In today’s Investor Conference Tom Staggs talked about the Company’s vision for the future of visiting Disney parks. Much of what he discussed is a part of the NextGen project Disney has been working on for some time (Note: Staggs did not use the term NextGen at all). Below is a summary of what Staggs said:
In the coming years there will be a broad, integrated set of systems for a more seamless personalized experience and welcome more and more people while making their visits more satisfying. This will go beyond FastPass in effect developing a version of FastPass for their entire Disney vacation (which starts when they make their reservation). Guests will be able to reserve times for attractions and character interactions, seats for shows, dining reservations, etc booking many of these experiences before leaving their house. A simplified check-in will allow guests to arrive at their resort with room key in hand and go directly to their room or a park. There will also be new ways to pull guests into stories. For example, a tool will allow princesses to greet and interact with guests in an immersive and personalized way. Queues will continue to innovate to become a part of the show (Winnie the Pooh at Disney World being one example). They also will be creating means to better manage flow of guests in the parks as well as get better information into the hands of Cast. Disney is well into development on all of these with a number of patents pending.