Disney has long been an innovator in the technology space, creating things like FastPass, MagicBands, the monorail, and even audio-animatronics all to enhance the guest experience. But, even as they’ve demonstrated their ability to innovate time and time again, there are still some prevailing tech trends that they’ve somehow ignored or underplayed.
What are the trends Disney is leaving on the table? Where can they take the advancements in consumer and industrial technology and apply them to their theme parks?
Let’s take a look.
Voice assistants
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When Amazon debuted the Amazon Echo, many shrugged. It seemed like a invention without a necessity to solve. We all had watches or clocks that we could check to tell the time. We all had phones we could turn to in order to learn that day’s weather forecast. Was the convenience of asking Alexa our mundane questions really worth the price?
Years later, the doubters have been put on mute. Amazon Echo, and its competitors in Google Home and Apple’s Siri, are a booming area within the tech space. Amazon seemingly struck gold, with Alexa’s skills and news briefings universally deemed useful.
That Disney hasn’t ventured into this area is pretty surprising, particularly considering the company’s desire to make its parks digitally compliant for the 21st century. And, in delaying this venture, they’re leaving a lot of opportunity behind.
Imagine walking into your resort room and asking Jiminy Cricket to turn on your lights, or check if there’s a table available at Jiko for four later that evening, or when the next bus to the Magic Kingdom might come. Or, if Disney didn’t want to develop that technology themselves, they could partner with Apple, Google, or Amazon to piggy-back off one of their assistants.
The world is moving toward a more robust voice-activated assistant model, and Disney would be wise to try to jump on the trend.
Wearable tech
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Disney made a foray into this space when it debuted MagicBands at Walt Disney World in 2013, but it hasn’t iterated on the idea since its debut 5 years ago. This is made more baffling by the rapid innovation in wearable technology over that same time span.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am an Apple Watch wearer and, as such, I’m a firm believer in the potential of this technology. But what has been surprising isn’t just that Disney hasn’t adapted some of the Apple Watch’s best features to its MagicBands — rather, it’s that Disney hasn’t better integrated its apps with the wearable tech on the market.
MyDisneyExperience has no Apple Watch app. This is more shocking when you consider the potential uses: Having FastPass+ notifications appear on screen or having your return window displayed on a custom watch face; real-time wait time notifications for popular rides; full itinerary watch faces that keep you updated as to the next step on your trip.
Disney has a relationship with Apple and could easily build out a fully-featured WatchOS app. If they created that app in concert with a themed watch band you could only get at Walt Disney World, Disney would create a de facto Deluxe Magic Band. Talk about a license to print money.
AR and VR
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Disney began dipping its toe into the water of at-scale virtual realty with DisneyQuest back in 1998, and for the most part, it was a lukewarm success at best. The technology and graphics became quickly dated, were costly to operate, and were even more costly to update.
But that was 20th century VR, and now that we’re comfortably in the 21st century, the technology has grown dramatically.
Consumer-grade VR can be had for a few hundred dollars all in, and it already provides an experience far greater than the DisneyQuest attractions of old. The more expensive industrial and commercial uses are in a brand new class altogether, and Disney has shown a willingness to experience with this technology by introducing The Void’s “Secrets of the Empire” experience at Disney Springs.
But that experiment should be the beginning of a larger move for Disney Parks. VR, and its cousin AR (augmented reality), have the ability to change Disney’s approach to themed entertainment forever. Imagine a Disney Attractions Hall of Fame, where guests could pay a fee to ride virtual reconstructions of famous defunct Disney rides. Or, for something more current, imagine an attraction like Star Tours, only instead of a randomized flight experience, guests get to choose their own.
Disney has long been about immersive entertainment, and at the moment, there is no immersion quite like well-executed VR. The company is only beginning to explore where that technology might lead, but here’s hoping they dive fully into the tech in their next generation of attraction design.
Site-based team activities
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A more cynical company would look at the current wave of escape rooms popping up around the country and say to themselves, “we should build one of those for ourself.” And, perhaps, Disney might eventually do that.
But the principle behind escape rooms is far more important to its success than the model itself: cooperative teamwork in highly themed, gamified environments.
In a way, Disney has long been an innovator in this world. Attractions like Mission: Space or the old Pirates of the Caribbean experience at DisneyQuest illustrate the success Disney has had with giving teams of guests an assignment to complete. And, rumors certainly suggest Disney will attempt something similar with the new Millennium Falcon attraction at Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge.
But Disney hasn’t quite explored an at-scale version of the problem-solving dimension on display in escape rooms. Mission: Space gives you a game to play, but it doesn’t ask you to work together to figure out a solution to a problem.
Imagine the forthcoming Star Wars hotel including an experience where you have to figure out how to fix the Falcon’s hyperdrive. Or Disneyland’s Marvel Land including a game where you have to locate Loki’s scepter in a defunct Hydra base.
Team problem solving is a growing space, and Disney would be wise to explore its potential.
Alternative transportation
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The buses and the monorail are great, but as major cities across the U.S. are learning, transportation requires a lot more than just bus and rail.
Disney has explored this more with the adoption of Minnie Vans to enter the world of ride-hailing apps, but they still have a long way to go. Many cities have created bike-sharing programs that allow residents and commuters to ride a bike one-way from a dock near their home to a dock near their office. Others have offered similar services with electric bikes and scooters.
This is an area where Disney could use some inventiveness. The roads within the Walt Disney World complex specifically are confusing and at times dangerous, and getting personal drivers off the road would be a benefit.
Bike lanes with point-to-point bike rentals would be helpful and fun, but Disney could and should go even further in an attempt to get cars off the road. Adopting an Uber Pool-type rideshare model could help alleviate the strain on some bus lines within the resort and also provide cheaper resort to resort options than Minnie Vans.
And, Disney could even try dreaming bigger — building either a normal gauge railway or even a hyperloop-style high-speed route between Orlando International Airport and the Walt Disney World resort, getting more cars off the road while also encouraging guests to stay on property.
Ultimately, Disney has the chance to dream big and use its profile to again demonstrate the kind of transit infrastructure the country could look to as an inspiration — relying less on cars and more on communal transit. They should, as they have long done, showcased how technology can be used to make our future better and brighter, and more equitable and safe.
