‘Hey Disney!’ Alexa Device in Disney World Resort Rooms: What to Know & Review
‘Hey Disney!’ is an Amazon Alexa device that’s found in all hotel rooms at Walt Disney World Resort. This covers everything you need to know about the new voice-activated assistant that helps guests, along with our review and a more recent reassessment that includes how I was originally wrong about the in-room amenity. (Updated September 27, 2024.)
Earlier this year, Walt Disney World celebrated a milestone in the multi-year rollout of ‘Hey Disney’ as every one of its more than 28,000 hotel rooms now is equipped with the ‘Hey Disney!’ device and all guests in those rooms now have access to the free voice assistant service.
‘Hey Disney!’ was first announced before the kickoff of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary and was expected to roll out beginning in late 2021 through 2022. Instead, the device debuted in mid to late 2022 (unless you count the modified version in Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser) in select rooms and has had a slower rollout since. Regardless, it’s now everywhere.
Using Amazon’s Alexa technology for Echo devices, the ‘Hey Disney!’ digital voice assistant brings characters and stories to life and allows guests to ask questions about weather forecasts, as well as perform basic tasks like setting timers and alarms, etc.
Guests can also hear from more than 25 popular characters including Mickey Mouse, Olaf, Rocket, Groot, Princess Tiana, and many more. ‘Hey Disney’ can tell a Cars story or let you laugh along with jokes from Goofy. Relax with a Star Wars soundscape or take off on a Muppets adventure.
In the Echo devices found inside Walt Disney World Resort hotel rooms, guests can use ‘Hey Disney!’ to learn helpful information about their vacation, offering info about transportation, and more. The assistant can answer questions, like when Magic Kingdom opens, where to get a meal, or times for nighttime spectaculars.
From your room, you can also use the ‘Hey, Disney!’ assistant to make specific service requests. Need more pillows, towels or coffee? Just tell ‘Hey Disney!’ and a Cast Member will take care of your request.
‘Hey, Disney!’ was designed with Amazon’s Alexa to enhance the Walt Disney World guest experience with things like jokes, interactive trivia for families, personal greetings from characters, soundscapes, and more. As noted above, it offers authentic character voices, original recordings, unique audio environments inspired by films and parks, plus over 1,000 interactions.
The experience as a whole is guided by the “Disney Magical Companion.” Essentially, this companion is a Disneyfied version of Alexa. It’s a custom voice that Disney itself developed to guide users through the ‘Hey, Disney!’ experience.
Resorts offer the ‘Hey, Disney!’ service features through Alexa for Hospitality. This is an enterprise service that simplifies tasks for hotel occupants: playing music, getting the weather forecast, calling the front desk, ordering room service, controlling in-room temperature or lighting, and checking out.
Amazon pitches Alexa for Hospitality to the industry as “voice immersive experiences to help your property increase revenues, reduce costs, and improve guest satisfaction.” Alexa for Hospitality is already utilized by several hotel chains; as with most hospitality innovations, that’s particularly the case in Las Vegas. (Here’s an interesting Wynn Las Vegas case study about Alexa for Hospitality.)
September 27, 2024 Update: I wanted to circle back and update this section because we’ve had ‘Hey Disney!’ in our resort rooms another half-dozen plus times this year and I ‘regret’ to inform you that I was wrong and prematurely judgmental about the device–it’s really grown on me.
Don’t get me wrong–I still don’t think this is some game-changing amenity that needed to exist. And if you asked me whether I’d trade this for the return of Disney’s Magical Express, obviously I would in an instant, without hesitation. But obviously, that’s a false choice. The bottom line here is that I’m happy ‘Hey Disney!’ exists and now use it every single day of every stay.
While I’ve used the other features here and there sparingly–like the timer, alarm, and park hours–there’s one reason why I’ve come to love the device: soundscapes. I know it might seem silly, but I’m a huge sucker for background music loops and have a regular rotation that plays throughout my work day. Well, this is a similar idea. Here’s the full list of soundscapes available in ‘Hey Disney!’
