Turning Theme Parks Into Digital Playgrounds

By Jasmine Contreras and Tierra Booth

At the end of the day, Vanessa Jaramillo arrived home from work and decided she wanted to watch videos on Youtube. As Jaramillo was scrolling through her favorite channels, she was looking for a theme park video since that was the type of content she enjoyed the most.

As she viewed the video, Jaramillo started to think about how the people she watched were fans just like her but had obviously decided to take their love of theme parks to the next level.

“It is amazing to me that the people I watch decided to create videos to express their enjoyment of a theme park,” Jaramillo said. “This is something I wouldn’t have thought about, I’m so used to being a fan that only buys merchandise or collects memorabilia.”

Back in the day, people who were part of fandoms were only able to show their support of a person or place by putting up posters in their room or purchasing memorabilia. However, the Internet and social media platforms changed all that, and fans now have the opportunity of creating something in a digital format to showcase their expertise and passion.

A platform often used by fans is YouTube, where they can upload videos for their audiences to watch. This platform allows people to become actual content creators, where they film a video, edit it and then upload it. While there is a diversity of videos on YouTube about things people are passionate about, there is a new category that is gaining attention: theme park content creators.

Cristal and Cris, a YouTube channel, is one ex- ample of fans who took their strong interest in a theme park and decided to create a channel that revolves around that. The creators of this channel, who like to refer to themselves as Cristal and Cris, shared they are a couple with a history of going to theme parks together, specifically Universal Studios Hollywood.

“We live so close, and we actually got our annual passes almost four years ago, so we would go three to four times a week,” Cristal and Cris said. “It started to become our date nights. We grew up going to all the theme parks here in SoCal, but Universal became our favorite.”

For a while, Cristal and Cris would only go to Universal to ride their favorite attractions or eat the food they offered, but soon they came across videos of fans like themselves, filming their visits to the theme park. At that moment, the idea of creating their own YouTube channel started circulating in their minds but they were not sure about taking the next step.

“We contemplated starting a YouTube channel for Universal because we just didn’t know where to start, or what content we would make, and we weren’t always the most confident people,” Cristal and Cris said. “But we decided to start it based on our love for theme parks. It became a fun way to show everyone our adventure.”

After creating their channel in February of 2020 and uploading their first video the same year, Cristal and Cris were excitd to share their love for Universal with other fans and to create videos of a place they knew so well. Being newer content creators to the theme park community, Cristal and Cris expressed the happiness and fulfillment they get from sharing their love and knowledge of the park with others. Not only this, but they have fun creating ideas for different videos they want to film.

Another creator who has similar feelings towards theme parks is Mondo, from the Five Fires You-

Tube channel. Mondo, who likes to be referred to by his nickname, has grown to love a variety of theme parks in Southern California, such as Knott’s Berry Farm and Universal Studios Hollywood, but creates the most content based on Disneyland.

Similar to Cristal and Cris, he recognized how fortunate it is for fans like himself to create content based on something they love, but realized there is something more to it.

Mondo started creating theme park content in 2015 by posting on social media and slowly transitioned into creating videos for YouTube. While doing this, Mondo was still balancing a job that he dreaded because he was not moving up the career ladder and it was the same routine every day.

“All the time I went to work, it almost felt like my soul was coming out of my body,” Mondo said. “As for YouTube, I looked at it as if I could do something I love. I could spend time at theme parks and I have the freedom to do whatever I want.”

This thought pushed Mondo to quit his job and become a full-time theme park content creator. When he would arrive at Disneyland or other theme parks with his camera, Mondo saw these places as lands of opportunities, where he can grow a career out of it while still enjoying what he does.

As of now, Mondo has grown a following of 126,000 subscribers on his channel and is getting income sufficient enough for him to have a comfortable lifestyle. He reflected on fans becoming media producers in this era.

“We’re in a time period where people can turn their passion or love for something into income, such as on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube,” Mondo said. “It is great. I love that people now have this opportunity to branch out.”

Besides both of these channels, many other theme park fans are creating their videos and other digital work for audiences. As members of society, they are being given the opportunity to not only showcase their interests but can create a living out of it.

But content creators are not the only way the digital ecosystem is transforming how people see and experience theme parks.

Both Disneyland and Disney World started offering digital apps for their guests in 2015, allowing them to expand their services on a platform that was easily accessible to everyone, especially now that everyone has smart phones in their pockets. The app offers ride wait times, online reservations, showtimes, special events, etc. Introducing these features made the guest experience at these parks more enjoyable, ultimately letting them maximize their time while visiting.

Another way that Disney is utilizing digital technology is their new “Lightning Lane” experience. This service was created to offer guests a paid option of skipping the lines to get on rides faster.

Previously, park guests could use the “Fast Pass” system, which allowed them to skip the long lines but for free. Now, with the new “Lightning Lane,” visitors must purchase the service through the Disney app for an additional fee of $15-$20.

However, with this digital upgrade, Disney guests have had no choice but to incorporate more time on their phones at the parks. When visiting Disney parks today, if you take a quick look around you quickly notice that almost everyone is staring at their mobile devices. What was once known to be a place of fantasy to escape the real world is now a place where people are escaping the fantasy with digital technology.

While there is added convenience using these technologies to avoid long lines or make reservations, for some, this move to incorporate smart phones and apps seems to be detracting from theme park visitors’ overall experience. Only time will tell if going digital will keep theme park fans connected to the places they love.