Disney to take on new adventure

By Jina Tedmori
Daily Forty-Niner

ANAHEIM -- The magical kingdom is about to get even more magical.

Disneyland's long-awaited new theme park, California Adventure, and Downtown Disney are scheduled to open early next year.

The 55-acre, $1.4 billion park is scheduled to open in February and Downtown Disney is scheduled to open in January. However getting a look at the park before opens gives a very different perspective to how such a big project gets finished.

Downtown Disney, requires no entry fee and is located in between the original Disneyland and California Adventure. The downtown section is set up similar to the Block in Orange with landscaping and a feel of Fashion Island. It will consist of seven restaurant-bars, House of Blues, a movie theater and many shops. Downtown Disney is scheduled to open in January.

"We tried to design this as the perfect meeting place," said Mike Berry, senior vice president of Downtown Disney. "We studied places around the world to find out why people gather in certain spaces."

ESPN Zone is one of the many attractions in Downtown Disney and is being referred to as the ultimate sports bar. The bar will contain sports artwork, activities and private televisions. One of its most striking features is the amount of televisions. There is one the size of a large movie screen and others strategically placed throughout the bar. There are even televisions in the stalls of the restrooms. Behind the bar is an inside rock-climbing wall that keeps score.

The Hollywood-based House of Blues, which has expanded to many cities around the country, will also be a part of Downtown Disney. When facing the right of the House of Blues, there is a big wall covered in vines, which is the backside if Disneyland's Indiana Jones ride.

After the long walk through Downtown Disney the entrance to Disney California Adventures appears. The old Disneyland parking was transformed into the new theme park in less than five years.

"The intention of this park is to celebrate the history of California," said Barry Braverman, senior vice president and executive producer of Walt Disney Imagineering. "If you all remember in fourth grade when you learned the history of California, people moved here to create a better life and we try to represent that in the park."

The view of the entry gates of California Adventures is designed to look like a three-dimensional post card, according to Braverman.

Ceramic tile mountains creatively line both sides of the entrance. A replica of the Golden Gate Bridge is in the middle and the center focus is a titanium sun with a constant wave below it. To give the authentic look of a California sunset postcard, there are electronic mirrors that move with the sun to reflect light on to the titanium sun so that it looks like it is constantly shining.

"There is an attitude we were aiming for in this park," Braverman said. "Different from Disneyland, we want it to be more reality based, more hip and contemporary."

This new contemporary Disney style, is well represented by its new ride "Soarin' Over California." Holding 87 guests at a time, this flight-simulator ride flies over many well-recognized California areas. Seat carriages actually fly into a dome screen 40 feet above the ground and the scent of pine trees and oranges fill the room when the carriages fly over the scenery.

"We wanted a ride that all ages will enjoy," Braverman said. "It is thrilling but does not beat you up like others."

The park is divided into three different lands--Golden State, Paradise Pier and Hollywood Pictures Back Lot. All three are features California is known for, with an expanded Disney touch.

The center of Golden State is Grizzly Peak. This large rock is carved in the shape of the California icon--the grizzly bear. The river rapids ride, Grizzly River Run, was a hard task to complete, Braverman said.

The first idea for the big drop was to send the raft down in a spiral spin, but they soon realized, it would not work because the natural force would not allow it, Braverman said.
The engineers came up with an arm system to pull the raft at the beginning of the drop, but the creators did not know how fast to make it.

"So we went in the Magic Kingdom parking lot and tied a raft to the back of a truck and spun people at different speeds to see what was a good speed and what was nauseating," Braverman said.

Paradise Pier is the home of "California Screamin'," a roller coaster that launches guests from zero to 50 mph in less than four seconds.

The park has a noise limit that forced Disney to be creative with this ride and find a way to minimize sound. The result was the "Screamin' Tunnels," which are covers located over the spots where people are most likely to scream.

"The artist that wrote the music had to ride it six times to get an idea of how he wanted the music to sound," Braverman said. "By the time he was done his knees were buckling but he wrote a great set."

"Super Star Limo" is a ride that features guests as the stars. Located in Hollywood Pictures Back Lot, the ride takes each guest on a star sighting trip around Hollywood. Character figures of celebrities can be seen like Cindy Crawford, Tim Allen, Jackie Chan and many others. They are waving at the limousine while every magazine, newspaper and television show features the patron.

With its latest project close to completion, it is also interesting to note that Disney also owns an additional 55-acres on Harbor Boulevard that has remained undeveloped.

However Braverman said that there no plans at this point.

He said that after all the hard designing California Adventures and he anticipates the project's eventual completion.

"I look forward to resting," Braverman said. "Recouping and reacquainting with my children."

An artist's rendering of the main gate to Disney's new theme park, which displays a replica of The Golden Gate Bridge.

Gone Hollywood, located in the Hollywood Pictures Backlot.

An artist's rendering of "Downtown Disney," which will be located in between Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure, is scheduled to open Jan. 12.

The Paradise Pier area will feature The California Screamin' roller coaster.

Grizzly Peak, the centerpiece of The Grizzly Peak Recreation Area, which features a Red Wood Creek Challenge Trail and Grizzly River Rapids.