The Doom (and Hopeful Rebirth) of California Adventure

John Frost delivers an excellent assessment on The Disney Blog of why Disney's California Adventure was extremely problematic and essentially doomed from its inception. The desire to court the Asian market was something I had never been aware of:

"But, in order to understand why the second gate has been such a failure you have to understand what its purpose was in the first place. Disney Management wanted to expand Disneyland from a 1-2 day experience to a 3-4 day experience for out of town visitors. They also wanted to recapture a market they had been slowly losing to Las Vegas... the Asian market. These money laden customers used to stop at Disneyland as part of their trip to Las Vegas, but when Las Vegas launched their huge themed hotel expansion, Disneyland lost a little of its uniqueness and became an option instead of a destination."

DCA, and the subsequent missteps of Disney Studios Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland represent a very distinct low point in the history of Disney theme parks. DCA's billion dollar "relaunch" is certainly a hopeful sign, not just for that park, but for all the Walt Disney Company operated theme parks.