In a first-of-its-kind collaboration, Amazon will bring the best of Disney, Pixar, and ‘Star Wars’characters to people’s homes and Disney Resort hotel rooms with the help of Alexa.
People will soon be able to experience the magic of Disney in a new way—both at home and in select Disney Resort hotel rooms. The Hey Disney! experience launches later this year, but Amazon offered the public the first sneak peek during a live demonstration at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas recently.
According to a statement put out by Amazon, the Hey Disney! collab is a first-of-its-kind voice assistant that will give customers access to a wide range of Disney magic through Echo devices at home and as a complimentary service at select Disney Resorts hotels.
Disney built the experience using the Alexa Custom Assistant, a voice AI foundation upon which the company could easily create its own custom voice assistant that coexists with Alexa. This new voice assistant, termed the “Disney Magical Companion,” is the voice of Hey Disney!
The service will be available for purchase in the US in the coming months. Customers who have purchased and enabled it can say, “Hey Disney!” — a new wake word Amazon created — to enjoy experiences featuring more than 20 Disney, Pixar, and Star Wars characters. Customers can interact with these fan-favorites — like Mickey Mouse, Dory from Finding Nemo, and Olaf from Frozen — to hear an array of jokes, play trivia, listen to soundscapes, and more.
How does Hey Disney! work? Customers will access the service through Echo smart speakers at home and Disney Resort hotel rooms. Guests staying in select Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort hotels will be able to ask questions about park hours, request fresh towels, and access other helpful features.
Hey Disney! will also feature support for Disney’s MagicBand+, the smart and interactive wearable device that visitors use at Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort to interact with shows, enter the park, redeem Lightning Lane access, and more.
For example, when a person answers trivia questions, MagicBand+ transforms into a game show-style buzzer and reacts with lights and vibrations. It will even light up and buzz when the alarm or timer goes off.
“As a first-of-its-kind voice assistant, Hey Disney! continues Disney’s long tradition of using technology to provide the coolest, most convenient experiences to make your visit better,” said Dan Soto, Disney’s vice president of technology and digital.
“We’re always looking for new ways to open the door to even more stories, making them richer, more immersive, and forever memorable to guests and fans, whether they are at home or visiting Disney Parks. We can’t wait for fans and families to discover all the surprising and delightful interactions we’ve built into this experience,” he added.
Dana Alia, a senior manager on the Alexa team, said Disney wanted to delight fans in a new way. “Disney was really focused on making something that brings you into their resort experience in a way that hadn’t been done before,” she said.
The goal to create a new, unique experience also came with challenges. “In a lot of collaborations, there’s a template. You’ve done something similar before,” said Erin Egan, who leads the collaboration for Amazon, “In this case, we were both starting from blank. This added complexity but meant we had the freedom to define it.”
An innovation in storytelling
Aaron Rubenson, a vice president of Alexa, said customer education was another important challenge. “One of the fun areas for innovation was imagining how we were going to teach people about the feature,” he said.
Disney began installing Echo family devices with Hey Disney! in limited hotel rooms at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort.