Disney California Adventure Overhaul Retrospective: From Burger Invasion to Buena Vista Street

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Paradise Pier:

The photos that follow are a general look at the Midway area of Paradise Pier from across the water. I probably could have included a few photos to illustrate how this area looked before the Disney California Adventure overhaul construction began, but I found this area to be the most photogenic of the original Disney California Adventure, so I decided to include a number of photos. Sorry for the redundancy.

Toy Story Midway Mania:

Toy Story Midway Mania was the first substantial project in the “expansion” (the term Disney always uses in its literature, presumably, to avoid reminding people of that the original Disney California Adventure needed an overhaul) of Disney California Adventure. It replaced Malibu-Ritos, a quick service restaurant that opened with the park in 2001, but basically closed after a couple months of operation. Despite Malibu-Ritos existing in that location until 2006, when construction began on Toy Story Midway Mania, I could find no photos on Flickr of it. If you want to learn more about Malibu-Ritos, I suggest reading this Yesterland article.

Finally, a video slideshow of the construction progress:

I think few people will challenge the assertion that Toy Story Midway Mania was an excellent replacement for a quick service restaurant that was never open.

California Screamin’:

The change to California Screamin’ was purely aesthetic, made in conjunction with a change to the Sun Wheel. The theming behind the inversion loop was changed from a Mickey Mouse head to a sun with the words Paradise Pier above it.

As part of Disney California Adventure’s “Project Sparkle,” the queue of California Screamin’ has been cleaned up and had shade canopies installed, as well, but more work is needed on this queue.

As you can see, there’s a visual difference here, but was it worth the cost?

Sun Wheel:

The real purpose of the changes to the Sun Wheel and California Screamin’ were to add a non-redundant Pie-eyed Mickey Mouse to the Sun Wheel, which would then become the Fun Wheel. Adding Pie-eyed Mickey Mouse would serve the purpose of making Disney California Adventure a distinctly Disney theme park (as some guests had complained that it didn’t seem “Disney” enough) while retaining the classic Boardwalk atmosphere (thanks to the pie eyed-ness of Mickey Mouse).

This is another change I don’t view as substantial either way, and in fact, I prefer the sun face on the Wheel, rather than Mickey Mouse. I think it was a charming character. That said, it doesn’t make a huge difference to me either way, and I can see them desire to make Disney California Adventure more of a Disney experience.

Orange Stinger:

Orange Stinger was another opening day Disney California Adventure attraction on Paradise Pier, and it was a new take on the standard amusement park ‘swings’ attraction with the added orange theming and the citrus smell. Given its cheap and tacky appearance, it was an immediate candidate for a conversion to a more Disney-themed attraction.

Orange Stinger closed in 2009 to begin re-theming to Silly Symphony Swings, a swing attraction that would star Mickey Mouse as he conducted an orchestra, based on the 1935 Mickey Mouse cartoon The Band Concert.

It’s still an amusement park-style swing attraction, but the music and Disney theming have dramatically improved this attraction. Definitely better than a huge orange eyesore sitting at the edge of the water.

Maliboomer:

Now we’re getting into Paradise Pier’s biggest offenders, and Maliboomer might take the cake there. Maliboomer was an off-the-shelf S&S Power “Space Shot” attraction. You can find this same style of attraction, with the same level of theming, at just about any amusement park in the world.

To me, Maliboomer represents everything wrong with the original Disney California Adventure. No effort was made to distinguish it from a Space Shot you’d find at Six Flags.

Someone in Disney management must agree with me, as initial plans to re-theme Maliboomer were scrapped in favor of simply removing the attraction altogether.

Quite literally, “nothing” was better than Maliboomer, as removal of it without a replacement has made Disney California Adventure stronger overall. A poorly themed park now exists in this spot. Many believe this is the site of future expansion at Disney California Adventure, and management didn’t want to waste money on more complex retheming only to rip it up in a few years.

Explore the rest of Disney California Adventure on the next page! You can navigate to specific lands and changes via the links below, or take the full tour by simply clicking the numbers below!

Park Entrance
Sunshine Plaza
Paradise Pier – Part 1
Paradise Pier – Part 2
Golden State
Hollywood Pictures Backlot
Parades & Events
Cars Land Construction

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

16 Responses to “Disney California Adventure Overhaul Retrospective: From Burger Invasion to Buena Vista Street”

1. Jasmine says:

   June 4, 2012 at 5:46 pm

   As someone who hails from Los Angeles, California and who was there from the beginning of the evolution of DCA, I must say you did a great job with this project. You don’t sound like someone who’s been visiting the parks for only two years.

