Goofy's Sky School - Explained

Well, the 'new' attraction has just now started soft testing to the public, and by the public I mean pASSholders, Disney site guys, and the tourists from Japan and Idaho. I'm not in any of these categories really, considering my blog is about my life and what I'm into, which happens to be a lot of things, but with this, I'm going to try to shut up as many complaints about this new ride as possible.

See, the thing is with this ride is that it's something that can be anywhere. And with that, it's understandable that people would expect Disney to put in something better than an attraction that can be found at a Six Flags, AND the Texas State Fair. However, with all the previous mistakes that WAS DCA 1.0, this is definitely better than what we used to have.

Some have said they should have taken it out just like they did the Maliboomer. But people don't realize that with a BILLION dollars, spread out all over the park, some things just don't get as much love as other areas will get. This COULD be a bad thing, but the fact is, the majority of money is put where the majority of the park is needed help with the most. Overall, the park NEEDS a new entrance. Spend a lot of money there to make it look like 1920's Los Angeles. The park NEEDS a new big land to anchor the park. Spend a lot of money there to create the desert region of south California/Arizona for CarsLand. The park NEEDS a big dark ride to rival Disneyland's model of original dark ride attractions. Spend A TON of money sending guests underwater for a fish party. Same goes for the night time spectacular World of Color, and Midway Mania.

So where does the rest of the money go? Smaller projects. Things like the restaurant revamp for Paradise Pier. The games revamp. Goofy's Sky School, and Silly Symphony Swings. Attractions and stores that essentially ONLY need a skin graph compared to the organ transplant the rest of the park is getting.

With Goofy's Sky School, all they did was re-paint the track, re-skin the cars, re-tarp the queue, re-design the Fastpass booths, add a new water tower as the queue entrance, and 2D animations throughout the attraction. Sure, it's not much, but with the execution of what they did, I think they did great, and if any imagineers read this that worked on the attraction, thanks for all your hard work on the attraction, it looks great, despite what others complain  say.

So now to answer what some are complaining about:

"Why is there a Chicken Farm on Paradise Pier?"

Why is there a band concert with a tornado on a pier? Why is there a lagoon that explodes in color at night in a lagoon? Reality doesn't have lagoons exploding with color. This is all fun and fantasy people. Let your minds rest and stop over analyzing. Here's the simple answer to the otherwise retarded question: There's a chicken farm in Paradise Pier, because it sits next to two restaurants. Eggs and chickens have to come from somewhere, right? Why not put a chicken farm next to a restaurant that y'know...serves things made with chicken and eggs?

"Why is there a Plane School on a Pier?"

Ever travel to the central coast? There's tiny little airstrips literally right next to the beach.


"This looks nothing like the concept art that I liked."


No duh. Concept art is just that. CONCEPT. Meaning its a thoughtful option. Silly Symphony Swings turned out nothing like what we got in the concept art, and World of Color has scenes in the concept art that isn't in the show. Things change all the time. There's always going to be things that are in or not in the art that will or won't become reality. 




People should really stop being so overly critical of small attractions and the changes Disney makes. They know what they're doing. Shut up and let them work play in the park and do what Walt always said: "Disneyland (changing it here, because of so many other Disney parks) and my other parks will never be completed as long as there's imagination left in the world."  

Closing Projects

Wow, can you guys believe that a few years ago we were all gawking at the major projects Disney announced? If you've been living under a rock and have no concept of what I'm talking about, here's a recap of what we've gotten, and what we're going to get.

What we've gotten:

Disney California Adventure

World of Color - a night time water show that is one part Disney magic, one part Bellagio fountains on steroids. It doesn't have a defining story, but it is a giant platform that is bigger than a football field, has all of the latest water fountains, projectors, lasers, flame throwers, and sounds systems, and takes you on a emotional journey through several Disney stories. This show is great for DCA because it can always change with just a few nights of testing and programming, so it will always be able to change with the park and times.

