OpEd: Only Chapek Could Make Optimizing Park Experience Sound THAT Creepy

Word has been getting around about how The Walt Disney Company CEO, Bob Chapek, looks to optimize the Guest’s Disney Park experience to a whole new level.

Now, on the surface, the ability to better optimize individual experiences is inherently good and impressive. After spending seven years working in the realm of digital content–beginning with social media scheduling, moving into digital marketing consulting, and now independent journalism–I cannot ignore the fact that this chapter of commerce will be defined by the advances we have made in analytic based optimization–for better and worse.

But the bald man expressed his optimization plans in a way that made himself sound like the surveillance-happy corporate overlord that, unfortunately, only helps the case of his dissenters.

Here’s the clip if you have not heard it yet:

Disney CEO Bob Chapek talking about how your Disney+ viewing habits could soon impact your experience at the theme parks: pic.twitter.com/72FGccKJ46

— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) September 14, 2022

Read More: Bob Chapek Talks Further Disney+ and Theme Park Integrations

Honestly, how can somebody sleep in a Disney World or Disneyland Hotel anymore with that dystopian image? This presentation makes it seem that the Mouse is tracking Guests’ every move and basically watching them while they sleep! On top of that, they’re going to watch your streaming activity and use this new foresight to interact with you? Come to think about it, how much of your information and personality traits does Chapek and his cronies have on you?

Related: Fans Point to Bob Chapek for Disney’s Decline

In just one minute, we are all suddenly Alice going down the corporate dystopian rabbit hole.

Now, let’s remove the blatantly eerie, 1984-esque way in which this recording is presented to get a clearer look at what this means. Somehow, Chapek expects his Guests to merge their Disney Plus metrics with their metrics in the Parks. His argument is that people who watch certain things on Disney+ will behave in certain correlating ways in the Parks.

To a rational person, this is common sense. If all you do is watch pieces of Disney+’s Star Wars library over and over again, chances are that you would personally optimize your time at Disney to prioritize immersion into Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and the like. If your daughter only watches princess movies, of course, she is going to want to spend all her time in Fantasyland, and you will probably have to bring up the fact that she can visit princesses in their home country to get her to visit EPCOT.

Merging Disney+ with Disney Parks also makes sense from a logistics perspective. Why can’t you have an all-in-one Disney Account through which you can take care of upcoming plans to Disneyland, Disney World, and Disneyland Paris? Just from a billing standpoint, it sounds easier.

Now, let’s try to end this on a positive note, yes? Imagine you check into your Disney World Resort Hotel, and there is automatically a personalized welcome greeting in your room. Imagine your son gets a note from Peter Pan, Jake from the Neverland Pirates, or Captain Jack Sparrow, or your daughter gets a special greeting from Princess Sofia automatically because of Disney’s new integration. Parents, imagine suffering through Disney’s Jungle Cruise movie on repeat to have Disney Genie+ optimized to show you the best Lightning Lane times for Jungle Cruise in Adventureland or the dining availability for your stay at Skipper’s Canteen. Maybe, perhaps, even the chance to get a post-vacation reel of all your PhotoPass pictures specifically added to your Disney+ account to relive the adventures?

There are indeed positives that can come out of this integration that can arguably make a Disney Parks and Disney+ experience even more magical. But Bob Chapek is not doing anybody any good for presenting these magical optimizations the way that he did.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s and may not reflect the sentiments of Disney Fanatic as a whole.