Cars Land

After more than a decade in existence and $1.1 billion in renovations, Disney California Adventure still probably needs another billion dollars in improvements before it can be worthy of the Disney name. RELATED: Disney park braces for 'carmageddon' as Cars Land opens As the hoopla surrounding the grand reopening of the Anaheim theme park dies down, I thought it would be a good time to take a look back at what DCA was, has become and could be. REVIEWS:   Cars Land  |  Radiator Springs Racers  |  Mater's Junkyard Jamboree  |  Luigi's Flying Tires  | Buena Vista Street The story of DCA actually starts way back in 1991 when Disney announced plans to build the $3-billion Westcot in the old Disneyland parking lot. For myriad reasons, the West Coast version of Disney World's Epcot was eventually canceled and new plans were unveiled for an edgy and hip 55-acre theme park celebrating California pop culture.

The opening of a 12-acre Cars Land expansion at Disney California Adventure Park fueled big crowds and long lines at the Anaheim park this weekend. Disney officials declined to disclose attendance numbers for the park, but Al Lutz, founder of the online Disney blog Miceage.com, reported Monday that California Adventure drew a record 43,000 visitors Friday, opening day for Cars Land. Lutz, who has a long history of disclosing behind-the-scenes information on Disney's two parks in Anaheim, said attendance hit 45,000 on Sunday.

Alhambra secretary Laurie Casado struggles each year to buy Disneyland annual passes for herself and her family, so the park's announcement last week that it was jacking up prices by up to 30% wasn't exactly good news. But Casado will buy the passes anyway and cut out something else. "I'll keep going because Disney is a big part of our lives," said Casado, who buys annual passes for her husband, daughter and two grandsons, ages 4 and 5. "But the price increase is so disheartening.

Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park sat out the theme park arms race last summer, when Disney's California Adventure and Universal Studios unveiled new multimillion-dollar attractions to entice visitors. But Knott's showed Thursday that it is still in the chase for new visitors, announcing the addition next summer of two rides and the reintroduction of an attraction that has been in storage for four years. The focus of the new attractions is family entertainment, not extreme thrills, Knott's spokeswoman Jennifer Blazey said.

When California Adventure opened in 2001, it was a baffling disappointment. Fans of Disneyland, legion and devoted, eagerly sought a wild and whimsical sister-planet and instead found something that resembled theme park as learning center - far too much space was devoted to approximations of various California topography and businesses, far too little to rides. More important, there were few, if any references to the films and characters that turned Disneyland into the Happiest Place on Earth.

Venture inside the walls of the Disneyland Resort and you'll encounter numerous wonders rarely found outside of Orange Country. This summer's reopening of the California Adventure park, for instance, attracted plenty of buzz with the introduction of Cars Land and a host of other rides and attractions not found at any other Disney-branded theme park. But the objects capable of giving visitors a true buzz have received much less attention. Relatively unnoticed in the California Adventure makeover is the park's increased offerings of craft beer.

Radiator Springs Racers is the kind of ride nobody but Disney can do. The new $200 million attraction in the 12-acre Cars Land at Disney California Adventure brings to bear all the theme park giant's strengths and abilities: immersive storytelling, detailed thematic scenery, life-like animatronic characters and the illusion of speed and thrill. PHOTOS:   Buena Vista Street  |  Cars Land  |  Radiator Springs Racers  |  Mater's Junkyard Jamboree  |  Luigi's Flying Tires  |  Carsland origins The E-ticket ride is so amazing that Disney may need to come up with a new attraction designation: F-ticket.

At first I thought it was too early to look ahead at the new attractions coming to U.S. theme parks in 2012, but then I realized a number of big rides have already been announced and many more are being teased in elaborate marketing campaigns. Photos : Most anticipated new U.S. theme park rides for 2012 It already seems like 2012 is shaping up as a good year for ride enthusiasts and theme park fans as the major industry players are planning to roll out big projects that have been on the drawing boards for a while.

As Disney California Adventure reaches the midway point of a $1.1-billion expansion, I'd like to take a speculative look at what Walt Disney Imagineering might have in mind for Phase 2 of the massive renovation project. DCA's extreme makeover was necessitated by the on-the-cheap, off-the-shelf nature of the nearly decade-old theme park that even Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger now calls "mediocre. " Phase 1, which began in 2008, fixes about a third of the flawed park.

Walt Disney Co. has struck a deal to bring flying banshees, giant blue aliens and other fanciful creatures from the blockbuster "Avatar" to its global theme parks, seeking to capitalize on the most successful film in Hollywood history. Disney reached a long-term, exclusive licensing agreement with "Avatar" director James Cameron and his producing partner Jon Landau, as well as the film's financier and distributor, 20th Century Fox, to develop theme park rides and attractions based on the 2009 hit and its two planned sequels.