4. Technologically improved ride experiences

The options don’t end with park information, either. Consider motion-based 3D dark rides such as The Simpsons Ride at Universal Studios or Star Tours at Hollywood Studios. The former attraction has only one outcome while the latter has 53, but the rider has zero input on which one transpires. Imagine the difference in the ride experience for each one if a vote occurs prior to the beginning of the attraction.

Such a scenario is the equivalent of a Choose Your Own Adventure book but for a motion simulator. The technology isn’t that far away, either. Realistically, all that is required is a combination of the randomness of Star Tours plus the data input already registered at Spaceship Earth at Epcot. Using one’s smartphone or tablet, a person could even vote while standing in line awaiting the start of the attraction. Alternately, rides feasibly could become individually serviced.

The same technology could enable a person to make specific choices for each ride via onboard selections menus in their ride car. If the attraction’s designers enable enough options, the flowchart for the ride experience could provide hundreds if not thousands of permutations, just like with the aforementioned books. Basically, this idea is All My Circuits: The Movie from Futurama, only using real ride design functionality already in place. Plus, it could share features already mentioned above, leading to even more interactive experiments. Imagine hearing an onscreen character shout your name during a scene like, “Look out, Jane Smith!” It would completely draw you into artificial world of the ride experience.

5. Family mementos

Not too far from now, theme park scrapbooks are going to look eerily similar to posters in the Harry Potter movie. Implementing this premise falls under the category of scrapbooking: the next generation. One of the problems with crafting such keepsakes is that you cannot capture the moments as they transpire. But what if you could?

Disney theme parks recently enhanced their Memory Maker offerings by adding automatic ride recordings as a feature. Many parks offer similar videos for a charge. It’s not much of a stretch to anticipate a better way of recording many of your highlights during your trips. Presuming the process is automated, you no longer have to worry about capturing the perfect moments. The parks will do all the heavy lifting in this regard. Then, after you view their pictures and videos, you can sprinkle in some of your own if you are a proud shutterbug.

6. Gamifying the visit

Image: Disney

One of the primary reasons why world-building apps provide such tremendous revenue streams is that people love to level up. It almost doesn’t matter what we’re leveling. Anybody under the age of 50 was raised in the videogame era, and scoring points is a tactic we understand, even if we don’t care about the game involved.

Let’s carry that logic over to amusement park visits. Some people try to ride as many attractions as possible during the course of a daily visit. What if the theme park tracked this sort of behavior, providing specific details for each achievement? What if the park operators offered benefits such as 20 percent off a souvenir or dinner if someone rode a dozen rides during the day?

Many people would love to add a competitive element to their vacation experience, even as many others simply want to relax and drink heavily. There could be leveling up in this manner as well. Bar crawl scoring would become wildly popular. Out of all the ideas listed here, this is the one I’m a bit surprised hasn’t been implemented yet. It’s easy to program while adding a great deal of utility for some users.

Amazingly, almost all of the technology mentioned in this article already exists. Even the parts that are not yet ready for primetime are only a design iteration or two away from reality. The only issue at this point is meshing everything together to create a seamless user experience.

Then again, some dreams are currently only in the blueprint stage…

Pie in the sky

Image: HTT

Ultimately, the most important innovation for theme parks is entirely out of their hands. Imagine if you could jump on a vehicle and travel 4,000 miles in the span of an hour. Theoretically, you could catch a ride to the new theme parks in Beijing, China, in the time it currently takes you to drive 100 miles.

So, let’s all close our eyes and wish for the Hyperloop to become a reality.