So let's talk more about that today: What makes a theme park attraction immersive?
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.
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.
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:
I find that the entirety of Walt Disney World is very immersive. From the moment you check into your onsite hotel until the moment you leave, you are immersed in the world of Disney. I get a similar feeling at Universal, although having to walk through CityWalk tends to shatter the illusion (Disneyland has the same problem with DTD being between the hotels and the theme parks).
Colonial Williamsburg is pretty immersive if you can carve a day or two off of your Busch Gardens Visit.
Some of the Halloween events, even at my local park, are pretty immersive. In particular, for a regional chain, I think Cedar Fair does a really nice job both narratively and decoratively with Halloween Haunt.
Lastly, when I rode the Beast at night in a thunderstorm...it was very immersive!
I think that level of immersion that a person feels also very much depends on the individual and how much they care about the source material. Diagon Alley may be incredible to most people, but someone who has no connection or feelings to the Potter universe simply would not be able to appreciate the level of detail and immersion presented in that land. Although some experiences are so incredible that even the layperson can be impressed by the transition.
I think that Disney and Universal generally accomplish a great deal of immersion throughout their parks, but I have never felt as much a part of a story as when I visited the original Hogsmeade section. That was the first time I felt like I was intruding on someone else's physical environment, it was that immersive for me!
Perhaps. You can buy wands at Ollivanders. Then you're a full-fledged wizard or witch. Remember, if you're not in Diagon Alley or Hogsmead, you're presumed to be muggles since you can't do magic in the muggle world (I read the book).
But then you ride Escape from Gringotts and you find out your a visiting muggle again.
I also agree with James about Disney being immersive in and of itself. Disney World is its own place, its own fantasy, even EPCOT is an idealized version of the real world. Universal does not have the same feeling for me. It has a lot of rides that put Disney to shame, but in terms of immersion I have always felt that Disney does a way better job. The carnival games at Universal in particular annoy me.
Honestly, I was not trying to start a Disney/Universal debate - they are pointless and boring.
What makes all these "magical places" work is a suspension of disbelief by the visitor. And without it, they all fail. Even Tom Sawyer's Island.
The Adventurer's Club was pretty darned immersive.
I am surprised no one mentioned Silver Dollar City as an immersive park. From the drive to the park up to walking through the front entrance, you definitely feel like you're taking a step back in time to visit an old Ozark mountain town. Most of the cast members wear period garb and speak in a folksy manner. Not only that, there are several demonstrations throughout the park of glass blowing, candy making, woodworking, and metallurgy that you can watch and learn how they are crafted using early 20th century tools. In my opinion, only two rides (Wildfire and the Powderkeg) would potentially take you out of the element of being in this time period while rides such as Fire in Hole have a direct connection to it.
After walking through an historical exhibition of past Star Trek memorabilia, you approach the usual motion simulator ride. Lined up in a rectangular room in front of six opening doors, just like Star Tours – what could be special about that? Cue: lights out, strobe and wind effects, noise of a transporter and then you appear standing on the circular transporter pad on the Enterprise. A transition that removed you from your reality and placed you in an alternative environment. (Apparently, the walls lifted into the ceiling changing the room and space.)
The level of detail required to create the illusion was exceptional – Paramount Parks created a walking tour of the ship’s corridors, access to the main bridge, an operational turbo lift to main engineering and then a walk on to a shuttle craft for your flight home to Vegas. Even the transition between walking onto the shuttle on the Enterprise, enduring a turbulent ride home and then leaving the shuttle on the roof of the Hilton hotel had been dealt with. The set around the shuttle had been altered whilst riding to give you the impression you had left a 24 century ship and had arrived back home to normality.
Finally, you took a hotel service elevator to access the Star Trek exhibition gift shop.
What I would like Disney to create at their Hollywood Studio is to take the Star Tours ride and add another new ending to the movie, allowing the shuttle to deliver its spy to Tantooine. Then when you make an exit from the simulator, the ramp and visuals around the shuttle would look like you had arrived at Mos Eisley’s star port hangar on Tantooine. Then it’s just a matter of taking a left into another hangar to access a full scale Millennium Falcon (ride), take a right into the famous Cantina for lunch or straight head for the streets and other show buildings. Somehow Disney needs to suspend reality and create the illusion in the same way that Paramount Parks did in Las Vegas.
At the Wizarding World (Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley), guests are Muggles. At "Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey," you're visiting on the very first day that Muggles are allowed to visit Hogwarts. In the queue, Dumbledore mentions that Voldemort's "hatred of Muggles is widely known, but do not fear, you're well protected..."
The House Founders (talking portraits) in that queue make several references. Salazar: "With all these Muggles running about, perhaps a dragon’s just what we need." Godric: "A few Muggles might be just what the Slytherin team needs, judging from their most recent efforts." Salazar: "What are all these Muggles doing at Hogwarts anyway? I expect this is Dumbledore’s doing." Godric: "If Dumbledore think it right and proper that they be here, then they are more than welcome. Besides, perhaps one of our younger guests will wake to an owl one morning and find themselves summoned to Hogwarts." Rowena: "Yes, just think, the next great witch or wizard could be walking through this room right now, unaware of their hidden talents. Just like Harry Potter."
That Muggles can see the wizarding world implies an addendum to the International Statue of Wizarding Secrecy (1692), which decreed that the wizarding world would be hidden away from Muggles by a complex series of charms and enchantments -- although that's never explicitly stated. Hope that helps! =)
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Alternatively, I am the unseen human who might be enjoying a day in Carsland as imagined in the movie. If you're invisible as a human to the cars, they never see you. You see them. In fact, the cars take on the personality of the human. The cars are really an extension of the human, but only if you're driving the cars.
Whatever the explanation you'll accept, the Carsland is immersive since everything takes place in a land of cars. That's all you need to know. You're the car. The car is you.
In my opinion, Carsland is the most immersive land in all of Disneyland Resort. It is the most successful realization of a imaginary land. (I have yet to visit Universal's Harry Potter lands or Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySeas so I can't judge those efforts.)