Wow... its hard to believe that DCA has been open for two years already... it still feels like yesterday that rumors of a second park were flying around Anaheim and I was cutting out articles from the LA Times and reading in awe at the possibility of Westcot or Disneysea...instead we got DCA.... I have been trying to figure out all week what I want to say about the park. It seems to be one of the most talked and written about Disney parks over the past few years and almost everyone has an opinion on it. You have those who wish it was never built, those who assured it would fail, those who prayed it would improve someday, those who thought it was just the beginning of something great, and those who have heard its having problems. Over the past two and a half years we have been posting updates of the park as it was finished, opened, and started to grow. Regular visitors of the site have watched as the dirt turned to empty walkways which has now turned to mildly crowded park.

The park has started grow on people. Many frequent visitors like the escape to the "less crowded" park. Or jump over to catch a show, concert, or event. There have been some great events at DCA over the past year. The two that jump to mind first are the Beach Boys kick off of Rockin the Bay and the ABC Primetime Weekend. Both of which were awesome and we saw some of the largest crowds in the park since the preview days. Over the past few months we have seen some really positive changes in the park. The opening of Bugsland, Aladdin, and the soon to open Playhouse Disney are bringing DCA back to what makes a Disney park so great. Its the characters and stories. You would have thought that EPCOT would have shown that Disney parks need Disney characters, but somehow that lesson was not learned and DCA opened with very few characters. DCA was touted as having a different kind of entertainment, all of which has ended and traditional Disney has taken over and worked. The one problem I still have with DCA is that many of its attractions are still missing a backstory. The concept of the pier is fine and all, but it is just not that intrigueing to carry that many attractions. Where as GRR or Soarin each have their own story and that adds to them.

I think the park has started to turn the corner and is improving gradually. I think it still has a long way to go to be ranked among my favorite parks, but it is at least heading the correct direction. Its been a great experience to watch the park being constructed and following these awkward growing stages of it. I am sure in several years we will look back and laugh about how those first years were.

I went back through to look at what we visited this past year compared to year 1 of the park. The first year of the park we spent quite a bit of time on Soarin' and GRR. This year we visited the bread tour and the Sun Wheel the most. Not sure why this is true, but thought it was interesting to look at.

Year 3 of the DCA experiment should be interesting. Wonder what events will happen. Wonder if the crowds will show up. Wonder how long Aladdin will play to full houses. Wonder if they will ever add any night time entertainment to keep the park open past 8pm. Wonder if Superstar limo will be better received when it reopens. Wonder if Playhouse Disney will solidify the parks appeal to young kids. Wonder if Golden Dreams will ever play to a half full audience in the afternoon/evening again. Wonder if Goofy's Beach Party will ever be replaced.

It should be a fun year.... I look forward to it...

Do you have any comment to share, or maybe a counter opinion to ours? If so stop by the disneygeek forum and share your thoughts.