‘Hey Disney!’ is an Amazon Alexa machine that’s present in all resort rooms at Walt Disney World Resort. This covers every part you want to know concerning the new voice-activated assistant that helps visitors order facilities, converse with Forged Members, get solutions to widespread questions, plan park days, have enjoyable character interactions, and extra. (Up to date September 27, 2024.)
Earlier this yr, Walt Disney World celebrated a milestone within the multi-year rollout of ‘Hey Disney’ as each one among its greater than 28,000 resort rooms now could be outfitted with the ‘Hey Disney!’ machine and all visitors in these rooms now have entry to the free voice assistant service.
‘Hey Disney!’ was first introduced earlier than the kickoff of Walt Disney World’s fiftieth Anniversary and was anticipated to roll out starting in late 2021 by 2022. As an alternative, the machine debuted in mid to late 2022 (until you rely the modified model in Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser) in choose rooms and has had a slower rollout since. Regardless, it’s now all over the place.
Utilizing Amazon’s Alexa know-how for Echo gadgets, the ‘Hey Disney!’ digital voice assistant brings characters and tales to life and permits visitors to ask questions on climate forecasts, in addition to carry out fundamental duties like setting timers and alarms, and many others.
Company may also hear from greater than 25 common characters together with Mickey Mouse, Olaf, Rocket, Groot, Princess Tiana, and lots of extra. ‘Hey Disney’ can inform a Vehicles story or allow you to chuckle together with jokes from Goofy. Loosen up with a Star Wars soundscape or take off on a Muppets journey.
Within the Echo gadgets discovered inside Walt Disney World Resort resort rooms, visitors can use ‘Hey Disney!’ to be taught useful details about their trip, providing information about transportation, and extra. The assistant can reply questions, like when Magic Kingdom opens, the place to get a meal, or occasions for nighttime spectaculars.
Out of your room, you can even use the ‘Hey, Disney!’ assistant to make particular service requests. Want extra pillows, towels or espresso? Simply inform ‘Hey Disney!’ and a Forged Member will handle your request.
‘Hey, Disney!’ was designed with Amazon’s Alexa to reinforce the Walt Disney World visitor expertise with issues like jokes, interactive trivia for households, private greetings from characters, soundscapes, and extra. As famous above, it presents genuine character voices, authentic recordings, distinctive audio environments impressed by movies and parks, plus over 1,000 interactions.
The expertise as a complete is guided by the “Disney Magical Companion.” Basically, this companion is a Disneyfied model of Alexa. It’s a customized voice that Disney itself developed to information customers by the ‘Hey, Disney!’ expertise.
Resorts provide the ‘Hey, Disney!’ service options by Alexa for Hospitality. That is an enterprise service that simplifies duties for resort occupants: enjoying music, getting the climate forecast, calling the entrance desk, ordering room service, controlling in-room temperature or lighting, and testing.
Amazon pitches Alexa for Hospitality to the trade as “voice immersive experiences to assist your property improve revenues, scale back prices, and enhance visitor satisfaction.” Alexa for Hospitality is already utilized by a number of resort chains; as with most hospitality improvements, that’s significantly the case in Las Vegas. (Right here’s an attention-grabbing Wynn Las Vegas case research about Alexa for Hospitality.)
September 27, 2024 Replace: I wished to circle again and replace this part as a result of we’ve had ‘Hey Disney!’ in our resort rooms one other half-dozen plus occasions this yr and I remorse to tell you that I used to be flawed and prematurely judgmental concerning the machine–it’s actually grown on me.
Whereas I’ve used the opposite options right here and there sparingly–just like the timer, alarm, and park hours, there’s one motive why I’ve come to love the machine: soundscapes. I do know it may appear foolish, however I’m an enormous sucker for background music loops and have a daily rotation that performs all through my work day. Properly, it is a comparable thought. Right here’s the complete listing of soundscapes accessible in ‘Hey Disney!’
- Spirit of the Satisfaction Lands (The Lion King)
- Tiana’s Bayou Celebration (Princess and the Frog)
- Nemo’s Undersea Enchantment (Discovering Nemo)
- Pirate Adventures (Pirates of the Caribbean)
- Mermaid’s Story (The Little Mermaid)
- A Frozen Journey
- Moana’s Voyage
- A Coco Homecoming
- Sounds of El Encanto
- Star Wars: Galactic Tour
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Planetary Remix
- Disney Parks Magic (Magic Kingdom)
- Holidays within the Park (Magic Kingdom)
The ultimate two are far and away my favorites, as they’re like truly being there, incorporating crowd noise and the sounds of the park in with the music. I put these on each evening once I go to mattress if I’m staying solo–they hold me firm and likewise assist drown out extra distracting noise exterior my room.