- Spirit of the Pride Lands (The Lion King)
- Tiana’s Bayou Celebration (Princess and the Frog)
- Nemo’s Undersea Enchantment (Finding Nemo)
- Pirate Adventures (Pirates of the Caribbean)
- Mermaid’s Tale (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 in the Park (Magic Kingdom)
The final two are far and away my favorites, as they’re like actually being there, incorporating crowd noise and the sounds of the park in with the music. I put these on every night when I go to bed if I’m staying solo–they keep me company and also help drown out more distracting noise outside my room.
And I’m not too embarrassed to admit that I’ve already used the Holidays in the Park soundscape during the summer months. It was calming and cozy and transported me to a cooler time of year. (Although with the way I crank the AC in the room, it was already that cooler time!)
Anyway, just wanted to revisit this review of ‘Hey Disney!’ and mention the soundscapes. They’re definitely a little thing in the grand scheme of things, but the little things matter! My hope is that others love them as much as I do, and Walt Disney World rolls more out over the coming years.
Beyond that, I’m going to keep this commentary relatively brief because–in my experience covering this–very few fans care about ‘Hey Disney!’ To the extent that you do care, it seems like roughly three-quarters of you are concerned about the privacy implications. At least, if judging by comments to past posts about ‘Hey Disney!’ prior to its rollout.
I do think that over-represents those with privacy concerns. Most people are indifferent to this sort of thing, which is precisely how so many companies are able to offer products and services in exchange for user data. Those who do care comment; those who don’t care…don’t.
With that said, I find it interesting that the ‘Hey Disney!’ support page on DisneyWorld.com pertains mostly to privacy. There are four questions listed, two of which are basic ‘getting started’ ones. The other two are: “When is the Device Listening?” and “Do I Have to Have ‘Hey Disney!’ in My Room?”
That second question actually made me laugh out loud. It makes me wonder if, during testing, they had requests from guests to remove the devices…or Mousekeeping kept finding them in the safes or hallways. (For those curious, no direct answer is given to the question, just: “If you have any other questions or concerns, call the Front Desk.”)
Otherwise, Disney and Amazon attempt to preemptively address by guests’ concerns by needing to opt in, not opt out, to use ‘Hey, Disney!’ Upon arrival, the ⊘ button on top of your device will be red, meaning the device is muted. If you want to use the smart speaker press the button to unmute it. If you don’t, do nothing.
Once unmuted, the digital voice assistant will listen for the wake words “Hey Disney” or “Alexa.” To get started, say or tap “Hey Disney, start the magic!”
The in-room experience at Walt Disney World is designed with privacy in mind and so no audio is stored by default. Visitors will not log in with their own Amazon accounts to use the experience–meaning no personal information is transmitted or known when interacting with ‘Hey, Disney!’
We’ve only seen ‘Hey Disney!’ in the wild twice now. I kept expecting to see it last year during my resort stays–especially in newly-reimagined rooms at Deluxe Resorts–but that never happened. I don’t know if that was just bad luck, or if most of the rollout has occurred in 2024. (It seems like the device has been testing forever.)
In any case, I’ve admittedly only done cursory testing with ‘Hey Disney!’ The soundscapes, jokes, and all of the interactive features are fun enough. They’re cute and I could see kids enjoying the jokes or bedtime stories. A fun enough way to start or end the day. I know some families used to love the wakeup calls from Mickey Mouse, and this seems like this next evolution of that.
Even though it’s bigger in scale and scope, it’s also not the same? I dunno, maybe it’s just me, but there was a certain novelty in that wakeup call or even the bedtime channels on the resort TV. There has since been a technology tidal wave, and things like Amazon Alexa have become ubiquitous. Even though they can do a whole lot more, they don’t quite have that same magic of the more ‘analogue’ things of the 90s. Maybe that’s just me having an old man yells at cloud moment, though.
Perhaps kids today love this stuff, and ‘Hey Disney!’ is actually a huge hit on the TikTok, the #1 trending topic for the last year with a bunch of viral dances dedicated to the device. After all, if anyone doesn’t have privacy concerns, it is definitely TikTok users.
