Disney World has started testing Smart Speakers in select guest rooms at the Yacht and Beach Club Resorts. Currently, guests with a Smart Speaker in their guest room will be able to get information including park hours, bus arrival times, the weather, and more from the speakers.
Disney’s Yacht Club Resort
The Smart Speakers are voice activated, and not linked to any personal accounts, including My Disney Experience accounts. No registration or set up is required if you are in a room with a Smart Speaker.
During this test period, if guests are in a room without a Smart Speaker guests can not request a Smart Speaker in their room. According to Disney Guest Services at the Yacht Club, it is not known if guests can opt-out of the test and be in a room without a Smart Speaker if that’s their preference.
Smart Speaker
If you stay in a room with a Smart Speaker during the test period, after your stay Disney will be requesting your feedback on your use and experience with the device.
Will you be staying at either the Yacht or Beach Club soon? Would you like to be a room with a Smart Speaker? Would you like to see Smart Speakers in all Disney resort guest rooms? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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Staying in the Beach Club later this year – will not be requesting a smart speaker and will be unplugging it if there’s is one in the room. Advantages don’t outweigh the fact that it is listening to everything that is said in the room. That’s why we don’t have one of these devices in our house.
I am staying in the Beach Club Feb 15-19! I would love to see how we can use a smart speaker in our room. If we get one, I will let you know via Instagram!
Sure, let Disney listen in on every thing the guest is saying. I’d be one to say, no way, Jose.
Will be staying at Yacht Club in two weeks. I’m not sure I like this idea, but I’m always afraid of new technology, and spies 🙂
No, thank you. I’m not overly paranoid when it comes to tech, but it is very easy to get this info in many ways, no need to have a device in the room with unknown data recording abilities.
my comment card would say i unplugged the device. no thanks.
I love this idea and actually wish it was linked to my magic band so I could ask things like, “what is my first fast pass today?” or “can you check for fast pass availability for Mine Train?” I’ll never understand the aversion to smart devices. People are for very paranoid about being “spied” on for as if Disney has nothing better to do than to listen to what you talk about in your room.
We use our Alexa at home a lot to ask about the weather, turn on and off lights, etc. I am always shocked at first when I give prompts on vacation and don’t get any reply!! I like that hotels are adding these.
Totally agree with what most others have commented –
No Way Jose!! I can get the info from my phone or the resort TV just fine, thank you. No way do I want Disney listening or recording everything we say in the room! I would unplug it if it were ever in our resort room.
This is not something I would want in my room, I can see that some would find it useful but I come on holiday to get away from this kind of thing. We have ear pieces at work , hand held pads and more so No this is not something that I would want, if the device can not be turned off and I had not been notified of this in my booking I would be absolutely livid!
I’m so excited to hear they’re testing smart speakers! My husband and I love the ones we have at home and have been hoping Disney would add them to the rooms. We’ve also been hoping you’ll have to say “Hey Mickey” to start talking to them. I doubt that would happen, but wouldn’t it be cool?!
Will be checking in tomorrow, there’s no way that I would want that in my room , as I find the whole thing creepy. I’m quite capable of obtaining all the information I need without some snoopy listening device. I’m not sure if people are too busy to do for themselves or just too lazy.
Aweseome! I agree with Jessica, it would be great if Disney added a My Disney Experience app to the voice assistant.
Also, I hope they will name them “Google Mini Mouse”. 😉
No way to I want that I’m my room. It’s bad enough the passes basically can track you. I don’t need them listening or recording private conversations
Kind of like having a peeping Tom in your room with the software recording everything you say. No thanks!
Through my Magic Band, WDW already tracks a lot of what I do, where I go and what I purchase. And that’s fine, because I made the choice to use the Magic Band. A supposedly passive device sitting in the room monitoring common conversation, looking for key words, crosses the line. Now, if you want to put the device in the room, and I activate it by pushing a button on either the device or a remote, that’s different and acceptable.
We are all slowly being turned into Axiom passengers, LOL!
I hope this is a quick decision by Disney to get the smart speakers out of the rooms. They track you with the magic bands know what you eat what you drink what rides you go on at what time, what parades you watched and now they want to listen to your private conversations after you come back from the parks! How much more of this 1984 stuff are people going to put up with. Pretty soon your magic ban will tell you when you need to go to the bathroom.
Wonder what will happen when couples are enjoying adult time, if these things are listening in?
I like what Tom said above about letting people decide to turn it on or off… I think giving people the choice to engage with the speaker is important and respectful.
I’d personally love to be a beta tester for the speaker. My husband and I have Alexa/automation set up at home and would like to have a similar experience when we travel. As far as them listening in…If they want to offer incentives based on things they ‘learn’ I’m interested in… that seems like a win to me! Google, Facebook, email clients… they are learning and adapting and serving up ads based on your behavior, so it is already happening whether I like it or not.
I’m staying at Beach Club in September and I hope I don’t get put in a room with one. I don’t see any point to them. It’s easy to get info from t’interweb and the TV.
I ‘m not sure I would like this. I hope they can be turned off by the guest. What’s wrong with the old fashioned way of watching the Disney info channel on the Disney TV system? Or simply using the room phone to call the desk, ask your question(s) and get your answer instantly, now, when you want or need it?
probably the only way to turn off is to unplug, but who knows they could have a battery backup. I don’t like these type of units. Always seems they say can’t be hacked etc but then after well in use oh such and such was hacked and so many people’s info taken. Look at iphone face time. A mother called in to apple and they blew her off when she tried to report the intrusion. Well it went all over and now apple admits a problem weeks later and will ‘fix’ it. I don’t like the magic bands and all the tracking with that. I surely will never stay in a room with one of these.
We will be at Beach Club in November. I think I will pass on this one. I am at Disney to indulge in escapism, fantasy and magic and not play with the latest techie toys.
No, no, no. I can already see “we don’t record everything that is said” 3 months later “there was a glitch in the systems or there was a hack that led to a glitch in the systems”