The Expensive Mistakes of Disney's California Adventure Park | ReviewTyme 

California Adventure: I'm the worst Disney park Walt Disney Studios Paris: hold my beer

I never thought about an In-N-Out in DCA and now I can't stop.

Unpopular opinion but: as good as the WestCot idea was, the chances were VERY likely that it would have suffered many of the same problems and messes that Epcot currently faces. So perhaps it was for the best that it was never made. I would like the next Disney park to be a creative new concept and not a copy/clone of a park that we already have.

Ah yes, my pure masterpiece

The problem with California adventure park initially was that there was no MAGIC. I was an annual pass holder and was interviewed several times. I told them the park lacked Disney magic. All of the mini California stuff was redundant in a park in California. The annoying music choice when you walked near the wave area. I'm glad that they have made changes.

A California themed park in the middle of California, what a great idea

It's telling that on the "Imagineering History" doc on the Disney+ channel, even they note how they made so many mistakes with this and had to try and fix it later, calling it one of the biggest missed opportunities in company history. They even repeat the exact same complaint of the last twenty years: "Why would you devote a theme park about California IN California?"

Funny, the only two attractions I can remember from my one and only vis to this dismal park during its early years was Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Soarin’ over California. The rest was like a bad hangover where you can’t remember what the hell happened.

I still stand by my opinion that Superstar Limo would be amazing at a small amusement park in the middle of nowhere. It was so bad it was good.

Westcot would've been so cool if it was built. At least the concept for DisneySea was revived for Tokyo's second park plan. It is indeed an amazing park. While DCA had a rocky start, it has gotten so much better

"Don't worry, Mom. I'm gonna hide you in the one place no one would ever think to look... Disney's California Adventure!"

The choice of "California" for a theme wasn't necessarily a mistake. The execution was. Hard to image ANY theme with a total budget of $600 million for an entire park not falling short.

As a life long Californian I loved most of the old DCA, especially Sunshine Plaza. There was nothing better than going to Clarabelle’s getting an ice cream relaxing at one of the tables listening to The Beach Boys or The Mama’s and The Papa’s while watching the water feature and the sun sculpture. It totally made me feel at home as the plaza reminded me of my favorite local beach, Avila Beach. Plus I cannot afford to travel the whole state, getting to go to one theme park and getting to see different aspects of my home state was very enjoyable. Oh how I miss the toy store that was right there too. I loved the trains as store fronts.

I don't even want to imagine how packed Disneyland would be without DCA...

Honestly, I think it’s fair to say that DCA has come a long way since it’s debut in 2001. Although I think it has a bit of an identity crisis much like Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Disneyland had a Bathroom of Tomorrow on opening day and DCA a bathroom quality attraction with Super Star Limo,.

First of all, love your videos! Second, I think when DCA was rededicated in 2012, I finally felt like it was going in the right direction with the time periods and such, then started to take a step backwards with guardians of the galaxy and especially all of Pixar pier.

Disney California Adventure should’ve opened in 2000 for the new millennium and the 45th anniversary of Disneyland and should’ve had some pretty cool stuff planned and prepared for the new theme park with a big budget and a much better theme similar to Epcot, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Tokyo DisneySea, and the newer Disney California Adventure we already have!

For those in the know, the finger of blame is directly pointed at Paul Pressler. It was NOT a series of unconnected errors, it was series of decisions made by Paul Pressler. Pressler spawned the idea of DCA during that retreat. Pressler promised Eisner he could build the park for a 10th of the planned budget. Pressler decided not to use imagineers and buy premade attractions. Pressler decided to use all the puns that fell flat. Pressler made the choice to reduce theming to the bare minimum. DCA original name should have been Pressler's Folly, for it was by him and him alone the new park tanked. In fact, Pressler's cost-cutting measures eventually got people killed, which got him fired (yes, he was fired).

We should take a second to realize how far DCA has improved since opening days. Although it doesn’t compare to DL it definitely is now a park you have to visit.

you guys deserve so many more subs ; good quality, high effort videos yet not enough subs. ill be sure to tell my friends about your channel

Tumblr & RU-vid: LOOK AT DISNEY'S FAILURE! Me: Which one? We got Euro Disney, California Adventure, Mars Needs Moms, John Carter (sorry John, I like your movie, but it lost like 200 mil), The Black Cauldron, The Lone Ranger, pretty sure Home on the Range was a failure, then they decided to fire all their animators, pretty sure reopening the parks when we're still in the middle of the pandemic- look, this is from the 80s to fairly recently, which failure are we talking about?