Silly Symphony Swings - Small change here. They took out this:

To Add this:

It's the same ride, just now out in the open, and has the story of the classic Mickey short "The Band Concert.


What is coming VERY soon:
This is what we're getting this summer.

Goofy's Sky School: It's the same ride, just with a new story of Goofy teaching you how to fly (based on the short "Goofy's Glider"). Here's some before/soon to be after shots:

Paradise Garden Grill:

It's the same dining area where Pizza Oom Mow Mow and Burger Invasion once stood. Now it's a victorian themed area with a new italian and mediterranean menu debuting later this summer.

The Little Mermaid: Ariels Undersea Adventure

This took over the theater that once housed Golden Dreams. Remember it? Y'know..the one with Whoopie Goldberg? No? Yea neither do I.

This attraction is currently in soft opening mode, with occasional openings throughout the day for the general public to enjoy. Basically its a big preview before the "official' opening.

It's pretty self explanatory. It's a ride with dey FishyGirl.
Don't think it's some super awesome E-ticket. That's next year. This ride is like DCA's fantasyland dark rides. Highlights of all the cool scenes from the film, but with super awesome, state of the art, brand freaking new animatronics. For those of you that don't know, an animatronic is a really awesome robot. Plain and simple.

before

after. much prettier, no?

There's some other minor things the park has gotten this year, but those aren't really the things that will draw the average guests in. These are. So, THIS is what we've gotten so far. Now lets see what we're GOING to get. 

Buena Vista Street

This is what I'm looking forward to the most. They're changing up the ENTIRE entrance to the park to look like REALLY old Los Angeles. No, not like when the first twelve people and a burro were there. A little younger than that. Let's say the 1920's. The golden age of L.A. The park is getting its own 'castle' so to speak. At the end of this street is going to be a full scale model of the Carthay Circle Theater....Theatre? Either way. It's going to be the focal point of the street. It's super awesome looking, and will be a great, big thing to take pictures of. Or just admire. Or try to sneak into the rumored exclusive, members only restaurant that'll be built inside. 

Carsland

This is actually being added ONTO the park. This area is where a parking lot used to be. But now, it's all going to be designed to look like Radiator Springs. Inside this desert new land, there'll be three rides, and a variety of dining areas. The rides include "Mater's Junkyard Jamboree" where you get to spin around with those tipsy tractors to hoedown music. "Luigi's Roamin' (hehe...get it? Roamin? he's...Italian? yea? Not punny enough? Fine.) Tires" where you get to sit on a tire, and play bumper cars with your friends.

Finally, the granddaddy of them all is Radiator Springs Racers. This ride will be taking you through the caverns of the Cadillac Range, to either Ramon's Paint Shop, or Luigi's tires, and then as the finale, you'll be racing side by side with another car! Think of it as a giant slot track for humans. 

Overall, it's a fantastic project that is really helping out California Adventure. The park was really suffering from the lack of guests visiting (compared to the nearly always busy sister park next door). But even now, with just over 1/2 of all the things open, the park's numbers have risen significantly, and I'm sure that the creative geniuses at Walt Disney Imagineering are already thinking of things to add to the park in the future. It's an exciting adventure, and I can't wait to see what else they have planned for this newly redesigned park. 

as a final note, here's a overhead shot of the ongoing expansion of the park. You can see the stage in the bay. That's World of Color's platform. All that dirt to the right of it, is Radiator Springs (Carsland). And that building to the top (north) of the water, is Little Mermaid's ride building. It's exciting to see so much construction go on, and see how everything progresses. The imagineers deserve a large amount of praise for their fantastic work that they do. They really do care to make the best things they can for the guests enjoyment and experience. Sure, they have a budget to work with, and some things may not end up looking like the original blue sky concept, but they always find the best way possible to work with what they're given, and they rarely disappoint. They've exceeded my expectations and thoughts of the park being re-designed already. There's always more to come, and I can't wait for the future. 

It's only the start of a great Adventure.