Disney parks launches new app to get you off apps

Going to a Disney park is supposed to transport you somewhere magical, but for many, the experience requires a very rote part of modern life: staring at your phone.

Disney has separate apps for its resorts in California and Florida, as well as those in France, Japan, and China. Booking Lightning Lane appointments (an extra charge that lets guests jump long lines for rides), nabbing meal reservations, and ordering mobile food items all require checking times on the app. It’s something that Disney guests have to do often if they don’t want to wait hours for Space Mountain or a meal at the Blue Bayou restaurant.

Disney brass even acknowledged that its tech-forward approach has lessened the park experience, with Walt Disney Imagineering President Bruce Vaughn saying last year that reliance on the various apps "breaks the spell" of visiting a Disney resort.

Disney’s first experiment to reduce phone use at its parks was revealed this week. The company just launched the Disney Imagineering Labs app (yes, a new app to reduce smartphone use). The first offering of the app is now available to select Magic Key participants (annual passholders) — Secrets of the Spire in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Described by the Disney Tourist blog as an interactive game within the parks' Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge section, the app offers minigames and challenges. It’s not very clear how this reduces phone usage while at the park, though.

The more promising part of the Imagineering Labs app is the Disneyland Enchanted Guide, which does not yet have a release date but is likely to drop early next year, according to Disney Tourist Blog and the Micky Visit blog.

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The AI-powered app allows text-based and voice-based questions, e.g., "How long is the line at Pirates of the Caribbean?" "Where should we eat at around noon near Tomorrowland?" The most promising aspect of the Enchanted Guide is the ability to set alerts for when a ride or restaurant's wait time drops below a certain time. Rather than constantly checking the app, you can go about your day until you hear that ding from your phone. 

As part of the early app rollout, Disney is soliciting feedback from users in-app. Acknowledging that the Imagineering Labs app isn’t a finished product, Disney is asking park power users to weigh in on what aspects of the app truly improve the park experience.

Time will tell if the new app really reduces phone usage at the park. There has been no word on the Disney blogs that the Imagineering Labs app will replace the various Disney park apps, which means you could get an alert on Lightning Lane availability via the Enchanted Guide app and then have to open the Disneyland app to actually book your Lightning Lane appointment. Hopefully, if successful, the apps will be integrated. 

Adding to the mixed messages is the partnership between the Enchanted Guide app and Meta for the latter's Ray-Ban smart glasses. Users will be able to pair the glasses with the app, where they can ask the AI about things they see in the park. Again, more offerings can be good, but this doesn’t seem to align with the goal of making visiting a Disney park more of an offline, in-the-moment experience.