For whatever it’s worth, I’m not saying I dislike ‘Hey Disney.’ The interactivity is far deeper than anything ever seen in resort rooms–even on the new smart televisions. There’s a lot of cute little stuff in there! It’s well done, and there’s a lot of it. Kids could probably play with ‘Hey Disney’ for hours and not exhaust its entertainment options.
Honestly, though, it’s very hard for me to ‘review’ this as adult male solo travelers almost assuredly are not the target audience. Maybe if Megatron were a few years older and we were using ‘Hey Disney’ as a family, my opinion of it would be dramatically different. As an adult, I’m mostly just neutral on ‘Hey Disney,’ having used this type of thing in the real world for a while.
The one thing I really do like about ‘Hey Disney’ is the ability to make requests from Mousekeeping. I also like that this can be done via the touchscreen, and does not require enabling the smart speaker. I’ve used this to request more coffee, and viola, more coffee appeared in my room while I was out for the day.
Otherwise, the practical side of ‘Hey Disney!’ doesn’t seem all that deep. When this was first announced, Disney teased integrations with the Genie service (presumably the itinerary planning side since you wouldn’t be logging into the device with your My Disney Experience account).
None of that came to pass. That’s not a huge surprise, as the free side of Genie flopped and Walt Disney World hasn’t really done anything with it since launch. Whatever info you can get about the parks from ‘Hey Disney’ is superficial; you’ll still want/need to be on the app first thing every morning, so why not just get the same info there?
Beyond using ‘Hey Disney’ late last year and in early 2024, we had the chance to use the D3-O9 Logistics Droid aboard Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser when that launched (but before it closed). This character interacted with you via an panel on the wall, and is both audio and video.
While the interface is different, D3-O9 was like the ‘Hey, Disney!’ Alexa service on steroids. This logistics droid has the ability to brief guests on mission elements, details, and more. Now D3-O9 actually did have that magic quality, actually feeling like a character come to life. The droid had personality and it was like an actual two-way interaction–a conversation.
Perhaps this is why I’m less enthused about ‘Hey Disney!’ The devices in regular resort rooms remind me of Amazon Alexa, a device I used back in the real world almost a decade ago and have since stopped using. The novelty wore off long ago. By contrast, D3-O9 was something new and unique, and felt imbued with that sense of Disney wonder and charm. Of course, Starcruiser also cost a ton of money and ultimately failed, so I wouldn’t expect to see anything like this in standard hotel rooms.
Ultimately, ‘Hey, Disney!’ is a worthwhile service when it comes to trivia and interacting with their favorite characters, hearing bedtimes stories, jokes, and that sort of thing. Families with small children will probably enjoy it. Basically, I think ‘Hey Disney!’ is a solid addition when judged only from the perspective of “a fun thing for kids.” I could see some families getting a lot of mileage out of this. Some kids will absolutely adore it.
As a feature that improves the quality of the guest experience or stay, ‘Hey Disney’ is fine. It’s nice to be able to request room amenities (etc.) without picking up a phone and dealing with the front desk/call center or whatever. In this regard, I’d file ‘Hey Disney’ as an incremental improvement.
My guess is that most guests won’t use ‘Hey Disney’ at all, never unmuting the microphone upon arrival into the rooms. Most of those people who do enable it will toy around with it for a few minutes, deeming it a cute novelty and then forgetting about it for the rest of their stay. Some who do will find it mildly entertaining, with a small minority of families really loving it as a way to keep their kids entertained. At the other end of the spectrum, another small but more vocal minority will be angered at its existence and the privacy concerns presented. I would guess that most people won’t be so passionate; indifference will be the top response to ‘Hey Disney!’ (and this post about it).
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the “Hey, Disney!” Alexa assistant? Excited to try this out at Walt Disney World or would you prefer to not have an Amazon device in your hotel room? Think this will be helpful and improve the resort experience, or are you skeptical/indifferent? If you’ve used ‘Hey Disney,’ do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Other thoughts or concerns? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I think it’s inappropriate for a hotel room, that said I don’t have one at home either. All the stories of them being hacked and people watching you! I was there in late November and just unplugged it for the entire stay.
