For an industry so reliant on great customer service, it is hardly a surprise that a growing trend is developing where large parks increasingly focus on personalizing the guest experience as much as possible.
Indeed, from Universal to SeaWorld and many parks in between, ride designers and show creators are thinking of new ways to make a guest’s visit as unique as possible. This month The Large Park Report examines this trend to see whether it is likely to last or whether the move is merely a passing fancy.
Rockit Gets Personal with its Thrill Quotient
This summer, Universal Orlando opens one of the season’s most highly-anticipated coasters known as the Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit Roller Coaster. Part of the anticipation centers on the cool new features that this Maurer Söhne-designed coaster brings to the industry. These include novel twists, turns, and vertical loops with exciting names like the Double Take, Treble Clef and Jump Cut.
Yet, Rockit offers more than just high-decibel thrills for its riders. In addition to the physical experience, the coaster also allows guests to customize the music soundtrack that plays during their ride. Everything from country to hip-hop to classic rock will be available. And, to personalize the attraction further, Rockit riders can purchase a customized video of their experience that includes the music, lights and thrills all wrapped into a digital file that they can then upload and share.
According to Louis Alfieri, creative director for the attraction, this makes Rockit one of the most customized coasters out there. “Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit will be an experience unlike any other in the world. The combination of choosing your own song to rock out to on the roller coaster and leaving with your own take-home video after the ride is over makes this attraction one where no two experiences will be the same.”
A Growing Trend Among Other Large Parks
Universal is hardly alone, though, in taking steps to incorporate more guest interaction into new attractions. For instance, as the peak season gears up, Busch Gardens Tampa recently announced that the popular Summer Nights celebration will return in June. During this special event, the park stays open late to allow guests to experience its many attractions after dark. In addition, a popular concert series brings in musical acts from around the country.
This year, however, rather than just having bands perform (a fun, yet still pretty passive experience) the park has created an “audience-participation dance” where guests will join DJ’s throughout the park to learn what could be called the “Electric Slide for a new generation.”
Busch is so excited about this addition that it is highlighting the dance as part of the park’s latest promotional campaign. As Jill Revelle with Busch Gardens explains, “we are truly inviting people to join the party every night as we celebrate Busch Gardens’ 50th birthday. As part of the Summer Nights advertising and event, we have commissioned original music and choreography that ignites a spontaneous and contagious dance for the crowd to join.”
Clearly, Busch hopes that this interactive experience will generate more excitement for its patrons than just sitting in their seat as someone performs for them.
Busch has also incorporated a more personalized experience into its new Jungala land, which opened in the Spring of 2008. In particular, rather than having the popular Jungle-themed stilt walkers on stage performing for an audience, Busch opted to ditch the more formal setting and bring the performers into the crowd. This allows guests to directly interact with the stilt walkers as opposed to simply watching them from their seats.
Meanwhile, Busch’s sister park, SeaWorld Orlando, is promoting a new interactive opportunity through what they are calling “Animal Connection Programs.” Here guests can take advantage of SeaWorld’s wide array of marine creatures and engage in truly unique experiences such as getting in the water with a Beluga whale or plunging into a tank filled with 30 sharks (not something that this writer will be first in line to do, but definitely something that you won’t find just anywhere).
Add in the personalized dolphin experiences that await guests next door to SeaWorld at the limited-capacity Discovery Cove adventure park and it’s clear that the Adventure Park chain has invested big resources in bringing interactive opportunities to guests that visit their facilities.
A Strategy Shift Toward Interactivity?
Of course, some might argue that Walt Disney World is taking the guest participation strategy to a whole new level when you consider that almost all of the park’s latest attractions incorporate some level of interactivity. Take for instance the new American Idol show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios where, everyday, guests audition to perform in the park’s version of the popular Fox television show.
Or, even more fitting is the new Kim Possible attraction at Epcot. Based on the popular Disney channel cartoon series that follows the adventures of Ms. Possible, the Epcot attraction is essentially a scavenger hunt game. However, in this case, guests receive a wireless handheld device that leads them through clue-filled adventures in many of the park’s World Showcase countries. By following these clues, guests search for hidden secrets (such as new audio-animatronic figures developed just for the game) while attempting to thwart the bad plans devised by a fictional group of ne’er doers.
The Large Park Report recently participated in a media preview of Kim Possible late last year and was impressed with how these “missions” gave guests a whole new reason to explore the World Showcase pavilions in greater detail. In fact, early word from Disney is that Kim Possible has become so popular that the park has expanded the number of World Showcase countries that offer the experience.
What makes Kim Possible and American Idol (along with other recent Disney World additions such as the Magic Kingdom’s new show centered on the popular Stitch character where guests are invited to participate) most interesting is that it appears to mark a shift away from hard rides toward more experiential attractions. After all, as of this article, Disney had not announced a single new hard ride for its Florida resort (though, admittedly, the company is investing big bucks in its California Adventure revamp that will include a new Little Mermaid dark ride and Cars-themed thrill ride).
For that matter, the last major hard ride to open at Disney World was the Toy Story dark ride in May 2008—a well-conceived and fun attraction but certainly not an iconic one for the ages.
When viewed historically, Disney World’s lack of a new (or even announced) hard ride during this length of time is unprecedented. Yet, though the current financial problems facing the country may play some role, several sources at Disney have confirmed to The Report that the move toward more experiential attractions is more intentional than simply a reaction to the economy.
In particular, the resort’s extensive research continues to reveal that theme park guests are becoming more and more interested in the uniqueness of an attraction as opposed to simply its level of thrill or even theming. Meaning that, the ability to touch, feel, and otherwise interact with an attraction like Kim Possible gives guests an extremely personalized experience that is difficult to replicate in a more standard ride mechanism (though, as Universal is showing with Rockit, certainly not impossible).
So, if you are an amusement park operator or even just a fan, the obvious question is whether this trend is fleeting or here to stay. For a stab at that answer, we turned to Cynthia Gordon, a former marketing exec with Universal Orlando and now Managing Director of Cynthia+, an integrated PR and social media consultancy.
According to Gordon, the customization strategy is based on very sound ideas, “Theme parks have to become more personalized and customized because that’s what consumers expect. Today’s theme park visitor wants to have it ‘their way.’ It’s about feeling empowered to design a unique ride experience - just the way they want. Along the lines of the ‘My Coke’ and the ‘My Life. My Card’ American Express strategy, I think you’ll see theme parks shifting more and more toward a ‘My Ride’ strategy.”
Of course, whether the trend is long-term or passing, operators should be careful not to assume that, since many interactive experiences do not require hard rides, adding those attractions will be cheaper. While that may be true for initial capital expenditures, interactive attractions are often more labor-intensive in that they require increased staffing to engage in all of that interaction in the first place. Therefore, even if this trend plays out, it shouldn’t simply be viewed as a value play by operators looking for new revenue sources.
Instead, like any innovation, those looking to embrace the new option should carefully study the costs and get a good read on their guest’s interests. -
(Reach contributor Chad Emerson at cemerson@faulkner.edu.)
