Disney Begins Beta Testing New AI Vacation Planning Tools

Written by Joshua Posted September 15th, 2026

Disney is rolling out new AI-powered tools designed to help guests plan a Walt Disney World vacation.

The new service does a much better job of guiding guests through the process. We’ve been able to select a hotel and travel dates for as long as Disney has had a website. Now, AI will use those choices – along with details about a family’s interests, priorities, and budget – to provide personalized recommendations.

Instead of returning a long list of rooms and prices, Disney’s new tools help guests determine which vacation options actually make sense for them.

Before we get to the demonstration we viewed, here’s what Disney is promising:

Flexible searches across dates and seasons
The ability to compare options
Q&A features
The best available rates across different dates
Personalized results
A new pricing and availability calendar
A new map with transportation tips
The ability to revisit, save, and share a vacation

Disney first asks guests to provide details about their desired vacation, including specific travel dates (or a more general timeframe) and the number of people in their party. Then it asks why they want to visit.

In the sample video we viewed, the user explained that the family was planning its first Walt Disney World vacation to celebrate their son’s seventh birthday. He loves The Lion King, and the family wanted easy access to the parks, a nice resort pool, and information about any available discounts.

Screenshot of a prompt from Disney's new AI vacation planning tools

Users are essentially writing an AI prompt.

Anyone who’s used Disney’s current vacation-planning tools knows how basic they are. Select your dates and party size, and Disney returns a list of hotels and prices.

The new system uses AI to interpret what the guest wants. In this case, the results focused on The Lion King, pools, and convenient park transportation.

Disney highlighted Art of Animation Resort for its Lion King-themed family suites and zero-entry pool. It also recommended Animal Kingdom Lodge for its exotic wildlife, along with other resorts matching parts of the request.

Mobile screenshots of Disney's new AI-powered vacation planning tools — Guests can choose seasons (rather than specific dates). An interactive map lets them view the location of the selected hotels in relation to the parks.

The user selected two hotels I mentioned for a side-by-side comparison. The results highlighted their pools, dining options, room rates, and theme park transportation, details the user had identified as priorities in the original prompt.

The Skyliner won out, and the customer moved forward by selecting actual travel dates for an Art of Animation stay. From there, the system returned available room rates and theme park ticket options.

A calendar allows guests to quickly find the best hotel rates at Walt Disney World — An improved calendar shows data-based pricing, allowing users to quickly find the best deals

The next step is where Disney will make some serious hay.

Users can save their vacation and share the results with family and friends through a text message. Those who open the link will see the complete vacation breakdown, not just the dates and price.

Anyone who has visited a car dealership without making a purchase knows what Disney is doing here. Car salespeople make it very hard to leave the showroom. I actually love doing just that to them.

But by giving users the ability to save and share vacation details, Disney isn’t really letting the customer out the door.

What does this mean for travel agents?

These tools could also change the role of Disney-focused travel agents.

A knowledgeable travel agent does much more than recommend a hotel. Agents monitor discounts, handle reservations, explain ticket options, make dining suggestions, and help clients navigate Disney’s constantly changing collection of rules and add-ons. An AI planning tool is not going to replace all of that overnight.

However, hotel recommendations and basic price comparisons are an important part of the service many agencies provide. If Disney can instantly suggest resorts based on a family’s interests, compare their amenities, explain transportation, and show the least expensive dates, some guests may feel less need to contact an agent at the beginning of the process.

On the other hand, a planning tool is only as useful as the information behind it. It may know that Art of Animation has Lion King suites and Skyliner access. A good travel agent will know whether that family actually needs a suite, how long the Skyliner line can become around park opening, and whether another resort offers better value for their specific trip.

The agents most affected will likely be those whose services stop at booking a package. Those offering firsthand knowledge, continued planning support, and help when something goes wrong still have a strong case to make.

Disney could even turn the new system into a useful tool for travel agents, allowing them to build and share personalized vacation options with clients.

Where is the data coming from

Disney has clearly embraced AI. As long as we don’t start seeing generative AI garbage in its movies and theme parks, we’re resigned to the inevitable. In this case, AI appears to be making the vacation-planning experience better, at least for first-time users.

But it can’t replace first-hand knowledge from people who’ve visited the parks, those who know the little details that can make a Disney vacation even better.

Like the people who write for planDisney.

I wouldn’t be surprised if planDisney is being used to train Disney’s AI. Guests have been asking questions on that website for years. Disney’s panelists have produced thousands and thousands of answers about theme park and cruise vacation planning.

That content would be valuable to a system attempting to match guests with the right vacation, as would the many Disney-centric websites and videos available on the internet.

For now, the new service looks considerably more useful than Disney’s existing vacation-planning tools. Experienced visitors may not need much help choosing a resort, but the tools could make an overwhelming process far more approachable for everyone else.

Disney will be rolling out these new planning tools gradually as part of a beta test to select users in the United States and Canada. The website’s existing tools are also not going away. Those wanting to quickly search rooms and dates will still have that option.