So happy I went to DCA in its first year. I was only 12 but quickly realized the boardwalk only had 4 beach boys songs they put on repeat all day haha. And got to ride superstar limo. What a mess

I live very close to Disneyland and used to have an annual pass years ago. We only ever went to DCA to kill time before going to concerts at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney. We'd go and get a nice fresh and free tortilla as a snack and ride a couple rides. DCA is great for that kind of thing. Its gotten better over the years but they just don't have the room to expand in a way that would make another great park

I really loved this In depth video! Thanks once again for entertaining us in these weird times!

Eisner became terrified of losing money after the initial failure of Euro-Disneyland. He never recovered, and went from an ambitious, creative CEO to a play-it-safe ROI obsessed number-cruncher. We lost Beastly Kingdom and Dinoland, U.S.A. became a parking lot replica (literally, look down at the "theming"), but luckily Animal Kingdom was too far along to make significant more cuts. On the flip side, though, this meant DCA bore the brunt of Eisner's parks division cost-cutting. DCA and Disneytoon studios were the culmination of his play-it-safe, appease the investors approach that nearly destroyed the Disney brand and ultimately forced Eisner out.

I love grizzly river run and wouldn’t change a think about the theming or layout but I think Disney should change the name related to the Disney movie of “Brother Bear” to keep with the Disney movies changes and even promote this movie a little more because I get why they chose a bear due to it being California but the brother bear along with the bear mountain just makes sense!!!

I worked at Disneyland...well Disneyland Hotel in the bars from 1994 to 2004. I remember all this going on, the Westcot, the other rumors, etc. I also remember going on cast preview days, and thought, WTF? It was like a mall with rides. And then found out, it was designed by mall designers people. And the fact that they had a McDonalds for triple the price. You that nailed every part of that history that most skip over. Good job!

I like what it’s become except for the boardwalk they rebranded

Plus, Knotts Berry Farm is just down the street and is more fun (and cheaper)

I went to Walt Disney Studios in Paris in January 2020 and they had 6 things to do there and that's including 2 shows (Lights Motors Action & Stitch Live) and 1 county fair ride copy (RC racer). It was absolute thievery they get away with charging the same price for THAT as the actual Disneyland Paris park. It was still worth it, DCA needs to have a Crush's Coaster of their own. That ride was a blast!

If walt were alive he would’ve never approved California adventure

I was actually going to go opening year, but took 2 vacations that year pre & post 911. Silver Dollar City & Six Flags St. Louis & Walt Disney World in the fall season. I finally made it there. Monsters Inc (had replaced SSL) There were a few "cute" things about the park, but it was mostly a slightly "glorified Six Flags" Yep! Hopefully lesson learned (Don't go cheap when designing a Disney Park) Or as they say "buy cheap, Buy TWICE"!!!

Also, we can't forget Cynthia Harriss contribution of encouraging the focus on retail and restaurants.

Michael Eisner built the bizarre California Adventure

TheRe’S haRdly AnytHinG cAlifoRnia in CaliFoRniA adVentUre. True, which is why they should change the name of the park so we can stop getting this annoying statement from people.

Ur telling me We almost had a Disney sea in Long Beach?! Gosh darn it

I will say, in regards to this video, that there was a place to eat in the Hollywood backlot called "Hollywood and Dine." It's most recently been the building that a part of an F-15 sticks out of with a Captain Marvel meet and greet. However, back in the wee early days of this park it was a cafeteria style restaurant and their little Asian corner served one of the most amazing Sezchuan beef/chicken (It has been a long time) dishes. It was so dumbly good, I miss it to this day. It probably helped that my Dad was in Guest Services at the time so we were able to get "sneak peak" visits to the park. I miss that Sezchuan meat thing so much to this day.

"There certainly weren't going to be 15 In-N-Outs" Although that would certainly pull people into the parks. It's practically impossible to find In-N-Out outside of California and Arizona.

March 2001 I was at California adventures with the jazz choir from high school for the magic music days competition my favorite part was the street dance with the swing band I thanked my grandma for the swing dance lessons she made me take when I got home it was so much fun.

