Walt Disney World Brings AI Into Its Booking Site

It isn’t new to use AI when planning and booking a vacation — people have been using AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot, and on vacation sites like Booking.com and TripAdvisor, for years now. But if you’re looking to plan a Disney vacation, the entertainment giant is now about to launch its own AI engine running behind its booking site and app.

The tool, which will be launching in beta soon, will allow you to ask all your booking questions conversationally — for instance, “My children really like The Little Mermaid, want to spend time in the pool and have easy transport to the Magic Kingdom park, which hotel should we stay at?” — and it’ll provide suggestions that best suit your needs.

You can also ask the Disney AI chatbot to compare a few resorts across features like location and pricing to help you decide where to stay. Much like Google’s AI Overviews in search, Disney will provide AI-generated summaries on information like rates and availability when you search. The chatbot will direct you to booking links when it finishes making recommendations.

Google’s AI offering, Gemini, will be the foundation for the Disney chatbot, but it will only scrape information from official Disney data rather than the broader internet.

“We’re partnering with Google Cloud on the AI portion of this, but we are using Disney sources and data underpinning that,” a Disney representative said during a media briefing.

Disney said AI summaries and bookings won’t extend to its Lightning Lane service or dining reservations at launch, and it will only be available for Walt Disney World. The beta experience will be provided to “randomly selected guests” in Canada and the US, and Disney will use their feedback to improve the AI tool before a wider phased launch.

Disney is also continuing to test its AI summaries with cast members to ensure they’re pulling accurate information from official Disney sources that will save guests time.

Corinne Reichert

Senior Editor

Advertisement

Corinne Reichert (she/her) grew up in Sydney, Australia and moved to California in 2019. She holds degrees in law and communications, and currently writes news, analysis and features for CNET across the topics of electric vehicles, broadband networks, mobile devices, big tech, artificial intelligence, home technology and entertainment. In her spare time, she watches soccer games and F1 races, and goes to Disneyland as often as possible.

See full bio