   You know something was wrong with DCA when KIDS didn’t even want to visit. That was the case with my family. As kids, whenever we would visit DLR, we would always go to DCA first and “get it over with.” As a kid, I didn’t like the park. My sister and cousin felt the same way. Something was definitely missing. We had felt like we were in some random park that happened to be across the way from Disneyland, which made it worse whenever we visited. We really didn’t like it. We would go and ride Soarin’ Over California, Mullholland Madness (now Goofy’s Sky School), and maybe Jumping Jellyfish. That’s pretty much it. After those three rides we would haul a** to Disneyland! It was like we were left with foster parents for months and we were finally being reunited with our real parents. That’s what it was like, whenever we left DCA and went to Disneyland.

   When it was announced the park would be getting a huge makeover, I couldn’t have been more happy. I kind of felt bad that I didn’t like Disneyand’s sister park. I wanted to like it but I just didn’t. It didn’t help that the legend of all theme parks sat right across from it. I’m glad it took only six years for TDA, WDC, the Imagineers, etc. to realize something needed to be done with this park. I’m beyond happy with the choices they made to reinvent California Adventure!

   I’ve got some memorabilia from the early days. I’ve got an opening day coin from 2001 and I still have an old, Big Mac Burger Invasion box. The design on the box is really cool and I’ve held onto it. I also have an old, McDonald’s french fry box from the time Disneyland used to sell McDonald’s fries in Frontierland (anyone remember that?!). The box looks pretty much exactly the same as a regular McDonald’s fry box but its got some images of classic Disneyland rides. Really cool.

   Sorry for the long post! I’m just so excited for the grand reopening, I, along with everyone else, have waited five years for this and I’m ready for it to open! Those five years flew by so quick and I know I’m going to be even more proud of my second home, the Disneyland Resort come June 15th. Great article, you did an amazing job, Tom! Hope your flight is a safe one when you come here to California and I hope you and Sarah enjoy yourselves at the new resort.

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2. Rachel says:

   June 4, 2012 at 9:19 pm

   Wow, I didn’t realize just how horrible this park was when it first opened. What were they thinking???

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3. Justin M says:

   June 5, 2012 at 3:01 pm

   Excellent article Tom! I enjoyed the last 45mins at work reading this and looking through the great pictures. I will have to reserve my final judgment on the expansion until I vist in June. I still think Epcot will remain my third favorite U.S. Disney Park though behind MK and DL. It will be hard for DCA to overtake Epcot in attendance as well.

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4. weepstah says:

   June 6, 2012 at 8:42 am

   Fantastic post, thanks for putting this together. It’s really neat to see how things have changed at DCA since it’s inception.

   Reply
5. Amy says:

   June 6, 2012 at 9:47 pm

   I loved most of the things that were originally at DCA! I think I am the only one who is sad to see some changes…

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   • Gerald says:

     June 24, 2012 at 3:13 pm

     I’m with you Amy!!!

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     • Joyce says:

       October 22, 2012 at 12:00 am

       Well, I found the early California Adventure plaza enchanting. I really did feel like I stepped back in time having been raised in Chula Vista, California in the 50′s and 60′s, then being transplanted to Eastern Oregon in the 1970′s.

       The sun icon was amazing and the sound of the water from the wave machine mixed with crystal clear Beach Boys songs blaring though out was like being in a time machine. I remember how immaculate the walkways were, and the short amount of time I had to linger there that lovely November afternoon in 2001–I will not forget. It made a huge impression.

       While the rest of the Disney parks were fun for the 3 generations of us that week, my favorite was the plaza at the California Adventure.

       Once a “California girl”…
6. Phil says:

   June 12, 2012 at 12:00 pm

   There is a version of Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree in the studios in Paris (called Cars Race Rally). When you are watching it looks for all the world like it is only suitable for children up to the age of about 4, but it is in reality very good fun and very silly. Don’t pass on it without giving it a try!

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7. Gerald says:

   June 24, 2012 at 3:00 pm

   Amy you are not the only one trust me! I was there in February of 2001 and am as sad as you to see all the changes. The original will always be special to me. Walking through the park hearing Beach Boys and other California based music while enjoying the history of California was great. God forbid that our kids might actually learn something while at a theme park. And personally I loved the fact that it was different from Disneyland. I always said it was more of an adult version of Disneyland that even served alcohol. Did it need updating including the expansion of Carsland? Of course! But it didn’t need the overly expensive revamp of the entire park or the change in theme. The new entrance and the new buildings in the formerly Sunshine Plaza actually seem boring to me. I’m willing to bet that a lot of what was removed like the California letters and Golden Gate Bridge are things the majority enjoyed the most. A big part of Disney vacations are picture taking spots and they took away three major picture spots in the revamping of the entrance alone. The revamp was clearly overkill. One of the biggest reasons given for the overhaul was the Park Hopper tickets. Most weren’t willing to pay the full price for CA as they were for Disneyland. Well when CA is only 67 acres of mostly unused space, and DL is 85 acres of packed rides and attractions, is it any wonder why?