Lol, ah great video as always! Also, unrelated but loved y’all me collaboration with Fastpass Facts and the other channels on the Retired Universal Attractions! See y’all in the next video!

In the years to come, I think history will look back more fondly on the Eisner era than the Iger.

Your contents so great guys! Keep it up 😄

When it first opened I remember getting that...“ok, what do we do now?” Feeling after a few hours inside the park.. Fast forward to today and I think it’s a much better park that is only improving, I also think that they should consider revising the name since It’s clearly heading towards a studio park.

Looks like every CEO tries to make a new park/land to leave behind as their "legacy" but always end up failing. Eisner had DCA and Iger had Galaxy's Edge. I hope the next CEO doesn't try to make a crappy water park next to Disneyland and DCA. I'm starting to see a pattern here. 😑

DCA: the park that cost more to renovate then it was to build

Great video! Also nearby Knott's Berry Farm always had the California theme.

Now that I think about it, I feel like Disney should have known that having a whole park themed around California inside California wouldn't work, since they used the opposite logic used for DCA when deciding not to put New Orleans Square in Walt Disney World. Disney believed that since Disney World would be so close to the real New Orleans that it would be better to just replace the land in its entirety with Liberty Square. For reference, the driving distance from the Magic Kingdom park to New Orleans is about 648 miles according to Google Maps. On the other hand, the driving distance from DCA to California is ZERO MILES because it's already in California! Even driving from DCA to the northern border of California using I-5 the entire time is only marginally longer than from Magic Kingdom to New Orleans, measuring in at about 687 miles. It just seems so weird that Disney used sound logic to decide not to create a specific land at Disney World because it's too close to the original, then take that logic and throw it completely out the window and make an entire park based around everything surrounding it.

$3.50 for bottled water is nuts!!

The Target Audience for Superstar limo were my cousin's who were child actresses, they loved the ride. One of them at her first movie premiere comment it was just like Super Star limo for real....

I remember going to DCA as a kid when it opened and thinking that DCA was better then Disneyland. Now that I’m older I question my self, do I just like trash?

