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The Bowler Hat Guys
Now that Bob Weis, as the head creative executive responsible for the DCA
makeover, has unveiled a bunch of the new attractions there's some suits back in TDA
who might have to remove some of the fun planned for the expansion.
The Luigi's
Roamin' Tires ride, a direct descendant of the Flying Saucers ride of the
1960's, has been the first to come under scrutiny from TDA's legal and safety
departments. Anyone who has been to DCA has seen how the lawyers and safety
police completely emasculated the Tuck & Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies kiddy
bumper car ride in Bugs Land. Those vehicles had their speed governed so low and
the momentum of the vehicles decreased so much that the term "bumper" should be
replaced with "lightly tapped."
So you can imagine the horror that swept through
the TDA offices when a wild, untamed 1960's concept like the Flying Saucers was
unleashed on the bubble-wrapped sensibilities of 21st century lawyers
and safety experts. There's plenty of work to be done on the Roamin' Tires
concept anyway, as the larger and heavier theme park visitors of today promise
to really test the ability of those saucer vehicles to work harder getting off
the ground than they did with the slimmer riders of the 1960's. But if TDA tries to
mandate a tall height requirement or age limit that precludes most kids from
riding, and then the engineers slap on a weight limit that prevents a lot of
adults from riding, WDI may have a fantastic new C Ticket that hardly anyone can
actually enjoy.
(This is a story still in its infancy, but we just wanted to give
you a heads up that there are already rumblings from TDA wanting explanations of
how exactly WDI plans to pull this one off.)
Greening DCA
There are a few other DCA concepts we had told you about months or years ago
that have morphed or changed into something completely different.
Anything will be an improvement
The Maliboomer
is still planned to go away, but instead of the new parachute drop in its place,
the plan now is to simply turn the ugly industrial-looking loading area into a
landscaped garden area with shade trees and bubbling play fountains. That's part
of the big push by WDI to make DCA's cold and sterile environments more
welcoming and "park-like." Hundreds of new trees will be planted all over DCA
between now and 2011, and sections that are currently swathed in cement will be
broken up with landscaped areas and gardens.
The jumble
On the other end of the pier, just past the new Midway Mania facility, is
another eyesore that WDI still hasn't quite figured out what to do with. The
area development around King Triton's Carousel and California Screamin's queue
is one of the least charming sections of the Paradise Pier area. Stamped
concrete, metal hand railings and cheap commercial-grade fixtures dominate this
area, and the contrast with the intricately themed Midway Mania facility next
door is going to be very striking come next summer.
The contrast from the Pressler era will be
acute
The worst example of DCA's
infamous cheapness can be found in the California Screamin queue itself, which
is just a series of cement switchbacks with metal handrails that has all the
charm of a Six Flags park.
The DMV is more glamorous than the Screamin'
queue
WDI had a plan to remake all of that area completely, turning California
Screamin' into a Disney villains themed coaster and moving the winding queue
into a ultra-themed Funhouse structure built inside the eastern helix of the
coaster itself. That's a project that would take at least two years however, and
require both the Carousel and the popular coaster to shut down for a lengthy
refurbishment. But that big project doesn't jive with the current plan to get
the middle section of the pier gussied up in a new theme and ready for a big
media party by next June. |
