Thoughts on a stay at Disneyland and its hotels

So after a family trip to Disneyland I am left broken and exhausted.  Seriously Disneyland attacked my wallet and it was super effective. Their Pacific Cove Hotel was sort of a dump cleaned up to be a quasi Disney hotel and the food sucked.  The Grand California was nice and the dinner we got their was really good, crap if it wasn't nearly the same price as the cafe at the Pacific Cove.  Really after going I think Disneyland needs to be somewhere else.  The drive sucks, the weather was right crap and barring California adventure they don't have much room.

What I would sort of like to see would be a second park in California.  This is actually not a new idea Walt himself had an idea for a ski park.  My thought is for a second park somewhere in the King City to San Luis Obispo area.  The idea is a park with better weather near a major city.  The drive would be easy for the San Francisco greater bay area. Land would be cheap in that area which is key to this.  So now you have something with room to grow if a large enough plot of land is purchased, still with draw from a college town and surrounding area.

What I would do with the park is originally set it up with a western theme, in almost a dude ranch style.  Frontier land and the Country Jamboree BBQ sections of Disneyland proper could be replicated here.  Really they could be expanded as well, perhaps recreating the country bears experience and much of the original Disneyland frontier land.  Or better still recreating the full Frontier Village theme park from San Jose. The benefit for Disneyland is they could rework those areas of the park to feature new rides without the full destruction of long time rides.  This second park could eventually become a sort of museum park for past Disneyland rides.  Barring Disney it could be park that recreates other small family parks that have closed, becoming a collector of past park rides.

I suggest this for Disneyland because it is slowly becoming something you can't change.  That sounds funny considering how often they change their rides and attractions.  If you really look at the park critically you are going to see their is a large portion they can not change.  They can not change the entrance or the main street area as those are part of every ones vision of the park, as is the sleeping beauty castle.  Pirates has changed but that ride isn't going anywhere and its the same for the Haunted Mansion.  The rivers and island are integral to fantasmic so they will not be changing.  Some rides like Dumbo and the tea cups are so classic to the park no one would let them be changed.  Even that terrible small world has a life time pass.  Facing the reality of Disneyland the better the imagineers do with a ride the more chance it has of becoming a classic that becomes a permanent fixture of the park.  Eventually the park will become immutable.

The park will need more space at some point.  That means taking over California Adventure which is sort of the same as Disneyland or moving.  California Adventure seems sort of like Disneyland in its infancy, the rides sort of suck but the ideas are there.  I am sure they will get better but then you have the same problem that is occurring in Disneyland, good rides stay and eventually you have a space problem again.  I really think a second Californian park with several times the spaces of the existing Californian properties is an idea worth thinking about.  It would also allow for a greater number of suites and micro hotels that live within the park itself.  Imagine a themed haunted hotel that shares the building space as the Haunted Mansion.  Perhaps quests could even be required or encouraged to wear period attire.  I wouldn't be down with that but I know some folks would be all over it.  I am thinking of a five to ten person bed and breakfast sized place don't get me wrong.

So there you go Disney or anyone else grand idea for free courtesy of your friendly neighborhood crescent star.