, and as soon as you short-changed them, you lost everything.  Corporations and institutions around the planet still study
Walt
’s principles of how to treat Guests and how to build one’s mission and standards around them, to the greater happiness of everybody–absolute win-wins.  Somehow the original
DCA
leadership, however good their intentions, missed this central mandate.

Imagineers
developed an ambitious plan to re-imagine
DCA
by 2012, finally completing the incomplete vision, finally weaving
Walt
and his high standards and methods into
Disney California Adventure Park
by making every land relevant to the man, his life and his creations.  At last the park makes sense; at last it is a real
Disney Theme Park
.

* * *

On June 15, 2012,
Disney
CEO
Bob Iger
rededicated
Disney California Adventure
.  The rededication was a big deal.  It was
Disney
’s concrete acknowledgement of, and celebration of, a vast transformation.  The
DCA
of June 2012 was a far different park than the
DCA
of February 2001. Lessons had been learned.  More than a billion dollars had been spent.  Brilliant visions had been realized.  For those who had been following the astonishing revitalization, June 15, 2012 was a heady day.

By June 15, 2012,
Disney California Adventure Park
was transformed as follows:

Buena Vista Street
(2012)
– This new land replaced the original
Sunshine Plaza
.  The original ceramic mural and postcard-type décor were removed and replaced with a circa-1920’s Art Deco dream of the streets
Walt
would’ve encountered when he arrived in Los Angeles.  A replica of the historic
Carthay Circle Theatre
where
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
premiered is now the area’s centerpiece.  This district evokes L.A.’s early golden age, and immerses Guests in that bygone time as
Walt
would’ve experienced it, including the famous
Red Car Trolleys
. 
Buena Vista Street
is a work of art that deeply connects Guests to
Walt
and his dreams.  No expense was spared.  A ravishingly gorgeous, highly detailed masterpiece of architecture, design, and atmosphere.  Lively music and street shows complete the period ambiance. 
Walt Trivia:
 
Disney
’s
Burbank
studios were–and still are–located on the real
Buena Vista Street
.