2017 is a year full of brand new theme park concepts and attractions being brought to life in Central Florida. It is also a year where both Disney and Universal try to fundamentally change the way you enjoy modern theme parks.
Disney has been a game changer for the amusement park industry since they opened Disneyland in 1955. They basically created the concept of an immersive theme park and have continued to improve and build upon that philosophy throughout the decades. When Disney introduced FastPass in 1998 with the opening of their brand new Animal Kingdom park, they changed how guests waited in line by creating a reservation system that expedited wait times. The creation of MyMagic+ and FastPass+ changed the game by making it digital and allowing guests to make reservations from a mobile app or from the comfort of their own home well ahead of their trip to Walt Disney World. They also introduced interactive queues to make waiting in a long standby line not quite as painful by giving everyone things to do and interact with. The fact is, waiting in a line is what people dislike the most about modern theme parks and Disney's chief competitor Universal Orlando has something to say about it.
Disney has been a game changer for the amusement park industry since they opened Disneyland in 1955. They basically created the concept of an immersive theme park and have continued to improve and build upon that philosophy throughout the decades. When Disney introduced FastPass in 1998 with the opening of their brand new Animal Kingdom park, they changed how guests waited in line by creating a reservation system that expedited wait times. The creation of MyMagic+ and FastPass+ changed the game by making it digital and allowing guests to make reservations from a mobile app or from the comfort of their own home well ahead of their trip to Walt Disney World. They also introduced interactive queues to make waiting in a long standby line not quite as painful by giving everyone things to do and interact with. The fact is, waiting in a line is what people dislike the most about modern theme parks and Disney's chief competitor Universal Orlando has something to say about it.
This year, Universal Studios Florida will open Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon, a strange concept for a theme park ride that serves as both cross promotion for parent company Comcast's NBC network as well as yet another new 3-D simulator attraction for the park. The attraction opens officially on April 6th, but has been holding Technical Rehearsals for the past month or so and I was lucky enough to check out the attraction myself.
The experience begins with you obtaining a return time at a kiosk located to the right of the attraction entrance. This is a one hour window similar to Disney's FastPass+ system. One member of your party scans their Universal ticket and selects how many people are in your party and which window they would prefer. Then the kiosk prints out a ticket to hold onto. The process took maybe a minute or so, which was wonderful and will supposedly come to Universal's new app once the attraction officially opens. When your window begins, you return to the attraction entrance and enter a lobby waiting area. You are then presented with a colored ticket that features one of the five colors in NBC's logo. The lobby waiting area is essentially a free flow museum to NBC's The Tonight Show and features props and displays for each of the show's hosts. This is a nice way to enjoy waiting for your color group to be called before moving on to the next room upstairs.
Once your group is called by having the colors around the room change to your color, you move to the second floor of the building. In this room, there are a number of couches and USB charging stations where guests can take a load off and charge their devices. There are also big tablet tables where you can play little games. The highlight of the room is a small stage area where you can watch live performances by The Ragtime Gals and Hashtag the Panda as well as a sampling of sketches and moments from Fallon's take on the Tonight Show, This is probably the single best part of the attraction as a whole. You honestly forget that you are waiting in line for an attraction and can easily enjoy everything going on around you. Once the room changes to your color again, you head to the last lobby room which is the preshow for the ride itself.
So how is Jimmy Fallon a game changer? Well, for one, you never have to stand in a long line to experience this attraction. You are either able to wonder around the park until your return window or wander around a free flow lobby or entertainment area and do what you please with plenty of things to see and enjoy while waiting. This is a concept I certainly hope Universal will continue to use in the future. There are already rumors that a similar idea will be used for The Fast & The Furious: Supercharged when it opens at Universal Studios in 2018.
Once your group is called by having the colors around the room change to your color, you move to the second floor of the building. In this room, there are a number of couches and USB charging stations where guests can take a load off and charge their devices. There are also big tablet tables where you can play little games. The highlight of the room is a small stage area where you can watch live performances by The Ragtime Gals and Hashtag the Panda as well as a sampling of sketches and moments from Fallon's take on the Tonight Show, This is probably the single best part of the attraction as a whole. You honestly forget that you are waiting in line for an attraction and can easily enjoy everything going on around you. Once the room changes to your color again, you head to the last lobby room which is the preshow for the ride itself.