Dominic, I'd like to clarify a few good points you made but mostly add the one HUGE salient point about DCA's initial failure. First, yes, the theme of California was a bad choice but for one particular reason. In your great video, you mentioned international and out of state guests probably seeing the REAL California on their visit, but Disney research showed that wasn't true, and that most didn't take the time and expense to visit, for example, Yosemite or the Redwoods or the deserts because the state is huge and travel time and cost would be limited in most cases to L.A./Hollywood/Disneyland, San Francisco, and then off to Vegas and gone. BUT...we must remember when comparing Disneyland to WDW that there is one ever-present-since-day-one difference: About 80% of WDW guests are from out of town, whereas 75-80% of Disneyland guests ARE indeed local (at least within 400 miles or so which is the SoCal definition of Local) and people who LIVED in California most likely HAD seen the sights of the Golden State and didn't have as much interest in a "Disney version" of them. Second, sure there were lots of restaurants, but considering they included such "brand names" and star quality as Wolfgang Puck, Robert Mondavi Winery, the famous San Francisco Boudin Sourdough Bakery, that wasn't exactly a bad thing, and certainly "Downtown Disney" which also happened at that time was wall-to-wall restaurants by celebrity chefs and enterprises and THAT made competition between those and the inside the park places an issue when you could just have your hand stamped and return later. Third, the relative dearth of classic Disney IP in the original DCA was a problem, one now fixed bigtime with the Pixar characters inclusion. The use of classic 1920's/1930's Hollywood architecture, which is fun at Disney Studios in Orlando (for example, the replacement of a famous old veterinarian's office that has a neon dog out front from that period with Pluto and other witty twists on the originals) again works great in a different place, but there's not much novelty interest in a park the majority of which is architecture that people drive past once a week or more in their normal SoCal commutes. Fourth, yeah SuperStar Limo was AWFUL, but remember that was a time when Eisner's regime was inputting lots of 2nd tier DIsney-contract TV stars into everything--look at the awful revamp with Ellen DeGeneres of Universe of Energy at EPCOT and other uses of these, what would have been called "B-Picture" folks in other shows and things in all the parks at that time. Bad idea and then some, but not exclusive to DCA. Throw in the off-the-shelf rides and the "Yeah, it IS a pierside old fashioned amusement park but Disney's version!" isn't enough to draw a big crowd when the utterly unique Disneyland is just a few steps away. HOWEVER...there was one ENORMOUS flaw in the plan that you failed to note and really, truly is the core financial stumbling block that brought the park down: Disney absolutely refused to offer "park-hopper" two-parks in a day tickets of any kind for the first couple of years of operation, and the largely-local guests faced the ever-increasing park entry costs, the issue of the long drive on the freeway from HOME to come have a single DAY of fun, and said, "I'm not going to risk going through all that and the parking and crowds and costs on a "maybe I'll like it" when a sure thing called Disneyland that's become an annual family tradition is right there. People simply didn't give DCA much of a chance when it meant paying another $80 or more AND depriving them of hours of fun at the one and only original. As you might imagine, I'm a native 2nd gen Angeleno who, born in '53, more or less grew up with Disneyland "in the neighborhood" and I cannot tell you how many people told me they just couldn't justify the effort and cost, especially those "Commuters" from the surrounding areas (L.A. County alone without Orange County, San Diego, Santa Barbara, the Desert, or even Vegas which sends residents into SoCal often on vacation) who had to drive for hours and plan way ahead and spend serious money to do their beloved Disneyland and basically said "If it ain't broke, don't fix it--I'll see it SOMEday, but not today, thanks." WHen you consider that 75-80% locals audience, that was a death knell for DCA at the start (and it really wasn't as bad as you made it out to be--not great, but certainly very good for what it was trying to be and with innovative attractions like Soarin' and then Tower of Terror it had enough wow factor to overcome anything BUT the time/money argument. I still say that IF Disney had been willing to "loss leader" a park-hopper twofer ticket at, say, 1/3 again as much as a solo Disneyland ticket, they'd have gotten a LOT more curious folks who would have possibly overlooked the dogs like Superstar Limo and really enjoyed a glass of Mondavi wine, a Puck pizza, and a thrill on the coaster which they could NOT get at Disneyland. SO...I think ultimately that was the financial error of all errors that caused the problem, and you'll note they did NOT commit to the revamp and rebuild UNTIL they also put in the two-park pricing and people could stroll from one to the other easily. NOW, with the Avengers campus coming to DCA soon (whenever it finally opens post-COVID that is) and the amazing Cars Land success, DCA is a great park--not Original Disneyland great, but then, the various copies and "Magic Kingdoms" in Florida and worldwide will never, ever be Disneyland either. ANYhow, that's my two cents on DCA. Thanks for all your great videos and insights. Love them and I hope this little essay helps broaden your perspective on DCA, too.

Omg I need the Studios Paris video now!!!

I went to DCA for the first time in '07, during it's low years. I was only 11 at the time. These are the attractions I remember: 1. Soarin' Over California. Lots of fun, I loved the pine and orange scents they used, though looking back they were a bit excessive and fake. 2. Grizzly River Run: Was fun, especially on a hot day, but I seem to recall it had an awfully slow line. 3. Tower of Terror: A smaller, slightly crappier version of the one in Florida. This was probably my favorite, and got my into the twilight zone. 4. The Aladdin Show: This was a fun one. You could kick back and relax after a long day of walking, and there wasn't much of a line since it was just show up when the show starts. 5. California Screaming: A nice, fun ride. The only roller coaster I could ever get my mom to go on. I seem to remember the lines were actually somewhat fast moving. Still nothing compared to actual roller coasters like those you find at Magic Mountain. But this one had music. 6. Sun Wheel: Horrendously slow line, but offered a good view. Those swinging gondolas actually were a new exciting experience for me. 7. Maliboomer: I actually enjoyed this one and was sad when it was taken down. 8. Mulholland madness: I never rode this one. Mainly because it was basically just a carnival style kiddie car ride, but anyone who's been to a county fair knows more about these things. 9. The orange swing thingy (or whatever it was called): Let's be real, this one is crap. The ugly orange enclosure blocked most of the views around the park, and it's more a county fair tier ride than something you would expect at a disney park. Putting decent lighting and having it be outside would have probably helped a lot, but I still feel this was more of a filler ride to inflate the number of attractions. 10. Food: This is there the park really struck out. All I remember about eating is that it was an ordeal. Food wasn't that great, and it was overpriced as hell. I'm sure it's improved a lot since then. 11. Monsters inc ride: Colorful, charming and relaxing, but a bit boring. 12: Electric light parade: Fun to watch, but it was obvious to everyone that it was being used to try and get more people into the park. You wished it was still at disneyland. 13: Parades: I seem to recall it being some high school pep rally theme, and then it became high school musical. The girls in our group loved that. I also remember a lot of bubbles, but the music they played at the main parade was a short song on a loop and got repetitive fast.'' And that was about it. You knew the park wasn't taken as seriously as Disneyland and was hurting. The atmosphere came off as rather fake and forced, unlike the immersive experience you get in Disneyland.

