I grew up in Southern California, so we spent a lot of time in Disneyland for birthdays, when visitors were in from out of town, or just because we had a free weekend. I’ve been there more times than I can count, yet every time Disneyland creates a sense of immersion that is hard to find in any other man-made experience.
We recently visited the park while on a trip down to visit family, and we got a chance to visit the new Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge section of the park, arguably the most immersive experience yet.
As you step into the new area, crossing over from Frontierland, the landscape and sounds subtly change, like a song crossfading into another. Suddenly you’re standing in a rocky landscape with seemingly alien plant life, strange wildlife sounds, and the distant noise of a starship engine spooling up. The deeper you get into the park, the volume of this effect is only amplified further.
The gift shops and fellow park visitors certainly remind you of your reality from time to time, but Disney does damn near everything else to convince you otherwise.
This level of immersion is hard to pull off by anyone, yet somehow Disney manages to do it here, so much so that it tends to make the rest of Disneyland feel a little half baked by comparison. Of course, this is mostly explained by time and technology improving the tools of the Imagineers over the years.
On our way out that evening we stumbled across this map of the original Disneyland as it existed on opening day in 1955.
Though the tools have evolved and improved, It’s hard to not appreciate the dedication to immersion that has been a part of this park since Day 1.