And I’m not too embarrassed to confess that I’ve already used the Holidays within the Park soundscape through the summer season months. It was calming and comfortable and transported me to a cooler time of yr. (Though with the best way I crank the AC within the room, it was already that cooler time!)
Anyway, simply wished to revisit this evaluation of ‘Hey Disney!’ and point out the soundscapes. They’re positively somewhat factor within the grand scheme of issues, however the little issues matter! My hope is that others love them as a lot as I do, and Walt Disney World rolls extra out over the approaching years.
Past that, I’m going to maintain this commentary comparatively transient as a result of–in my expertise masking this–only a few followers care about ‘Hey Disney!’ To the extent that you simply do care, it looks as if roughly three-quarters of you might be involved concerning the privateness implications. No less than, if judging by feedback to previous posts about ‘Hey Disney!’ previous to its rollout.
I do suppose that over-represents these with privateness considerations. Most individuals are detached to this form of factor, which is exactly how so many firms are in a position to provide services and products in trade for consumer information. Those that do care remark; those that don’t care…don’t.
With that mentioned, I discover it attention-grabbing that the ‘Hey Disney!’ help web page on DisneyWorld.com pertains principally to privateness. There are 4 questions listed, two of that are fundamental ‘getting began’ ones. The opposite two are: “When is the Gadget Listening?” and “Do I Need to Have ‘Hey Disney!’ in My Room?”
That second query truly made me chuckle out loud. It makes me surprise if, throughout testing, they’d requests from visitors to take away the gadgets…or Mousekeeping saved discovering them within the safes or hallways. (For these curious, no direct reply is given to the query, simply: “When you’ve got another questions or considerations, name the Entrance Desk.”)
In any other case, Disney and Amazon try to preemptively deal with by visitors’ considerations by needing to choose in, not choose out, to make use of ‘Hey, Disney!’ Upon arrival, the ⊘ button on high of your machine will probably be purple, that means the machine is muted. If you wish to use the good speaker press the button to unmute it. In case you don’t, do nothing.
As soon as unmuted, the digital voice assistant will pay attention for the wake phrases “Hey Disney” or “Alexa.” To get began, say or faucet “Hey Disney, begin the magic!”
The in-room expertise at Walt Disney World is designed with privateness in thoughts and so no audio is saved by default. Guests won’t log in with their very own Amazon accounts to make use of the expertise–that means no private info is transmitted or identified when interacting with ‘Hey, Disney!’
We’ve solely seen ‘Hey Disney!’ within the wild twice now. I saved anticipating to see it final yr throughout my resort stays–particularly in newly-reimagined rooms at Deluxe Resorts–however that by no means occurred. I don’t know if that was simply dangerous luck, or if a lot of the rollout has occurred in 2024. (It looks as if the machine has been testing ceaselessly.)
In any case, I’ve admittedly solely performed cursory testing with ‘Hey Disney!’ The soundscapes, jokes, and all the interactive options are enjoyable sufficient. They’re cute and I might see children having fun with the jokes or bedtime tales. A enjoyable sufficient strategy to begin or finish the day. I do know some households used to like the wakeup calls from Mickey Mouse, and this looks as if this subsequent evolution of that.
Despite the fact that it’s larger in scale and scope, it’s additionally not the identical? I dunno, possibly it’s simply me, however there was a sure novelty in that wakeup name and even the bedtime channels on the resort TV. There has since been a know-how tidal wave, and issues like Amazon Alexa have turn out to be ubiquitous. Despite the fact that they will do a complete lot extra, they don’t fairly have that very same magic of the extra ‘analogue’ issues of the 90s. Perhaps that’s simply me having an previous man yells at cloud second, although.
Maybe children right now love these items, and ‘Hey Disney!’ is definitely an enormous hit on the TikTok, the #1 trending matter for the final yr with a bunch of viral dances devoted to the machine. In spite of everything, if anybody doesn’t have privateness considerations, it’s positively TikTok customers.
