In an interesting new survey, Walt Disney World is asking guests about their interest in some interactive features that could be added to their Disney Resort room to make the experience more immersive.
In the survey, Disney asks for feedback on some possible new features such as:
- A welcome sequence where curtains will open, lights turn on slowly, music plays, and a custom welcome message with your FastPass+ plans for the day appears on the TV.
- A brief animated video featuring a character of your choice welcoming you to the resort, playing on a screen themed to look like a picture frame.
- Immersive on-demand movies with choices based on your FastPass+ reservations. Color-changing light bulbs and a star projector would be used to create an experience themed to each movie.
- Live feed of nighttime spectaculars, bringing live video feeds of the park nighttime spectaculars synchronized to the show’s music to your resort TV.
- Your PhotoPass pictures from the day displayed on your resort TV.
As always with a survey, some of this may never happen, but it is also just as possible that some of these features will be added to resort room experiences at Walt Disney World in the not-too-distant future.
What do you think? Would you enjoy any of these features?
Thanks to reader Dan for the photo above!
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I think every one of those would definitely add to the magic!
Good making the rooms more Robotic sounds great to me a normal human resort guest…
I think all those things are magical, but how is that going to affect costs for families?
I presume this survey was given to guests already staying at the resorts, and not to guests who have been at some point in, say, the last year.
Sounds pretty cool to me.
Gotta be a real negative “glass is half empty” person to complain about these proposals. But, of course, we know there’s plenty of those types lurking Disney sites.
I think the only type of person required to complain about these proposals is to not be a Disney Intern named Jeff.
Actually , although well intended, i’m wondering if Disney thought of “opt outs” for these. I’m not being negative here, my son has eplilepsy we cant have flashing lights in our room! i like the other ideas however..
Why am I never right? Why don’t people love ME!
You’ve got a friend in me!!
I think those would be awesome to add to the experience unless there’s a fee charged for them. To me, it would add more “magic” to your stay and really set the resort hotels apart from staying off site…
Someone will be paying for this. Oh Wait ! That’s us. I’m pretty sure the mouse will not dip into his cheese funds to provide this “Magical experience “ if it happens, it will be figured into the next room increase. Hope there’s an opt out.
Who spends time in the room i sleep and shower there thats it..iam there twice a year …
These are all really great possibilities. Although I’m surprised they don’t already provide the FastPass reservation summary already. But regardless, all good stuff here! I know I’m probably asking a bit too much here, but I think it would be cool to have a live stream of the main street or area of every park (during park operations of course)
YESSS to all of these. This would be awesome and really take the Disney Resorts to a whole new level.
These sound like a great addition. The check in process at the moment is like any other hotel so if there was something like the room welcome they are suggesting it would really add to the magic of Disney.
The photo pass piece is just a great marketing ploy to make sure they get some of your money, just in case you didn’t buy them at the park and want another chance at the photos.
I think the live feed of the fireworks and other nighttime spectaculars on your in room television would be fabulous, especially for parents with young children or those who want to see the show but not be out quite so late! That would be a relatively inexpensive idea for Disney to implement, and could potentially ease the crowds both at the shows and in the rush exiting the parks after the various nighttime spectaculars.
The welcome sequence and the animated welcome video sound great but I think they would be expensive to implement. I’m pretty sure that cost would result in an increase in room rates. So, I’m not sure they would be worth it.
The ideas about the on demand movies seems to me to be a bit invasive, not to mention expensive.
I like the idea about being able to see your PhotoPass pictures on the in room television, but I think it would be expensive to implement so I’m not sure it would be worth the cost.
I don’t want my room announcing when I’ve arrived. The welcome sequence might be cool once, but would get old fast and make me feel like the room is less private.
I should note, I design and develop AI – the days are coming when all companies, not just Disney, use the data they’ve collected on us to redirect interaction back on us. Some of it is fine and can be fun if done right. Most of it will be intrusive. We’re just seeing the start of it with online advertising. Disney needs to step very carefully here to make sure they don’t alienate guests and turn everything robotic.
Thanks Neo. Can I take the blue pill now?