Honestly, the utility of such a device would be better for me if there was an optional “video out” connection to the television. I can imagine questions that I’ll want to read as well as hear the answers, and the LCD screen on the Alexa is a lot smaller than the TV.
My kids loved playing with the Hey Disney device in our room. We were surprised by a towel delivery one day, and when my husband and I realized neither one of us had ordered extra towels, my 6 year old proudly announced it was him, and he had ordered 100 of them (thankfully they did not deliver 100 towels).
Our Hey Disney stopped working 3 days into our stay
We had one in our Princess room in Port Orleans Riverside last year. We didn’t use it. Reading this, in looking forward to playing around woth it when we go next month.
We have a Google device that does similar things. My kids loved asking it about the animal of the day, until Google did what Google does, they removed that feature. So we’ll likely play around with it in the room, have it tell stories, jokes, and differemt characters talk to us. Plus, being able to just ask it simple questions about weather, the parks, etc while I’m on the bed exhausted and not wanting to pick up my phone will be handy.
“Hey Disney, is it going to rain at Magic Kingdom this afternoon?”
“Hey Disney, is the bathroom by the Treehouse clean?”
“Hey Disney, what beers are on tap at the beer cart between Africa and Pandora for breakfast tomorrow?”
Oh, we could go on and on and on…
Obviously there is a mic in the device, but is that a camera notch I see on the device?
There is a cutout for a camera but these Disney-specific devices don’t actually have cameras, unlike normal echo show devices. That would obviously be very problematic in a hotel room.
Cool, another way to spy on guests… Although maybe they will finally hear about enough complaints of the bland decor in ‘refreshed’ rooms to actually listen and stop over-sanitizing any sense of design.
This feels like normal Disney tech forays – good idea, but way behind the curve. We had one in our room at Saratoga Springs before our final stay on the Galactic Starcruiser, and while I was working on last minute costume details my room-mates played around with it for a bit and we laughed. However, like others mentioned below…once night hits then it can be really bright even as a clock, so we had to turn it off. It’s just…fine, really. It’s fine for now, and in a few years we’ll quietly see them disappear, and the next generation of bloggers will reminisce about how Mickey would tell them a bedtime story back in their day from a screen instead of via Apple headsets or Bluetooth immersive experience head-clips or whatever is coming next.
Just finished a stay at AKL last Friday. Unplugged the unit as soon as we walked into the room and didn’t give it another thought for our entire stay. Say w what you will but can’t sleep with that light on and Disney tracks me enough with the Magic Band.
I am probably one of few adults looking forward to this. Every single day, at home, I ask Alexa what the weather is. It’s become habit. And yes, I could look on my phone at the weather channel app, but I like being able to multi task. When we were there in October, I said to my husband, I really wish we had Alexa so I could play music and ask about the weather. Trivial but still important to me. So when we are there next month – I will 100% use this device, daily, and am looking forward to it!
“More coffee did show up in my room, but that could’ve just been as a result of routine housekeeping?”
Is it really back to routine yet? In August staying Club Level at Coronado–meaning routine mousekeeping every other day since it’s a Moderate resort–we practically had to beg for toilet paper and trash collection. Otherwise, mousekeeping (and the room safety checks) barely happened over the course of 7 days.
It may or may not be muted… I don’t care. The first thing I’m doing when I enter a resort room is unplugging it.
When I was asked about whether I was excited about it by a CM at the last Expo, she seemed surprised when I said no.
I’m not sure why Disney thought that this was something that we wanted or needed.
It doesn’t do anything that I can’t do with my phone or with a simple phone call.
I guess I’m just not tge demographic for this…we have smart devices that are automated, but we don’t have any digital assistants.
I ignored it on a recent trip, but liked the fact that when you turn off lights at bedtime, it becomes a clock – perfect for when you wake up in the middle of the night wondering how long until rope drop!
