Wow, they're really getting ridiculous with the blockout dates. Is that the whole resort or just DCA?

The whole resort.

Bummer about no AP previews. And I don't really think I can make it to the Magic Entry early thingies and also make it to work on time. Oh well. Surprisingly, perhaps, I don't really care.

Curmudgeon alert - - and with the proviso that I say when I love things as well as when I don't. [cough]Floating Leota, Jungle Cruise piranhas, Little Mermaid ride [cough] - - but I hate DCA, and don't much care what they do with it. All the new stuff is nice, but it's like lipstick on a pig.

From what I've seen, the Carthay Circle Theater exterior is underwhelming as a theme park centerpiece. Perhaps it's like the difficulty of doing miniature water, but because the walls of the tower are so blank, the scale seems really tiny and not forced-perspectivy. The entrance will be very pretty, certainly better than the old one in every conceivable way - but also underwhelming compared with just about every other Disney park in the world. It's behind walls, so hopefully I'll be proven wrong when all is revealed.

Cars Land is looking very pretty, and I do want to sample the rides and explore the area. But I'm in no hurry. I'd rather wait till the crowds die down a bit. If a decent opportunity doesn't present itself by Disneyland birthday, that will be the day then. And likely my last at the Resort for a while. My AP expires the next day, and I don't plan on renewing for a while. It barely paid for itself this past year.

I think I'm most excited about Ghiradelli of all the new DCA offerings. Ice cream sundaes ... <<droooool>>. But DCA bores me. It's a failed concept of the most generic theme park imaginable ... and making it prettier, and with some better rides is not going to change its very nature.

You're getting slow in your old age Steve: there were 112 posts in this threads before your curmudgeonly-ness came out :)

I predict that crowds will not die down, at least not in the traditional sense, for years. Every boy in the country owns toys linked to the Cars franchise, and all the boys I know have t-shirts and shoes and blankets and dishes and backpacks and toothbrushes and oh yeah lots of Cars branded hot wheels, tracks, etc. I'm not kidding, this is way bigger than anything ever, an unprecedented juggernaut, and it's going to be a DCA game changer.

I'm with CP on this one. Since my last name is the same as Lightning's I notice all the merchandise. And it's right up there with Star Wars, Batman, Superman etc. There's a whole younger generation of kids that are growing up on it.

That's 2.5 BILLION dollars.

Hahaha, Star Wars not even in the mix anymore.

I always suspected that Cars, much more than Toy Story, was a film designed to sell toys. It's a pleasant movie, but just one of only 2 Pixar titles I don't like well enough to have in my stable at home. (Oh, nor do I have Cars2, which I haven't seen yet - but word of mouth on that one is abominable - so I guess it will be 3).

If that's the case I wonder if it will be enough to make a noticeable dent on crowds at Disneyland.

I wonder how long before the first angry guest screams at the CM when their "flying" tire doesn't move enough?