So how is Jimmy Fallon a game changer? Well, for one, you never have to stand in a long line to experience this attraction. You are either able to wonder around the park until your return window or wander around a free flow lobby or entertainment area and do what you please with plenty of things to see and enjoy while waiting. This is a concept I certainly hope Universal will continue to use in the future. There are already rumors that a similar idea will be used for The Fast & The Furious: Supercharged when it opens at Universal Studios in 2018.
Universal continues their innovations to theme park life with the opening of Volcano Bay, their first on site water park and what they consider to be their third theme park. Not much is known about what the park itself will include (although you can see a lot of pretty crazy looking slides when driving into Universal property), but one thing that is know is that the guest experience will not include waiting in long lines to enjoy the new slides thanks to Universal's TapuTapu service.
TapuTapu is very similar to Disney's FastPass+ service, but instead of it being a way to skip lines at some of your favorite attractions, this service applies to all slides and experiences. Each guest who enters Volcano Bay will have a TapuTapu wearable device similar to Disney's MagicBand included with park admission. It will be used to reserve a time at each attraction as well as activate special effects around the park. What is revolutionary about TapuTapu is using it at a water park and not having any sort of Standby line as an option. It remains to be seen how well the system works, but we won't know for sure until Volcano Bay opens on May 25th.
TapuTapu is very similar to Disney's FastPass+ service, but instead of it being a way to skip lines at some of your favorite attractions, this service applies to all slides and experiences. Each guest who enters Volcano Bay will have a TapuTapu wearable device similar to Disney's MagicBand included with park admission. It will be used to reserve a time at each attraction as well as activate special effects around the park. What is revolutionary about TapuTapu is using it at a water park and not having any sort of Standby line as an option. It remains to be seen how well the system works, but we won't know for sure until Volcano Bay opens on May 25th.
Not to be outdone by Universal, Walt Disney World has it's own new attraction to prepare for with the opening of the long anticipated Pandora: World of Avatar at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Pandora looks to be quite an impressive new addition to the park, but with all of the new experiences coming, the land's quick service eatery Satu'li Canteen that introduces the first big and exciting change.
The new restaurant looks to be an interesting and very popular location with some exotic food options, but what makes this location unique is it is serving as a Guinea Pig for a new application of Disney's My Disney Experience App.
The new restaurant looks to be an interesting and very popular location with some exotic food options, but what makes this location unique is it is serving as a Guinea Pig for a new application of Disney's My Disney Experience App.
The My Disney Experience App is kind of a jack of all trades that Disney promotes to get everything you want booked and ready to go for your trip and for the most part, it works pretty well. You can already buy tickets and upgrade experiences, book hotel rooms, make dining reservations and book your FastPass+ entitlements from the app, but soon you will be able to assemble and order your meal from Satu'li Canteen on the app ahead of time.
From the app, you will be able to select what items you want, customize your items to your liking and pay for your food without even being in the restaurant. When you arrive, you select "I'm Here" and go to a separate line where you can pick up your food and bypass any long lines the new eatery is sure to have.
While this concept has been done before at various fast food locations like Chipotle and Chik-Fl-A, this has never been done at a theme park and is sure to be a big game changer, especially in what is sure to be a very busy and crowded new land. If the test is successful, Disney is sure to implement this new functionality to other popular quick service locations throughout all four parks.
There is no question that both Disney and Universal are always looking to improve the guest experience at their theme parks and water parks and 2017 looks to be a year where they both go all out with some intriguing experiments. We won't know for sure how successful these concept will be until they are fully realized out in the wild, but ideas like these will hopefully help improve guest experiences at theme parks for the better.
Written by Chris Coburn
From the app, you will be able to select what items you want, customize your items to your liking and pay for your food without even being in the restaurant. When you arrive, you select "I'm Here" and go to a separate line where you can pick up your food and bypass any long lines the new eatery is sure to have.
While this concept has been done before at various fast food locations like Chipotle and Chik-Fl-A, this has never been done at a theme park and is sure to be a big game changer, especially in what is sure to be a very busy and crowded new land. If the test is successful, Disney is sure to implement this new functionality to other popular quick service locations throughout all four parks.
There is no question that both Disney and Universal are always looking to improve the guest experience at their theme parks and water parks and 2017 looks to be a year where they both go all out with some intriguing experiments. We won't know for sure how successful these concept will be until they are fully realized out in the wild, but ideas like these will hopefully help improve guest experiences at theme parks for the better.
Written by Chris Coburn