For no matter it’s price, I’m not saying I dislike ‘Hey Disney.’ The interactivity is much deeper than something ever seen in resort rooms–even on the brand new good televisions. There’s numerous cute little stuff in there! It’s nicely performed, and there’s numerous it. Children might most likely play with ‘Hey Disney’ for hours and never exhaust its leisure choices.
Truthfully, although, it’s very exhausting for me to ‘evaluation’ this as grownup male solo vacationers virtually assuredly will not be the target market. Perhaps if Megatron have been a couple of years older and we have been utilizing ‘Hey Disney’ as a household, my opinion of it will be dramatically totally different. As an grownup, I’m principally simply impartial on ‘Hey Disney,’ having used any such factor in the actual world for some time.
The one factor I actually do like about ‘Hey Disney’ is the flexibility to make requests from Mousekeeping. I additionally like that this may be performed through the touchscreen, and doesn’t require enabling the good speaker. I’ve used this to request extra espresso, and viola, extra espresso appeared in my room whereas I used to be out for the day.
In any other case, the sensible aspect of ‘Hey Disney!’ doesn’t appear all that deep. When this was first introduced, Disney teased integrations with the Genie service (presumably the itinerary planning aspect because you wouldn’t be logging into the machine together with your My Disney Expertise account).
None of that got here to go. That’s not an enormous shock, because the free aspect of Genie flopped and Walt Disney World hasn’t actually performed something with it since launch. No matter information you will get concerning the parks from ‘Hey Disney’ is superficial; you’ll nonetheless need/must be on the app very first thing each morning, so why not simply get the identical information there?
Past utilizing ‘Hey Disney’ late final yr and in early 2024, we had the possibility to make use of the D3-O9 Logistics Droid aboard Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser when that launched (however earlier than it closed). This character interacted with you through an panel on the wall, and is each audio and video.
Whereas the interface is totally different, D3-O9 was just like the ‘Hey, Disney!’ Alexa service on steroids. This logistics droid has the flexibility to transient visitors on mission parts, particulars, and extra. Now D3-O9 truly did have that magic high quality, truly feeling like a personality come to life. The droid had persona and it was like an precise two-way interplay–a dialog.
Maybe because of this I’m much less enthused about ‘Hey Disney!’ The gadgets in common resort rooms remind me of Amazon Alexa, a tool I used again in the actual world virtually a decade in the past and have since stopped utilizing. The novelty wore off way back. Against this, D3-O9 was one thing new and distinctive, and felt imbued with that sense of Disney surprise and allure. In fact, Starcruiser additionally value a ton of cash and finally failed, so I wouldn’t anticipate to see something like this in commonplace resort rooms.
Finally, ‘Hey, Disney!’ is a worthwhile service in terms of trivia and interacting with their favourite characters, listening to bedtimes tales, jokes, and that form of factor. Households with young children will most likely get pleasure from it. Mainly, I feel ‘Hey Disney!’ is a strong addition when judged solely from the angle of “a enjoyable factor for teenagers.” I might see some households getting numerous mileage out of this. Some children will completely adore it.
As a characteristic that improves the standard of the visitor expertise or keep, ‘Hey Disney’ is okay. It’s good to have the ability to request room facilities (and many others.) with out selecting up a telephone and coping with the entrance desk/name heart or no matter. On this regard, I’d file ‘Hey Disney’ as an incremental enchancment.
My guess is that almost all visitors gained’t use ‘Hey Disney’ in any respect, by no means unmuting the microphone upon arrival into the rooms. Most of these individuals who do allow it should toy round with it for a couple of minutes, deeming it a cute novelty after which forgetting about it for the remainder of their keep. Some who do will discover it mildly entertaining, with a small minority of households actually loving it as a strategy to hold their children entertained. On the different finish of the spectrum, one other small however extra vocal minority will probably be angered at its existence and the privateness considerations introduced. I’d guess that most individuals gained’t be so passionate; indifference would be the high response to ‘Hey Disney!’ (and this put up about it).
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider the “Hey, Disney!” Alexa assistant? Excited to do this out at Walt Disney World or would you like to not have an Amazon machine in your resort room? Suppose this will probably be useful and enhance the resort expertise, or are you skeptical/detached? In case you’ve used ‘Hey Disney,’ do you agree or disagree with our evaluation? Different ideas or considerations? Any questions we might help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even if you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
