The end of paper park maps

Paper maps are awesome. I have a pretty good pile of them dating back 25 years. Sometimes I prefer them over the park apps.

-Tina

A few years ago, Holiday World advertised in the park that it would be the last year to get a paper map. Because of that, they were extremely popular. I got one here somewhere.

They just don’t want you to see that gawd-awful walk back to Thunderbird before you set out.

This is just more pennypinching cost cutting that reduces the guest experience. But once one park or chain gets away with these types of cuts, all seem to follow.

Back in the 70s and 80s. The parks provided guide maps that were not graphic, but just shape maps (circles for flat rides, squares for buildings, the outlines of roller coasters, etc.). Then they sold high-quality, artistic drawn, poster size, graphic maps.

I think these parts should be selling the poster size maps again. I believe there would be a demand for them.

Carowinds, Kings Island and Kings Dominion had maps in the style above around 1978 through 1980. In my opinion those were the highest quality maps ever produced for a theme park. They weren’t necessarily accurate on the layouts of the rides, but they had a great artistic style and creativity

super7*:

This is just more pennypinching cost cutting that reduces the guest experience. But once one park or chain gets away with these types of cuts, all seem to follow.

think these parts should be selling the poster size maps again.

I know CP made them for 150th, and still had them last year.

I may be in the minority but I generally scope out the digital map of a park before I go. The only time I find myself needing to look at a map (pdf or on the app) is when I need to eat or use the bathroom. We went to Epcot during some food festival. Even then we pulled up the brochure online to plan out or drinks and eats beforehand. I like the look of the paper park maps but couldn't tell you the last time I actually used one.

super7*:

This is just more pennypinching cost cutting that reduces the guest experience

I'm not sure I buy the cost cutting excuse. I don't know what it costs to develop and maintain an app but my guess would be that it is far higher than just printing off maps.

As for the guest experience, well we are slowly moving in a generation that has been growing up with apps, who does not have a need for a printed map. Or printed anything for that matter. I would bet that a big reason why maps are going away, is that the parks have seen a decrease in map use and guest feedback that they would rather have a digital version on their phone.

I think the problem with the application of a lot of mobile technology is that it's like the Jurassic Park thing. No one stops to ask if they should do it all. (I could also make the case that 90% of the apps on my phone could be web sites.)

Paper paradigms don't always translate well to a 2x6" screen. Maps are kind of in between. If points A and B don't fit in the rectangle, it's not a great experience.

Sometimes it's just poor design choices. Going back to the Epcot festival menus... The book follows around the park, and you can go from one page to the next until you land on something you want. In the app, you have a list of locations not in geo order, and you have to let the page load, then click on the menu button. It's two slow taps backward to get to the index, and you start again. The book is, scan the menu, thumb to next page, repeat.

As a tech writer I need to think about the different ways people access information. That's a very good point Jeff. Unfortunately, printing costs. I am an old school map geek in general. Although I absolutely LOVE Google Maps and Google Earth, you just can't get that appreciation of larger scales on a phone screen, or even a monitor, the way you can with an atlas or better yet, USGS quad.

My hobby as a kid was drawing fictional park maps. I'd make runs to Walgreens on my Kent for new reams of graph paper. ;)

^ Ditto on drawing fictional park maps. I used to buy a set of markers like this at least 4 times a year!

A few years ago I thought I'd get back into drawing with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. Maybe it's because my art skills have deteriorated immensely as I've gotten old, but man, what a pain that is. I'll take markers, colored pencils and good old-fashioned sketch pads any day.

janfrederick:

My hobby as a kid was drawing fictional park maps.

Same. It's a big part of what made the original RCT (well, and part 2) so appealing to me.

I remember as a kid I used to get so excited for upcoming trips to Cedar Point that the day before we were going I would make a little "comic book" of what the adventure would look like. Not that the two things are related but this just made me think of that.

I made trading cards of the rides at Kings Island when I was about 12. And Camden Park when I was younger than that.

I also spent hours and hours drawing fictional park maps. I spent over a year on one park when I was about 16. It was my masterpiece. After drawing tht one, I could not draw any more. They maps after that one sucked comparatively.

Then I got into Sim City, wishing that they would make a similar game about theme park design. Five or so years later, the theme park sims like RTC came out, and I was in heaven. And now I am so grateful that I can play Planet Coaster on my Mac. I'm almost a hundred years old, and it keeps getting better.

What an amazing time we live in.

Kind of sad that now we have to look at a screen for pretty much everything! The next generation will probably have vision problems amongst many related to excessive screen time. We have a hardertime enjoying ourselves nowadays because so much time is focused and spent on electronic devices. It's not all bad but overall I think I prefer the good old days enjoying life without spending time checking for messages, taking thousands of pictures everywhere, etc....

I mean, you don't have to to do any of those things. The only notification that I get on my phone are text messages, and I'll respond when I respond. I don't even get work email on my phone.

Another tactile thing that I've been doing is getting photo books every year to chronicle family adventures. It's kind of fun to have them on the table and look through them from time to time. If someone is visiting, they're likely to pick them up, and the only way they'd see those otherwise is if they were sitting at my computer with Lightroom open.

99er:

...we are slowly moving in a generation that has been growing up with apps...

I was sitting in a hospital waiting room where there was a grandpa, his son, and his grandson who I am guessing was 3 years old. The grandson was playing with a phone when he said "grandpa - I am going to download this app and play this game".

Whatever generation that 3 year old is in will certainly not want to be bothered by paper maps.

From the “Goes Around Comes Around” column, I find it interesting that when photos were first digital the cry was “It’s awesome! Everything is on your computer now! No need for those pesky photo albums and slide show traps!” But that proved to be not all that handy- so now we can “ship” our photos away to a place where they will put things on paper, albums and photograph books to save them. Someone thought of that, and it’s big business.
I’ve made books out of vacations and home projects and it’s fun to look at and easy to share with others when they’re in your company.

Jeff:

I don't even get work email on my phone.

This is me. I'm always surprised by people that will return emails when they're off. Screw that.

Right? It's almost never a written expectation, but yet it seems like a default. I haven't had work email on my phone in years. I still have Slack, but outside of 9-5, it's on DND because I ain't working then. Even then, it's only for when I'm in the bathroom or at an extended lunch.

Like many things, technology brings with it a number of pluses and minuses. Those will vary by person meaning whether its worth it varies by person. But its not necessarily as simple as just taking the pluses and rejecting the minuses. To me, the balances of having a phone is worth it. More a matter of access and control than it is obsession with a screen (from what I can tell, much of the screen obsession seems to revolve around social media but sure that varies). Because you can doesn't mean you have to.

I've been taking pictures for 5 decades (first camera was a point and shoot Vivitar that used 110 film cartridges that I got in grade school). Move to digital was never about not printing pictures as I have always had them printed (some of them in any event whether in photobooks or individually). But it gives you flexibility to print the ones you want. And you know if you got the shot you want without having to wait weeks (and at that point, the moment is past and cannot be recaptured if you didn't). Easier to manipulate, edit, crop, etc. electronically. My dad had picture albums that took 4-5 feet of shelf space. Digitized, those can be accessed by all in the family from anywhere and printed if someone wants a print. Now we share photos from trips on google photos and easily combine them to make sets for various trips (some get printed in one form or another). Flexibility and options are well worth it.

The how-much-work-is-necessary/reasonable/justified is one of the many non-breathing but overly whipped equine discussions on this board.