Background Music

Image: aloha75, Flickr (license)

Music is as important to themed attraction design as any other element — and, some might argue, it’s the most important. But even beyond the actual attractions, music serves a critical role in the subconscious storytelling necessary to make a themed land work.

Take Future World at Epcot for example. Its background music is designed to elicit a sense of technological wonder from the guests. Using heavy synthesized sounds and digital soundscapes, the Future World score sounds like something you’d hear in the future — or, more accurately, as the background score of a movie about the future.

But even beyond themed lands, background music serves a crucial role in attraction queues. The echoey, scuffed-up sounds of the 1920s music playing in the Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror queue is as important to that attraction as any other element of story. It sounds creepy, and it makes you feel unsettled as the attraction begins.

At other regional parks, you’ll often only hear pop music as you walk from ride to ride. Or, in some cases, you won’t hear any music at all. This is one key difference between Disney and its regional competitors. 

Cast Members

Image: harshlight, Flickr (license)

While “the Disney Difference” doesn’t quite mean what it used to mean, Disney’s Cast Members broadly are among the best in the themed entertainment world. The company’s focus on guest experience, and its willingness to give its Cast Members the power to create magic for the guests on a moment’s notice, separates the Disney parks from other similar amusement entities.

Some, like Universal, have begun bridging the sizable gap between them and Disney over time, with more extensive training and more front-line crew empowerment. While others, like Six Flags, have been slow to retrain their employees in a more guest-centric mindset. 

But, while the gap has narrowed — due, in part, to Disney’s downscaling of their own employee training — Disney’s Cast Members are still some of the most pleasant and kind people you’ll interact with in a theme park. And, ultimately, it’s the people you encounter on your vacation that help make it special.