DCA's World of Color

[CoasterMatt]

Get "Pam Cooking Spray" to sponsor the show, then use the fountains in Paradise Park to hose everybody down, so they can slide as many people as possible into the park. Then at the end of the show, use giant shuffleboard sticks to slide everybody out for the next show.

[BarTopDancer]

The one positive in that article is that they aren't going to allow stragglers to stay behind for another show.

[scaeagles]

The whole experience sounds rather unpleasant, and it sure sounds like they are going to be selling the best seats, so there might not be a rush anyway. Nothing to rush for.

I would figure that they need to provide other options for people to exit. Didn't there used to be an entrance/exit near there for guests of the Paradise Pier Hotel? Opening that for an exit might be good.

[Alex]

Is going to be a nightmare because it is a crappy show or because it is a great show and the seating/crowd control is a mess?

Because I believe the latter was true of Fantasmic as well but eventually it got worked out.

[innerSpaceman]

I wouldn't say it got worked out exactly. That whole side of the Park is still a To-Be-Avoided area at night. If it weren't one of, if not THE nicest area in Disneyland, that might not be the craptacularity that it is.

But even so, can you imagine gathering a crowd for Fantasmic in Tomorrowland and then releasing them to run en mass through the hub and Frontierland to grab viewing spots for the show?

When this is revealed to be one-tenth the show that Fantasmic is, crowd control might not be an issue. But that won't happen this year. Unless of course - and don't think it could never happen again - this proves to be another Light Magic of disaster proportions. (I don't think that's the case, but I would have never imagined their idea of the Electrical Parade replacement being an unmitigated horror either.)

[innerSpaceman]

I'm reading Al's Update again because I'm just not getting something.

DCA's going to stay open later than usual, till 10pm. Except for Midway Mania, Paradise Pier will close at 8, so it can be all dark and abandoned by the first WoC show at 9;15. Don't even get me started on designing a water show in a lagoon surrounded by theme park on all sides that cannot be seen, and will not be allowed to be seen from the sides or the back.

No, what I'm wondering is ... if there's a show at 11:30 and the park closes at 10:00 - what do those 6,000 people do FOR 90 MINUTES??? Oh, and for 55 of those, they won't be allowed to wait in the show viewing area (another show will be on).


This is just bizarre.


And really, I thought seeing it from the back side of Paradise Pier would be inferior - but I never imagined it would be non-existent.

[Gn2Dlnd]

Huh. I only hope the rest of the world is as pessimistic about WoC as all you LoT. Much easier for me to get a good spot.

I've been following the progress of this thing pretty closely, even saw a run-through of the major show elements a couple of weeks ago, and, let me tell you, the show is jaw-dropping. No, it's not Fantasmic!, no it's not Light Magic. It's something of a cross between Remember Dreams Come True, the MSEP, the Bellagio fountains, and the psychedelic fever dreams of an acid-dropping NBC peacock.

That's not to say that the crowd-control plans may not overshadow the show itself, I hope they don't. Park management really needs to pull their heads out of their asses and stop looking at this as an opportunity to sell crap to a (literally) captive audience corralled in the Hollywood Backlot. If they open Hollywood and Dine, hire some live musicians, and keep the entire front part of the park open, they'll be ok. If they expect people to twiddle their thumbs in the backlot listening to a deejay, with possibly Muppets and the Animation Building open, they will have complaints on the magnitude of Light Magic. If the audience is miserable and grumpy after waiting an hour and a half on the other side of the park, 20 minutes of Julie Andrews herself waving a sparkler and singing the Sherman Brothers Greatest Hits won't make them happy. It'll be interesting to see what Disney management actually does. Right now, we're at the rumor stage, and I have no doubt that "Team Disney" pays close attention to the online chatter, just to see the response to the occasional trial balloon hoisted aloft by Al and all the other web mavens.

World of Color, the show, is amazing and will not replace Fantasmic! I can't imagine they'd want it to, Murphy was one hella expensive prop to add to a show they're trying to replace. DCA simply needed something on the order of a fireworks spectacular, this is that. Without the smoke inhalation.

I wouldn't be surprised if, by the 3rd week of this thing, they haven't figured out that a simple curtain will block the light from the Midway, allowing them to keep those attractions open during the show, and that people will happily watch this show from any angle, anywhere, and hope to get a better seat next time. After all, the youtube videos shot from the upper floors of the Paradise Pier Hotel are atrocious, and still demonstrate the mind-boggling hugeness of the show.

I do think they're going to make a killing in WOC ponchos, though.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Alex

Is going to be a nightmare because it is a crappy show or because it is a great show and the seating/crowd control is a mess?

Because I believe the latter was true of Fantasmic as well but eventually it got worked out.

I don't have any preconceptions about the show one way or another. I have never really quite understood why X has to be compared to Y. I think Y should be judged for what Y is rather than saying it sucks because it can never be X. After viewing it, if it sucks, it sucks....like the unfortunate experience I had viewing Fantasmic at WDW when we went there in 2008. Now THAT sucked, and in spite of how much I had heard it sucked prior to viewing it, I suppose I needed to see it for myself to make the judgment.

My concern is solely one of crowd control and the fact that large portions of the park will be completely shut down for hours to accomodate the viewing. I don't understand how their estimates of the size of the crowd able to view it could have been as far off as they are. Having experienced the crush of post Fantasmic crowds, I think 6000 people being funneled down the narrow walkway past Grizzley River Run as the only option for exiting the area is something that makes me.....uncomfortable, and I'm not claustrophobic.

[innerSpaceman]

I would have thought Disney would take a lesson from the nightmare they created when their fireworks show just "had to" be seen from in front of the Castle - instead of nice to be seen there, but fine from lots of other areas of the Park.

And I'm sure it's not going to be another Light Magic or Fantasy Waters or DCA itself (well, 90% sure). I just want to figure out, like any good AP, a crafty way to see it. I don't even mind a campout for the first time or two.


Do I have to go and post on MiceChat do have them read my reaction to their trial balloons of stupid ideas? I'm sure they don't read the 4 of us who still talk about Disneyland on the LoT.

[BarTopDancer]

I'm not pessimistic about the show, I am pessimistic about the crowd control. I used to think Disney did crowd control right even with the mass amounts of people. Then I got stuck in a literal crush of people that was pushing with nowhere to go. It was so bad I had my first, and thankfully only panic attack.

I have no desire to get stuck in that type of situation again. So I'll wait and see what comes out of the crowd control feedback. I'd like to see it before my pass expires, but I'm not counting on it.