Greg Maletic
Page 7 of 7
Aquatopia at Night
In Conclusion
…DisneySea is a fantastic park. It’s the first non-Disneyland park that will
truly remind you of Disneyland. Yet despite its great beauty, it’s not as bold as its
predecessor. Its execution is first-rate, but DisneySea doesn’t advance the theme
park experience. It doesn’t prove to me that parks have to be so ornately
constructed, with such huge budgets, in order to be worthwhile. It’s not so good that
it obsoletes the parks that preceded it, even California Adventure. It might sound like
I’m criticizing DisneySea here, but I don’t intend to. Not every park can be a
breakthrough; that requires a great confluence of creativity, technology, and economics
that can’t happen just by asking for it. It should be good enough that DisneySea is a
terrific park, and it is.
DisneySea’s biggest, splashiest moments are a bit of a disappointment. 20,000 Leagues doesn’t live up to expectations (it wasn’t just me: no one in my party was particularly impressed), and Indiana Jones is a solid but uninspired re-tread of what’s found in California. Not riding Journey to the Center of the Earth was a bitter disappointment, but even if it’s fantastic, I think I’d still have to say that the big-ticket items, though good, aren’t great.
DisneySea’s small moments seem much more special. (And when I say "small," it’s a misnomer, because in reality Aquatopia and Sinbad aren’t "small" and "simple"--they’re highly sophisticated. It’s a testament to the skill used in designing them that they seem simple.) Fortunately, this is a park that seems to understand these small moments, as Disneyland did when it first opened. Exploring the Fortress, riding the Transit Steamers around the park, boarding the Columbia, playing in Mermaid Lagoon, traveling on the Elevated Railway, wandering through the beautiful New York, New England and Mediterranean Harbors…they’re all exquisite experiences that resonate much more deeply than the park’s E-ticket attractions. The good news about DisneySea is that it tries to be Disneyland in all the little ways, and it succeeds. That’s exciting.
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-- Greg Maletic
Greg's column is not posted on a regular schedule.
The opinions expressed by our guest columnists, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future of Disneyland and the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
-- Posted July 2, 2002