We had one in our Royal Room at Port Orleans Riverside this January, and our 6 year olds really enjoyed it! There was a near-mishap when we first got into the room and while my husband and I were bringing in suitcases, the 6 year olds were clicking blindly and almost reported that we had a clogged toilet. Otherwise though, they absolutely loved the soundscapes, jokes, and “adventures” (little stories), enough so that my daughter wanted to make sure we’d have enough time in the room to “play with Disney”. Definitely a little thing that made our resort stay better!
I think it is a cute idea. Granted there will be those that wont you it. We have Alexa so I am used to the app. Will I try it sure, why not. And honestly, did you think the magic bands and the phone app arent tracking your every move while on Disney property? It’s just something that the kids can have fun with, the adults can get questions answered or order more items for their room. It isnt going to allow you to purchase items and have it shipped to your room. hmmmm thought.? Or pick up your bags when you are getting ready to leave? Or even get the much needed reservation. All in all, it is another app. Now if you tell me it will turn the lights off and on as well as change the channels, I would think that was just like home.
As pretty much the first thing that happens when we get to our room is that my husband calls Mousekeeping to request extra tissue boxes and blankets, I’m really looking forward to seeing how efficiently these requests are handled through “Hey Disney.”
I can see my kids playing around with the fun features and I like the idea of this being good for fun wake-up alarms.
Overall, I’m sure we’ll play with it at least the first time we encounter it.
Yep – fun for some, ignored for most sounds about right. I’ll see where it falls for us next month…I do find it odd that Disney has now outfitted rooms with a new Alexa device, but you still can’t watch Disney movies or Disney+ on the TVs already in them…anyone have insight into why that might be?
yeah it was in all 3 of our rooms at wilderness lodge never used it but was curious if it was actually listening to all of us. Don’t like it and won’t use it the app does everything you need to do so I will take advice and unplug it moving forward could not imagine if someone was secretly listening what they may of heard some of the 10 days we were all there very invasive and intrusive.
It showed up in my room in CBR halfway through my trip a couple weeks ago. I didn’t want the light disturbing me when I tried to sleep, so I unplugged it pretty quickly and ignored it the rest of the trip
Great article as usual Tom!
I totally agree with you!
We had a split stay the first 2 weeks in December. My wife and I stayed at BoardWalk and the device was there. It was never used. I always just called mousekeeping directly on the phone.
Next was BayLake towers when the grandkids and their tag along parents met us. They had a blast with the “toy” features such as Jokes and Story telling. Again we just called housekeeping directly on the phone.
It is a novelty to be sure, but I wish they used the money for things such as refurbishments instead.
At most, Disney is getting these devices at bulk prices around $40 a room (you can check Amazon to see comp prices for the same Alexa devices with different software). While “Hey Disney” isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, that price point per room isn’t going to hinder any refurbishments.
The device does not cost much, but the fees to Amazon would be a pretty penny. The cost of putting in the devices, maintaining the infrastructure, etc it all adds up. So why not open the $$ on something like bringing back package delivery to the resort from the Disney Stores?
I would have to respectfully disagree with Robert. Having been a digital producer for a period of time, the primary expense is not in the devices themselves but the development costs and ongoing maintenance (ie, bug fixes, updates, etc). The Disney-specific aspects all had to be designed and developed. I absolutely think these were a wasted expense and those development dollars would have been better utilized improving the guest experience in other ways. Certainly not a waste of dollars on par with Genie+, but nonetheless mostly unnecessary.
@Cameron, my point is only that these Alexa devices are nothing more than a rounding error on a spreadsheet compared to the cost of any significant soft or hard goods renovation at a resort. When Disney doesn’t renovate or innovate, it’s not because of “Hey Disney. There’s a dozen (bad) reasons why they don’t/won’t, but these devices aren’t one of them.
I do agree that the hardware is pearling a rounding error, however the fees that gets paid to Amazon is not. (Having looked at including Alexa for my Job I can assure you it is not a rounding error). This plus the infrastructure and maintenance is also not cheap. So I did exaggerate a bit, but Disney could bring back things like express package delivery or Magic express for less than the cost of this system. These things were actually used and appreciated by a larger percentage of guests than Hey Disney will be.