I think the mistake is that they’ve been ruining the park in the last few years, turning paradise pier into a cheaply themed hogpodge of pixar properties and turning the tower of terror into guardians despite it being a good ride it just weakens the identity of the park and retheming soaring over califonia into a cheaply made around the world version. And the fact that the pier now has four spinning attractions (carousel, inside out, the flying zeppelins and silly symphony swings is just obscene out of all the rides from bugs land why flicks fliers but DCA had a good five years 2012-2015

As someone who grew up in another state, California actually had very strong branding at least until the turn of the century (which is when this park would have been designed). It was considered the place people wanted to be and the vanguard of pop culture. Its stock has dropped considerably in the past decade or two and people are no longer particularly excited to eat its raisins.

I personally think that if they decided to do a West Coast theme Park as opposed to just California, they could have done a lot more. Paradise Pier could have easily just been the California themed area and The Wharf area could have easily been made to look like Portland and the grizzly Forest could easily be a Seattle themed area. And oh look three massive areas are still left to do stuff with! LOL

DCA is awesome now! I am so glad they fixed their mistakes. The park is great now.

4:34 I had to smile that they thought of a Theme park about California in California, while staying at Colorado.

Used to park with my grandma on the site of DCA, ah nostalgia. Actually I’ve always loved DCA, even now miss some of the long-gone spots like Bugs Land. Kids were small then, so good timing for us. Partly liked it bc was fairly quiet! Now (in normal times) it’s crazy packed & not quite as delightful. Oh well, I guess that’s progress.

What could have been had EuroDisney not been a failure

Hindsight is always 20-20. Probably plenty of people called on the carpet with questions like "Why shouldn't I fire you right now?"

OMG, do the Walt Disney Studios Park next please. Cant wait for the upgrades to come there

What I remembered most about Disney’s California Adventure was the nightmare parking lot situation during construction and the emptiness of the California Adventure park after 9/11.

This program sums up most of the missteps . Wrong people were put in charge of creation. Local guests were not properly targeted. The budget was just not properly adjusted.

Yes!! I always look forward to your content!

With the Mark Twain "sinking", you have to keep in mind that back then people probably wore their "sunday clothes" to the park. Like..suit and tie.

Everything could be fixed if they just stuck with a hub/lands concept. Then large 'lands' could be replaced/rethemed. Instead they made an absolute mess of the layout (possibly intentionally designed to just waste peoples time to keep them out of Disneyland?) and it will always be terrible no matter how good small sections of it are (like Cars land).

Speaking of penny pinching, have you NOT heard of Bob Chapek?

If he didn’t tell anyone, how did we find out about it? Lol 😁❤️

Wow that place was dead from the start

Ayyy so now it’s that video about Walt Disney Studios, right..? Oh Jeeze.. this one is gonna be bonkers

I think a pretty cool seaside amusement park that celebrates the Jersey Shore and Cape May County would be perfect in the middle of Cape May itself and can pay homage to not only to Cape May and its history but also other shore towns in the south Jersey Shore!

It would be like building the New York-New York Hotel/Casino in actual New York

I've never seen California Adventure as a mistake. It's one of the only two Disney parks I've ever been able to go to and I cherish it, though I was sad to see the Soap Opera Bistro removed.

A lot of weight is put into the thought that executives actually thought people would want to see the the Disney versions of what the state had to offer over the real thing. Did they really tho? I think that was a talking point that got out of hand from fans who saw the cheap. Proof that the CA theme itself wasn't a mistake is the 1.7 billion they poured into fixing it from 2008 - 2012. It was in the original creative execution and budget of the original park and making it modern "hip & edgy" theme that made it suck, combined with the over saturation of restaurants and shops. DCA is a welcome center to California, Why CA in CA? because it's celebrating that it is the only state that could offer this kind of mix of time period themed offerings, Mountains, Seaside Pier, Route 66, Hollywood and best of all an entrance of the time period Walt himself arrived to LA in the 1920s, a perfect thematic blend from it's big brother across the esplanade. Food for thought. :)

If you can’t get guest into the doors lower the price, is all supply and demand.

