So let's talk more about that today: What makes a theme park attraction immersive?
Ollivander's in Universal Studios Florida's Diagon Alley
Let's head back to high school debate here and start with a proposition: That an immersive theme park attraction is one that draws you into becoming an active participant within that attraction. Immersion isn't simply elaborate decoration or a faithful representation of another place or property. An immersive attraction must take that extra step that brings the location to life — making you want to imagine that you are a part of the story that the land or location is trying to tell.
The more of your senses that an attraction can engage in this effort, the more likely that the attraction will successfully immerse you within its theme. Obviously, sight is the first sense that engages us, as we see the attraction in photos, video, and then in person as we approach it. But sound should be part of the experience, too — not just with appropriate ambient sounds, but also in the dialogue with employees and performers in the attraction. The most immersive attractions engage the other three senses, as well — enticing us to touch and use our hands as we explore all the attraction offers, and to smell and taste in well-themed restaurants and eateries in the attraction.
Can you think of some attractions that do all these things? Which attractions come to mind that create a convincing physical space in which everything you hear, feel, smell, and taste convinces you that you really are not just passively observing, but have become an active participant in this different place?
Here's the TL;DR — If you are thinking "wow, this really looks like _______," then the attraction is not immersive. If you instead think, "wow, I really am in _______!" then it is immersive.
The fort on the Magic Kingdom's Tom Sawyer Island
For me, the first truly immersive experience I ever felt in a theme park was on Tom Sawyer Island at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. TSI doesn't just look like an island in the middle of a river. It is an island in the middle of a river. The raft ride over serves an essential role in establishing the credibility of Tom Sawyer Island as a distinct physical space. On the island, the smell of the woods, and the sounds of the waterfalls, the gunshots from the fort (sigh), and blacksmith at work all helped sell my imagination on the authenticity of the experience. I could feel the island as I scrambled up the rocks and felt my way through the caves. You even could engage your taste buds with a snack at Aunt Polly's, though the experience there wasn't particularly authentic to 19th century mid-America, unless you stuck to the pickle and some milk.
The best part was that I could play on Tom Sawyer's Island. I didn't have to pretend that I was someone or something else in order to play a role within the attraction. Immersion is one thing, but transformation is another. That demands a suspension of disbelief that challenges even the best themed environments. The Mighty Microscope in my beloved Adventures Through Inner Space changed my size, but didn't try to change who or what I was.
And this is my problem with Cars Land. There's no place for human beings in the Cars universe, and Cars Land offers no explanation for why we exist, much less why we are here. The land treats us as if we were living cars, too. Which might work better if there were some transitional, transformative moment that helped us make that mental leap from being human beings walking through a theme park into living cars "driving" through Radiator Springs. But that's not part of the experience. I'm sure that little kids can make that leap of imagination with no mental effort. But we bigger kids need some help here.
Retaining your own identity within an attraction helps make the experience more unique, and ultimately, convincing. If you must assume another's role to become a part of the attraction, well, others can assume that role, too. To paraphrase Syndrome, "if everyone is Captain Jack, no one is." If we are all playing the same parts, that's acting, not being. The most immersive attractions allow us to be in that place, not just to play like someone else there.
The Citadel headquarters of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers, at Fortress Explorations in Tokyo DisneySea
That's why, to me, Fortress Explorations at Tokyo DisneySea and Diagon Alley at Universal Studios Florida join Tom Sawyer Island (at least, the well-maintained Tokyo Disneyland version), as the ultimate immersive theme park experiences. They are all beautiful and convincing physical spaces, isolated from the parks around them, where the best cast and team members "play along" and reinforce the theme of the land by staying in character. They offer hands-on opportunities to physically engage and make things happen within their attractions. They bring me into another place and allow me to inhabit it — to play, work, think, dream, eat, and drink there. The memory of having been in those places makes me wish that I could shut off this computer and head to the airport so that I could be on my way to spend more time in these beloved lands.
These are my magical places. Which are yours? What are your most immersive theme park attractions?
Previously:
- The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley, reviewed
- Where to eat? Dinner at Magellan's at Tokyo DisneySea (A description of Fortress Explorations)
- Theme park cast member stories: The castaway kid (When immersion goes a little too far...)
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