Disney World looks very different from the way it did when it opened over 50 years ago. Change is pretty much a constant in the Most Magical Place on Earth!
We follow along with every single Disney World change, but what about looking to the future? There are some Disney developments that give us an idea of what we might see in the future of the parks. One such development is the opening of the Star Wars Hotel, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser — here’s how we see it defining the future of Disney parks.
How Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser Evolves Past Traditional Themed Experiences
To understand how Galactic Starcruiser shows us the future of the parks, we first need to take a look at how the Star Wars Hotel has moved past traditional themed experiences.
Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser plays in a storytelling space that has never been attempted at the same financial and creative scale before.
When you’re on Galactic Starcruiser, technology and game design come together to help you tell “your Star Wars story.” What this is doing is creating a personalized experience. The level of personalization involved in the experience is not something guests have been able to experience in the Disney theme parks thus far.
Interestingly, “Personalized Storytelling” is actually the next step in Disney’s innovation-focused concept that they’re using to define the future of the theme parks – the Disney Theme Park Metaverse.
Disney’s Theme Park Metaverse
So, what is the Disney Theme Park Metaverse? Nope, it’s not like the Facebook Metaverse. The Disney Theme Park Metaverse is, according to Disney, “A shared magical world, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space.”
Put a little more simply, it’s the concept of merging physical and technological experiences to build a guest experience. Disney has been using this methodology to define the way they’ve advanced storytelling experiences in the theme parks.
Disney has noted that the Disney parks started with linear storytelling (like you’d see at The Enchanted Tiki Room), then moved to interactive storytelling (like you’d see on Toy Story Mania). The current phase of innovation has enabled immersive storytelling (we see it in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge), and the next level (the one that Starcruiser works in) is personalized storytelling.
Starcruiser even steps out into the social storytelling space (not explicitly defined in the metaverse) as well as you interact with other guests.
The successes and failures of Starcruiser are likely being monitored closely by Disney to define what more personalized experiences will look like. As the first major example in the new phase of the Metaverse, Starcruiser is defining the future of Disney World.
What Personalized Storytelling Means For Disney World
So, what could Starcruiser and personalized storytelling mean for Disney World?
Some examples of what this could look like include the potential for artificially intelligent virtual characters to interact with guests as personalized interactions — providing the same experience we might see at Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor or Turtle Talk with Crush on a MUCH more personal level.
It could also mean an expansion of experiences like the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge datapad. You complete personalized missions and the theme parks react to your accomplishments and choices. Pretty cool, huh?
Beyond personalized, who knows where Disney could go next. We probably have a ways to go when it comes to the developments Disney will make at the personalized level. Once that phase is passed, the metaverse could take us on to more social experiences or to something else entirely.
As always, keep an eye on AllEars for more thoughts on the future of Disney World.
Click here to learn more about Galactic Starcruiser!
Join the AllEars.net Newsletter to stay on top of ALL the breaking Disney News! You'll also get access to AllEars tips, reviews, trivia, and MORE! Click here to Subscribe!
What do you think of the Disney metaverse? Tell us in the comments!
They should tie in the Play Disney app with missions that unlock lightning lane passes. They could use it to help manage flow while enhancing the enjoyment of a day in the parks. And it doesn’t have to displace Genie+ or paid lightning lane passes for those that don;t want to “play”.