Rides that know who you are
But that notorious tagline that strikes fear into the hearts of Disneylanders, "They do it in Florida", might not be such a bad thing if Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) gets their way on another project. A big budget proposal fighting its way through the approval process in Orlando involves not only adding a clone of DCA's Little Mermaid E Ticket to the Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland, but also upgrading the rest of the Fantasyland attractions with an updated look and new technology. While the tired 1970's vibe of Florida's Fantasyland could definitely use a makeover, it's the new technology to be added to the existing attractions that has the most promise.
Using a system of tiny Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tags embedded in park tickets, key characters on the attractions could interact with each passing vehicle and use personalized information on the riders in each vehicle to embellish the storytelling with personalized references. A Resort guest would fill out a survey form prior to their arrival, and then that information would be downloaded onto the RFID tag embedded in their tickets. Think of this as a much advanced version of the gimmick in Universal's Hollywood's now shuttered E.T. attraction where E.T. would bid you farewell by name at the end of the ride, and you've got the basic idea. The concept has been branded "Next Generation," or NextGen for short, in the halls of WDI and they have high hopes for it.
Bob Iger has been out to Florida twice since the start of the year to see presentations on the NextGen proposal, and has given his initial approval of the Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland plan. The implication for Disneyland and DCA goes beyond Fantasyland dark rides however, as WDI and TDA both see the ballooning population of Annual Passholders (APs) in Southern California as a prime audience for this technology. WDI has been scoping out scenes and specific animatronics in some of Anaheim's major E Ticket attractions to mock up concepts where an RFID tag in an Annual Pass would trigger special acknowledgements and plot twists for Passholders.
With the numbers of Annual Passholders in recessionary SoCal now flirting with the 750,000 figure and still growing, TDA is looking for ways to keep them coming back for more and they want to piggyback on Florida's NextGen Fantasyland plan. Disneyland's huge AP numbers, if they hold through the spring, are about to trigger a price increase as it is. But by making some of the parks most popular attractions reach out to AP's by name, sometimes literally, it's hoped the AP numbers will continue to swell regardless of the roller coaster ride the economy may take.