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   • Tom Bricker says:

     June 25, 2012 at 9:33 am

     I understand and respect your attachment to Sunshine Plaza, but I far prefer BVS.

     At one point (before it opened), I might have agreed about the spending on Cars Land. However, after seeing attendance and reading mainstream media reviews, I disagree. Cars Land is already developing a reputation of its own. Like Wizarding World of Harry Potter, people will plan vacations around Cars Land, and tell friends they’re visiting “Disneyland and Cars Land,” without even knowing that Cars Land isn’t its own theme park. It’s already that popular, and word of mouth should be great on it.

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     • Gerald says:

       June 26, 2012 at 11:14 am

       I never said I had a problem with Cars Land at all. The park absolutely needed updating and expansion. There was also a lot of unused space that is now being used just like Disneyland’s history. But no one ever re-themed or completely made over the entire park of Disneyland. Like you say Cars Land alone is bringing people in so why the need for the total revamp? Nobody going for Cars Land is going to care about BVS. It has cost 3 – 4 times more to revamp than it did to build in the first place. Why take out rides like the Maliboomer and then do nothing with the space? I go quite often but I have friends and family who don’t and when they do go that was one ride they asked about when wondering why it was removed. If anything Cars Land would have fit perfectly into the 50′-60′s California feel and history theme the park had originally. I just personally think they went too far when Michael Eisner left. The powers that be hated the man even though he pretty much saved the company after Walt died. They couldn’t wait to change what was Eisner’s park. They just went too far in my opinion.
     • Gerald says:

       June 26, 2012 at 11:21 am

       They even scrapped the Walt Disney Story in the Carthay Theatre which was the cornerstone of the revamp of Sunshine Plaza.
8. Jennifer says:

   December 28, 2012 at 6:29 pm

   I LOVED reading this article. I had never been to DCA until September 2012, so I had no idea what it had changed from. While I agree to a limited extent that some of the original stuff could have been left and spruced up, overall I am SHOCKED at what the park used to be. No wonder no one ever went. Now it is amazing and my kids keep asking to go back to DLR instead of WDW!

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   • Tom Bricker says:

     December 29, 2012 at 8:20 am

     The original stuff is mostly cool from a nostalgic perspective. They definitely made the right decisions with the overhaul!

     Reply
9. Pete says:

   January 12, 2013 at 12:33 am

   Kind of sad to see the re-theme, in a way…I understood the concept of relating everything to quintessential California (while bringing in all of the cookie-cutter types of rides that other parks had that Disney was lacking) but, I think the CA theme was lost on a large percentage of visitors to the park…from the prospective of staying true to an overall theme, the original park was spot on.

   Not really following how some of the re-theming ties together…Re-doing the Entrance to look more generic (like the Disney movie park in FL) is a big disappointment…Putting classic Disney on everything being re-themed doesn’t seem to tie anything together in the new park either…

   It seemed like DCA had been bringing on new attactions to draw visitors but, the Park’s theme wasn’t conducive to adding in Pixar themed attractions (which is what is reflective of Disney’s current sustained movie success)…I would like to see re-themes completely based around Pixar attractions (rather than trying to tie classic Disney into the new park)…

   Disneyland should be ‘classic’ Disney and DCA seems like it could be ‘current’ Disney themed (ie- Pixar)…this is already the direction they’re going (Bug’s Land, Car’s Land, Toy Story/Monster’s Inc. rides), I don’t understand why they’re not keeping this trend in mind in their re-theming, too.

   The DCA Park seems as confused (theme-wise) as ever…it doesn’t know what it wants to be. Staying true to the California theme didn’t pan out so if you’re going to spend money to get rid of the theme of the park, you should have an overall vision to unify things and be shooting towards matching attractions to that new theme…changing the Boardwalk theme (that made sense for a CA themed park) to generic classic Disney character themed rides, doesn’t seem to jive with the Pixar themed lands.

   I don’t know what the answer is. It seems like there is too much invested in CA themed attractions to sucessfully re-theme to something else. The Wharf area and Condor Flats/Grizzly areas are still tied to a CA theme and are separated by a re-themed boardwalk…the lands are all choppy theme-wise, now. Just seems like a mess…

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   • Tom Bricker says:

     January 13, 2013 at 10:10 am

     I don’t think the theme is necessarily more cohesive (if anything, it’s probably less), but overall, I think the park works much, much better. It’s a far higher quality environment.

     Reply