What Can You Do With a Hey Disney Alexa at Disney World?

If you’ve got an upcoming stay at a Disney World resort, you might get an email that tells you about a Hey Disney device you can use during your visit. And if you’re like me, you’ll be pretty curious about what you can do with it when you get there! I recently stayed in a room with a Hey Disney, and I pushed a lot of buttons to try things out. Keep reading to see what to expect — and what not to expect — from your experience with Hey Disney. If you want to jump straight to a particular section, tap any of the links below.

• How to turn Hey Disney on or off in your hotel room
• What’s the difference between Hey Disney and Alexa?
• Hey Disney features for Disney World
• Hey Disney features that are just Disney fun
• What Hey Disney does not do (yet)
• How to get Hey Disney at home

Turning Hey Disney on or off in your hotel room

A common complaint about a Disney vacation is that it’s impossible to unplug and get away from your phone. And so a common question about Hey Disney is: do you have to use it? The answer is no. There is absolutely nothing about your resort stay that requires Hey Disney. Just like an Amazon Echo or Google Home device, it’s something you choose to use, not something you need to use.

Hey Disney devices are dressed up Amazon Echo Shows, so if you’ve already got an Echo Show at home then Hey Disney will look suspiciously familiar. When it’s turned on, Hey Disney listens for the wake words and responds to you – you’ll know it’s listening when you see a blue bar at the bottom of the screen. If you don’t want to use Hey Disney, turn off the microphone with the ⊘ button that you’ll find on top of the device. Note: the Mickey Ears stand covers the camera, so the Hey Disney Echo is not able to “see” into your room, only listen.

The ⊘ button on top is red when the microphone is muted. Those concerned about privacy may be happy to know that the microphone switch is a hardware toggle: if the red light is on then there is no power going to the microphone. Disney’s support says that Hey Disney should be off when you first arrive, but we found it turned on so you’ll want to double-check. More technical details and privacy policies are on Disney’s support page for the device, and if you’re extremely concerned you can simply unplug it.

Even if you leave the microphone muted, you’ll be able to use some of the more scripted Hey Disney functionality – like ordering items for your room or starting a story – using only the touchscreen.

What’s the difference between Hey Disney and Alexa?

It’s been possible for a long time to take your Echo on vacation with you and use Alexa while traveling. So what’s different here? Digital voice assistants like Alexa come pre-loaded with a set of commands, and you can add new commands by installing “skills”. Hey Disney is simply an Alexa skill package.

That means that the Hey Disney device in your room will respond just like Alexa would if you address it as Alexa. And, it has a few extra abilities that basic Alexa does not have. An example would be telling Disney stories, or asking for towels to be brought to your room.

You’ll find a brochure in your room that covers some of the additional skills included in Hey Disney. If Hey Disney is turned on, the screen will also flip through a carousel showing you Hey Disney options. Or you can ask for a “tour” by saying “Hey Disney, what can you do?”

A few functions are available as both Alexa and Hey Disney commands, such as setting timers or getting a weather report. For most of these, the difference that you’ll notice is in the tone of the response. Alexa will give you the forecast in a normal, boring Alexa voice. If you address the device as “Hey Disney”, you’ll get a “Disney-fied” report in a Disney character voice. Same thing for timers, or alarms.

One glaring exception to this rule is music. Both Alexa and Hey Disney have a Play Music function, but they don’t do the same thing. The Alexa music function lets you select a specific song, genre, or artist. The Hey Disney music function plays a specific iHeart radio playlist of Disney songs. Worth noting: you can connect your phone to Hey Disney using Bluetooth and use it as a speaker to stream your own music. Even better, this streaming function works even if you have Hey Disney turned off.

Hey Disney features for Disney World

You can use Hey Disney to contact housekeeping, maintenance, or luggage services. Picking up the phone and calling housekeeping still works, so Hey Disney is just an alternate method. Hey Disney can order items for your room such as towels or blankets. And you can get information about park hours and showtimes.

If you’re getting ready to head out, you can use Hey Disney to get the bus arrival times at your resort. Unlike using My Disney Experience for this information, you can tie your shoes and ask about the bus schedule at the same time. Multi-tasking!

One feature I really enjoyed is that although the camera is covered, the light sensor is not. Hey Disney “knows” when your lights are out and it’s dark outside and converts to just display the time on a faintly backlit screen. Perfect for when you get up for a middle-of-the-night bathroom trip and you want to know how much time you have left to sleep.

Hey Disney features that are just Disney fun

Several Hey Disney functions are just Disney-related, and not Disney-resort-related. We tried out all of these, and I’d say they fall into two groups: fun for kids, and fun for all ages. Remember that the Echo Show is a touch device; sometimes we found it easier to use the touchscreen than voice commands for these features. You can always stop whatever you’re doing by saying “Hey Disney, stop” or “Hey Disney, exit”.

Hey Disney features to keep kids entertained

There were a few skills that I could definitely see using to keep younger kids occupied while adults do other things like taking a shower or brushing their teeth. You know, the same situation where many parents will hand kids a phone so they can play a game, or turn on the TV.

• The storytelling feature gives you an extensive selection of stories to choose from, and a surprise me option. You can see how long the story is before starting it.
• Hey Disney, tell me a joke. This is self-explanatory, right?
• Hey Disney, let’s go on an adventure. These play-along adventures are aimed at younger kids; they’re stories with occasional pauses for audience participation. Think Dora the Explorer or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
• Let’s play trivia. If you miss the trivia on Magical Express buses, this one is for you. Even if you are not a kid.

Character greetings are a fun feature that can be triggered by asking for a character greeting, or using the Hey Disney wake word in combination with greeting phrases such as “hello”, “good morning”, or “good night”. The previously mentioned Hey Disney music feature will fill your room with Disney tunes, although you can’t ask it to play a specific Disney song.

One of the most unique Hey Disney functions is the Soundscape. The Soundscape feature lets you choose from themes based on Disney movies or IP, and plays sounds and music in keeping with your choice. It’s the same kind of atmosphere that’s provided by the music loops in the park, except it’s in your hotel room.

What Hey Disney does not do (yet)

Hey Disney does not currently do anything that relies on connection to your My Disney Experience account. The bane of my existence is traveling with 5 teens and young adults who can’t remember where we’re having dinner despite being provided with multiple spreadsheets. OK, I kid. It’s really that even my husband can’t remember, despite having been provided with the same collection of spreadsheets and printouts. (Hopefully he’s not reading this.)

Anyhoo, I would be thrilled to the bone if you could say something like “Hey Disney, where is our dinner reservation tomorrow?” and get an answer that was plucked from your future plans. Even better would be if you could smoothly make a dinner reservation by talking to Hey Disney. Or a park reservation, for those who still need them. Maybe a Mobile Order? Maybe we’ll see this in the future.

How to get Hey Disney at home

Since Hey Disney is an Alexa skill package, you can (for a $5.99/year fee) get it on your Echo devices at home. If you have Amazon Kids+, a Hey Disney subscription is already included. Features that are specific to the Disney World resorts, like asking for an extra blanket from the front desk, will not work. But you’ll be able to use the Trivia, Soundscapes, and other functions that your kids (or you) may have enjoyed during your trip.

If you’d like to dress up your Echo Show 5 at home to look like Hey Disney in the resort, the cases by Otterbox are for sale on Amazon. You can select from three different designs for the 1st and 2nd gen Echo Show, or two different designs for the 3rd gen Alexa device. Note that we make a small affiliate fee if you purchase from Amazon using the product links in this section.

Have you tried Hey Disney at Disney World? Do you subscribe to the service at home? What do you like – or dislike – about it? Let us know in the comments!