February 23, 1998                           Disneyland Anaheim Resort Preview Center I had been hearing a lot, most of it negative, about the ongoing development of Disney's California Adventure theme park currently under construction next to Disneyland. I also heard that there was a preview center for DCA and decided to check it out for myself. What I discovered was that DCA is actually the centerpiece of a much larger project to develop Anaheim as a resort area along the lines of Walt Disney World in Florida (though not nearly as large in scope). It is important, I think, to remember that DCA is only one aspect (albeit a very important one) of a much larger develpment project (the numbers I heard were $800 million to develop DCA out of a total cost of $4 billion for the entire project). There has been much speculation lately about the project's development, even rumblings that DCA would be changed drastically or even scrubbed, but what I saw when I was there, like it or not, was a project well under way. Granted most of the work done so far has been infrastucture and there is certainly still time to make some changes no

doubt, but I would say that it appears that most of what they have planned is moving ahead. And while many seem to feel that DCA is ill-conceived, I think that the jury is still out. Besides, if you look at Disney's track record, it's probably safe to assume that there's something special brewing in Anaheim.

There is one little anecdote I would like to share. One of the more prominently displayed renderings of the Grand Californian Hotel illustrates the facade of the structure with a large sign that says "Hotel California". Obviously some Imagineers idea of a joke, but I was surprised it made it past Disney's notoriously buttoned-up managent.

There was a free brochure being given away at the preview center. Since many are likely interested but can't get to the preview center, I have scanned the graphic images in and made a web publication out of it. Note that all the words in the publication are straight from the brochure, not mine. Click on the image to look at the publication. I have also scanned in a map of the proposed resort area, but be warned that it is very large (125 Kb) and may take a while to download.

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