When we were at Aulani in 2015, they had the photopass thar we could see on the tv. We thought that was pretty cool. Like the idea of live streaming the fireworks too.
All of these are awesome, but after our last stay I’d like to suggest something…. adding the bus stop wait times. Our stop was close to our room offering great transportation to and from all the attractions, but we never knew the ETA of the bus until getting to the bus stop. It would be awesome to be able to look on the tv and know if we had 5 minutes until the bus arrival or 30. Thanks! LOVE the updates!
This idea sounds great to me. It would be great to also have a terminal or two at the bus loop while leaving the parks. Or maybe have the MDE app show the bus times based on our magicbands which we know they track us everywhere. if I stay at Poly but I’m visiting animal kingdom…the bus information could be added to my MDE app.
I think these are great!!!!! It would be amazing to come in your room and it welcome you!!! I think ppl need to relax about the whole privacy thing with Disney and the magic bands and tracking you! Who cares if they know that I rode Dinosaur 5 tines in a row! I think it can only helpful
I think all of this would be magical and make our trips more personal. Yes to all!!!
Wow!! These all sound fabulous!! You always do the best live streams my angelfish, Tom!!
[…] to WDW News Today, we might have a sneak peek at some new online services being considered for room […]
How about, They just lower the prices a little and stop looking for reasons to jack up price , that would be magical
how about you stay offsite then. Most people that stay on property want to be immersed in the Disney magic
indeed
I told you to stay out of my comments dad!
Magic always comes with a price deary.
Star wars hotel??
The TV access should not increase the price of the room. Fireworks show and pictures taken and to be purchased via the tv would be good as well as fast pass review is an awesome tool as I often plan out the day and find that purchasing some photo’s automatically taken at the parks is a great selling tool. I like the character giving you the schedule for fast pass and add tips and shot Mickey clues for the park where your fast pass rides are. Like an insiders view. The movie selection with theme projection is a nice touch not sure why the choice would be just on the fast pass but I get The tie in. I would be happy to pay a small fee per Movie when at the resort on the TV Disney downtime can be just as important Esp with kids. I would love to sleep under a protection of stars and moons that glow on the ceiling (optional) they can even put little mouse ears on some of the moons. The welcome thing not so much as things seem to continually loop and that would get boring however more variety on purchases and set up in ones room before arrival would be great. I tried to get tiger and two Minnie’s on our pillows for when we arrived and the section that handles that did not have the plush items I wanted. So I had to order them and have them shipped with a site fee and open them myself. Missed opportunity to connect.
[…] om de bezoeker nog meer onderdeel te laten worden van de Disney beleving, wellicht gebaseerd op persoonlijke voorkeuren, zoals bijvoorbeeld Fastpass+ […]
Sounds expensive
Let’s parse
1. The welcome scene would be cool for people with small kids and some peter pans. Not for everyone else. The fastpass reminder on the information channel would be a nice addition.
2. Same as above.
3. The immersive on demand movies seems as another nice addition for the crowd described above or even to the general public to add theming to the room, particularly the projectors & lightning part. The use of your fastpass data to push those movies is odious but the iphone generation, bent over backwards on giving away their privacy & rights just to watch kitty videos, will make sure this level of intrusion will be acted upon us all.
4. The live feed would be something that, while not bad or outright unwanted, I don’t see the point. You’re at Disney, spending all that money. Why would you want to watch it on the TV? There are plenty youtube videos (even at 4k) of those events if you wanna watch them at home or in room and no need to wait for the show time to see them.
5. OK, I guess. You can turn the TV into a digital frame.
Now let’s wait for the Disney interns to shed tears about the comments.
Shameless money grab…I don’t even want Disney changing the bedding if it is going to cost me money…corporate greed…Walt rollin’ in his grave…etc. etc.
I am 100% in on our photopass photos appearing on the tv when we get back to the room, or even for the whole trip. That would be great!
My husband and I would love all of them! And if someone is unable to see the fireworks live for whatever reason, that’s a terrific add! Could Guests choose from all the Parks’ nighttime shows? That would really plus it!