Disney World’s AI Guided Search Tool Needs Your Guidance
Walt Disney World is expanding its Guided Search beta test to more users. Planning a Disney vacation comes with plenty of questions, and these AI-powered tools are supposed to help answer them. I tried a few. Some answers were more helpful than others.
We had our first crack at Guided Search a couple of weeks ago. It didn’t go well.
As a web developer, I approached it the way I was taught: resizing my browser, changing selections, clicking everything I could find, and hitting the back button while the AI was still thinking. Typical guest behavior, but on purpose.
I succeeded. Text overflowed its containers, content blocks overlapped one another, and the ticket calendar was unusable. But it’s a beta, so I didn’t write about it. I tried again today, and most of those layout issues were resolved. Kudos to Disney IT for getting those sorted out.
But the AI tool is still lagging a bit.
A quiet hotel, please
When I selected my dates and party size, I also asked Guided Search to find a quiet hotel.
The first three results were the All-Stars, followed by Pop Century and Art of Animation. There are plenty of reasons to stay at those resorts. A quiet vibw isn’t one of them. So I asked the Disney bot about it.
Me: Is Disney’s All-Star Music Resort that quiet?
Disney Bot: Disney’s All-Star Music Resort is not generally considered a quiet resort overall. As a Value resort with exterior motel-style corridors, it is very popular with families and large tour or youth groups, creating a high-energy atmosphere throughout the central areas, food court, and main pool.
The emphasis is mine.
I asked for a quiet hotel. It recommended All-Star Music. Then it explained why All-Star Music wasn’t particularly quiet, but only after I called it out.
I already knew that the All-Stars can be a little noisy. But these tools aren’t aimed at me. They’re meant to help guests who may not know the difference between Value, Moderate, and Deluxe Resorts.
Those are the people most likely to take that first recommendation at face value. Because why wouldn’t they?
Best match for what?
I initially assumed the results were sorted by price. That would at least explain why all five Value resorts appeared first. So I checked the sorting options. Guided Search offers four:
- Best Match
- Price: Low to High
- Price: High to Low
- Alphabetical Order
“Best Match” is the default. Best match for what, exactly? I had clearly asked for a quiet hotel. A quiet hotel wasn’t in the top five.
Disney appears to be giving price extra weight in these results. After seeing the December rates at the quieter hotels, I can’t say that I blame them. But the results didn’t seem to take my written request into account. Would the same thing happen with other queries?
Animals, boats, pools, and availability
For my next search, I served up an easy one:
“My son loves animals.”
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge took the top spot. Great! The next five were the Values.
Then I said I wanted a great pool. Again with the Values. I asked a follow-up question: “What resort has the best pool?”
“Disney’s Beach Club Resort and Disney’s Yacht Club Resort feature Stormalong Bay, widely regarded as one of the best pool complexes at Walt Disney World. It is a 3-acre mini water park featuring a sand-bottom pool, a 750-foot lazy river, three whirlpool spas, and a 230-foot waterslide built into a life-sized shipwreck replica.”
I scrolled through the results. Yacht Club and Beach Club, the hotels with access to Stormalong Bay, were 16th and 22nd, respectively.
Next, I tried transportation:
“I love boats. Show me resorts where we take a boat to a theme park?”
The Values, none of which have theme park boat transportation, once again filled the top five spots.
Before blaming the bot for that one, I scrolled down and noticed that Wilderness Lodge, BoardWalk, and Beach Club had no availability for my preferred dates. I changed the dates to February and tried again. This time, the results started with the resorts offering boat transportation.
That got me thinking. Maybe availability had also derailed my request for a quiet hotel.
So I checked again. Kidani Village, Boulder Ridge, Port Orleans, and other resorts I’d consider better candidates for a quieter stay had availability during my December dates. But the Values still got top billing.
Availability explained the boat results. It didn’t explain the quiet hotel or great pool listings.
Ask follow-up questions
Disney’s Guided Search presents information beautifully, making it easy to compare hotels and ticket packages. The interface is a huge upgrade. But as my searches showed, you may need to question the recommendations to find out whether they actually meet your needs.
So ask follow-up questions about noise, pools, and transportation. Ask about Pack ’n Plays, coffee makers, bathtubs, and whatever else matters to your family. Ask whether construction or closures could affect your stay.
Chatbots like Claude and ChatGPT can lay on the praise for simply asking a question. Thankfully, I didn’t get that from Disney’s bot. When I questioned something that seemed off, it answered without congratulating me on my Disney knowledge. I appreciate that. I don’t need bot friends.
Sharing your work
One of our favorite Guided Search features is the ability to share results by text or email, letting others see what you’ve put together. You can also revisit your plans later. I did that and discovered that the price of my fictional Port Orleans – Riverside stay had risen by a few hundred dollars.
Overall, these new vacation planning tools have more positives than negatives. But I still recommend using a knowledgeable travel agent, especially for first-time visitors to Walt Disney World. I can’t see that ever changing.
Still, Guided Search does have value. If you do use it, just treat “Best Match” as the start of the conversation.
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