Does virtual reality have a place within theme parks?

[Matt N]

Hi guys. If you all remember, virtual reality, or VR for short, was all the rage within theme parks back in 2016, with every park and their dog seemingly retrofitting a coaster with VR headsets as their new addition for the year. Alongside those, a couple of more bespoke VR attractions, such as Derren Brown’s Ghost Train at Thorpe Park, also opened in 2016. Rightly or wrongly, the trend did not last much beyond 2016, with a few more coasters getting retrofitted for 2017 and then very little in the way of VR action after 2017, from what I recall. However, VR as technology does have stacks of potential within an immersive environment, in my opinion, so my question to you tonight is; do you think virtual reality has a place within theme parks? And if so, where do you think that place might be?


Personally, I think VR does have a place within theme parks. However, I don’t think that the 2016 fad of retrofitting it onto existing rides was the right place for VR within theme parks. I reckon that if VR is to be implemented within a theme park attraction, the attraction should ideally be bespokely designed with VR in mind and either be a more “exclusive” attraction (by this, I mean an attraction where guests need to reserve a free time slot or book an extra ticket to experience it as opposed to queueing for it in the traditional sense), or designed in such a way that the VR doesn’t hamper the ride throughput too much. Some apparently strong uses of VR I know of include Battle for Eire at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Eurosat Coastiality at Europa Park, and these attractions were both bespokely designed with VR in mind. Both attractions also utilise either an exclusive status or find a way around the throughput issues VR inherently causes to make the concept work; for instance, I believe Eurosat Coastiality is a pay-extra experience, and in order to get around the throughput problems of VR, Europa Park has guests put on their headsets in a separate room before boarding the ride, and has arrows directing guests to their ride car, which I think is really cool! VR can be brilliant tech, and can open up whole new levels of immersion, so I think it could definitely work if some of the practicality pitfalls of it were rectified and/or accounted for in a VR attraction’s design.


I also think that VR could have great potential within the field of scare attractions. These are usually quite exclusive by nature, so the throughput wouldn’t matter too much, and I can imagine that you could rack up real feelings of fear and isolation using a VR headset in a way that you couldn’t using the surroundings! Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the highly received Clinic scare attraction at Walibi Holland utilise VR to pretty good effect?


But what are your thoughts? Do you think that VR has a place within theme parks, or do you think that VR should stay firmly back in 2016?

 

[Thameslink Rail]

Hi guys. If you all remember, virtual reality, or VR for short, was all the rage within theme parks back in 2016, with every park and their dog seemingly retrofitting a coaster with VR headsets as their new addition for the year. Alongside those, a couple of more bespoke VR attractions, such as Derren Brown’s Ghost Train at Thorpe Park, also opened in 2016. Rightly or wrongly, the trend did not last much beyond 2016, with a few more coasters getting retrofitted for 2017 and then very little in the way of VR action after 2017, from what I recall. However, VR as technology does have stacks of potential within an immersive environment, in my opinion, so my question to you tonight is; do you think virtual reality has a place within theme parks? And if so, where do you think that place might be?


Personally, I think VR does have a place within theme parks. However, I don’t think that the 2016 fad of retrofitting it onto existing rides was the right place for VR within theme parks. I reckon that if VR is to be implemented within a theme park attraction, the attraction should ideally be bespokely designed with VR in mind and either be a more “exclusive” attraction (by this, I mean an attraction where guests need to reserve a free time slot or book an extra ticket to experience it as opposed to queueing for it in the traditional sense), or designed in such a way that the VR doesn’t hamper the ride throughput too much. Some apparently strong uses of VR I know of include Battle for Eire at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Eurosat Coastiality at Europa Park, and these attractions were both bespokely designed with VR in mind. Both attractions also utilise either an exclusive status or find a way around the throughput issues VR inherently causes to make the concept work; for instance, I believe Eurosat Coastiality is a pay-extra experience, and in order to get around the throughput problems of VR, Europa Park has guests put on their headsets in a separate room before boarding the ride, and has arrows directing guests to their ride car, which I think is really cool! VR can be brilliant tech, and can open up whole new levels of immersion, so I think it could definitely work if some of the practicality pitfalls of it were rectified and/or accounted for in a VR attraction’s design.


I also think that VR could have great potential within the field of scare attractions. These are usually quite exclusive by nature, so the throughput wouldn’t matter too much, and I can imagine that you could rack up real feelings of fear and isolation using a VR headset in a way that you couldn’t using the surroundings! Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the highly received Clinic scare attraction at Walibi Holland utilise VR to pretty good effect?


But what are your thoughts? Do you think that VR has a place within theme parks, or do you think that VR should stay firmly back in 2016?

I think VR can work so long as
1. The system is reliable
2. The system is used on a high capacity ride
I like the VR on Alpen Express at Europa Park for these reasons (at least I've never heard complaints about it's reliability) and also because there is a good choice of films making it more reridable.
I think these are also the shortcomings of Derren Brown's ghost train, even if you have a run-through without any problems, if you ride again you've seen it all and it's just not as scary.

 

[Tim]

I see AR (Augmented Reality) as a better fit for Theme Parks. The integration of the real and digital has a lot of untapped potential and its something you can't just simulate in your own home.
The Mario Kart ride is a good example of what might be coming. I think we are going to see a lot more AR in the coming years.

If you're visiting LEGOLAND check out the Mythica app. There are a few QR codes dotted around that you can scan and see the creatures come to life.
Long term I can see this evolving into something like the wands at The Wizarding Worlds. Possibly even an RPG game like Sorceres of the Magic Kingdom.