No, I'm not talking about the dismal attendance numbers for Disneyland's neighboring park since it opened, nor am I measuring its creative success or failure. Once upon a time, Disney's California Adventure had a shoot-the-chutes attraction on its roster: Wipeout. This ride in Paradise Pier never materialized. In fact, with the earliest initial plans of the Imagineers, this area wasn't even known as Paradise Pier but rather, Surf City. While not exactly Splash Mountain, the attraction would have added a bit of action on the bay, becoming another must-do winner to a section filled with spinners and ordinary carnival fare.
(Concept art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)
I was a CM at DL when they had a very simple preview center for DCA set up in the lobby of the Opera House. Those of us working there didn't get any briefing on what DCA was going to be, our only info was what was generally circulated and what we could glean from the various renderings in the preview center. I remember that this wipeout attraction was also featured on a large painting of the Roller Coaster and Sunwheel, though all you could see was the final splash down into the lagoon. It got people a lot more excited than the sunwheel did though.
ReplyDelete