Best channel ever. Great job!

Superstar Limo should’ve been planned as a much different ride!

Great informative video! 👍🏼

I was born in 2002 and I rarely went to Disneyland or California Adventure. Only in 2011 when I was still a schoolchild. I thought it was strange to have a California theme park within California of which that I live in. I am glad they improved the park though with IPs that make the park feel more like a Disney experience.

Walt specifically did not want a pier type amusement park with cheap rides and alcohol, so the brilliant minds behind DCA built a pier type amusement park with cheap rides and alcohol. Can’t imagine why people used to Disneyland didn’t care for it.

DCA has definitely evolved into something good for sure (which is why it makes little sense why it closes down 1-2 hours earlier than Disneyland), but when it opened, it was just bad making the entire theme around it based solely on California. Seriously, most people in California don't need a theme park around California, if they wanted to go to those places, we'd drive there and make a 1-2 day trip out of it and then go back to our lives, we didn't need a theme park around these real places. With what they're doing now though, it's really going into it's own. Hell, I would love for them to implement a dark ride based around Brave in DCA's wilderness area.

I went in 2003 and loved it but after about 3 hours we had nothing to do

California Adventure is now a great park. The California idea wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t done right. Funny how now a lot of people are sad that the California theme is leaving. Epcot is ok, but I would say that’s my least favorite US Disney park.

The existence of Walt Disney Studios Park 1.0 makes DCA 1.0 like a heaven art of Disney.

I've seen quite a few of these videos and it never seems to shock me how bad tbis park was when it opened, to see how amazing it is today and was only gonna get better with Avengers campus opening tbis summer. Man I miss it this place I'm happy I was there a week before it closed bit it still feels like it's been forever!

This is why I hold no worry or concern for Disney Parks when headlines read "Disney Parks lose $1 Billion from COVID closures." Granted, that's still a lot of money but for a business like Disney, between cuts, other ventures, and just "(cost of tickets) × (number of visitors annually)" they got before the Plauge, they won't be hurting financially for long.

Man, Westcon actually sounded really great.

I would love to see a video on Geyser Mountain!

I mean, sure Micheal Eisner may have really gone down the hill threw the early 2000's, but atleast he built Original Attractions, not just adding stupid IP's to already existing Rides & lands like the current CEO. He built Original Lands, not just referbishing existing Lands to IP's & stuff. He also saved Disney from going bankrupt in the 80's, he's behind some of the most Loved Disney Classics from the 80's & 90's. The currwnt CEO doesn't care about the Parks, he only cares about the Money, I'd rather have Micheal Eisner back, then an cheap CEO anyday

And History repeats with the 2.47Billion Expansion of the Hollywood Studios Paris Park... and honestly, I'm super excited for the new lands. Hollywood studios park Paris has some good attractions, but is just the sidekick of magic kingdom in Paris as well...

Basically from development to conception to production and maintenance and insurance and changes that they've had to make to California adventure the money has continued to flow in a wrong direction and they really haven't made any money from California adventure it cost it more to maintain it actually cost to build it

I grew up in Orange, CA(right next to Anaheim) and loved Disneyland but had 0 desire to go to California Adventure. He was right...I lived in California...I don't need a park to take me there. I wonder if they had more adult rides and coasters, if it would have separated itself enough from Disneyland to draw more people.

There used to be a S&S drop tower?

I don’t agree that DCA was a mistake. Since they revamped it, it’s a lot better now.

Disney should have made a New York theme park to bring a slice of the Big Apple to California. A state that most Californians will never visit, either by choice or not

Please do a whole history of micheal Eisner and how many bad ideas he had lmao

Never under estimate Disney's finely crafted expertise for screwing things up !

One thing not mentioned here: DCA cost $600 million partly because they also had to spent almost $500 million on a massive parking structure and re-routing the power lines that used to run through the middle of the parking lot. (Instead of burying them they “hid” them behind California Screamin’.) Basically a LOT of money was spent on things other than the park itself leading it to being under-funded. I’m not saying that justifies the weak menu of the park; it’s just something that should be included when talking about the original DCA.