News AI Comes to Disney Dining: All-Star Sports Food Court Hosts New Self-Checkout Trial

[Captain Barbossa]

but wow, those middle kids.

It’s always the middle kids. They get blamed for everything. Keeps my group off the radar when something bad happens or there’s been an “accident”. Us little angels can’t do anything wrong.

Oh please tell me the AI point of sale has a Tip Selection Screen.

I wouldn’t put it past them.

Not sure about the rest of the country, but I’m starting to see tipping options at gas pumps in my neck of the woods.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Disney is probably looking at other ways of reducing staffing with AI tech. One example might be having a kiosk display tell you what row to stand in when getting on a ride vs paying a human to count, direct and stand there all day.

But I don't want my expensive vacation product to increasingly revolve around self service and screens. I know how to use the self service kiosk at my local store, but I'm not paying thousands of dollars just to walk in. WDW is a vacation destination that revolves around hospitality that charges above average for its products and services. For me personally, doing everything myself is not my idea of a vacation. If I was renting a cottage or vacation home I'd expect to do certain things on my own, but I can't run a theme park by myself and don't want to pay to compensate for your labor cuts.

 

[Brian]

Disney is probably looking at other ways of reducing staffing with AI tech. One example might be having a kiosk display tell you what row to stand in when getting on a ride vs paying a human to count, direct and stand there all day.

But I don't want my expensive vacation product to increasingly revolve around self service and screens. I know how to use the self service kiosk at my local store, but I'm not paying thousands of dollars just to walk in. WDW is a vacation destination that revolves around hospitality that charges above average for its products and services. For me personally, doing everything myself is not my idea of a vacation. If I was renting a cottage or vacation home I'd expect to do certain things on my own, but I can't run a theme park by myself and don't want to pay to compensate for your labor cuts.

If the tech can advance to the point where it's faster and equally accurate/reliable to someone ringing you up manually, I'd say that having it as an option in busy food courts like at the value resorts would be a win for the guests. So long as there are still human cashiers available, similar to a grocery store where you can do self-checkout or attended checkout, I see it as a net benefit for the guest.

 

[Ayla]

It’s always the middle kids. They get blamed for everything. Keeps my group off the radar when something bad happens or there’s been an “accident”. Us little angels can’t do anything wrong.

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I wouldn’t put it past them.

Not sure about the rest of the country, but I’m starting to see tipping options at gas pumps in my neck of the woods.

You must be the baby (says the middle kid who got blamed for everything, but we all know who really did it).

 

[Ayla]

AI Comes to Disney Dining: All-Star Sports Food Court Hosts New Self-Checkout Trial

AI Comes to Disney Dining: All-Star Sports Food Court Hosts New Self-Checkout Trial

www.wdwmagic.com

That's a big ol' nope. Won't use them.

 

[flynnibus]

If the tech can advance to the point where it's faster and equally accurate/reliable to someone ringing you up manually, I'd say that having it as an option in busy food courts like at the value resorts would be a win for the guests.

The thing is... the food courts already have such a finite, limited menu. Wouldn't it make more sense for Disney to just streamline and have the guests just tap the big picture of the 4 things they bought?

Think the kiosks at Sheetz or Wawa... but the menu is like 1/5th the complexity... that's what Disney really has here. The whole image recognition stuff is just asking for the system to be more difficult IMO. Stick to using the image recognition to identify anomolies vs trying to make the system fully automated. Then they have their own data to know how good their system is and how much faster it could be vs making guests live through the trial.

I mean why have checkouts at all, why not just have everytime you get something log it right then? They hand you a plate.. you tap your band or a token.. and you walk out.

Sometimes automation isn't the fastest path...

 

[Animaniac93-98]

How does this work with the DDP? Is the plan format still like it was in the old days?

Will the system recognize what's considered a "meal" vs a "snack" and how many credits are to be used?

Don't see the option to pay with Disney gift card either

 

[pdude81]

Used one of these at Radio City last weekend. It completely missed a box of candy because there was no physical space between it and another box. Plus it thought the popcorn bucket was something to do with cookies. I'm not confident in this process.

 

[Indy_UK]

AI Comes to Disney Dining: All-Star Sports Food Court Hosts New Self-Checkout Trial

AI Comes to Disney Dining: All-Star Sports Food Court Hosts New Self-Checkout Trial

www.wdwmagic.com

To an extent, I get why they are doing it and going by how bland and small the menus in quick service is these days, the AI should find this a doddle but I can see it being more long winded like self checkouts where it doesn't recognise the items.

Would I support this kind of tech in order to better staff sit down restaurants or areas which would be of more benefit to guests? Absolutely.... but we now this is to just reduce staff costs

 

[monothingie]

The thing is... the food courts already have such a finite, limited menu. Wouldn't it make more sense for Disney to just streamline and have the guests just tap the big picture of the 4 things they bought?

Think the kiosks at Sheetz or Wawa... but the menu is like 1/5th the complexity... that's what Disney really has here. The whole image recognition stuff is just asking for the system to be more difficult IMO. Stick to using the image recognition to identify anomolies vs trying to make the system fully automated. Then they have their own data to know how good their system is and how much faster it could be vs making guests live through the trial.

I mean why have checkouts at all, why not just have everytime you get something log it right then? They hand you a plate.. you tap your band or a token.. and you walk out.

Sometimes automation isn't the fastest path...

Disney post Covid heavily pushed mobile ordering on guests, but guests were not happy with this because they preferred to order with a live person. Now it seems the majority of QS orders are in person again.

 

[Doberge]

I've used a system like this before and it worked really well, apparently unlike the experiences of most others. While I got it quickly others were confused by the process, but overall it's faster. Some people are slower but with multiple POS they slow down one checkout instead of a whole line. (Line should feed multiple self checkouts, like we see everywhere else)

How does this work with the DDP? Is the plan format still like it was in the old days?

Will the system recognize what's considered a "meal" vs a "snack" and how many credits are to be used?

Don't see the option to pay with Disney gift card either

I can't imagine theyd not take gift cards. May require cashier help?

Dining credits should be pretty easy to use. A local grocery runs a meal deal for $25 for a package of items. Whole order is ring up by cashier and Deal items show up on POS screen non discounted a la carte and then are automatically discounted when the last item required item is scanned. Applied to Disney, the system will recognize that are potential snack credit uses. (step other from here can vary). 1. Screen can ask if using any meal or snack credits, 2. (if yes) Screen prompts to tap magic band, 3. Screen shows remaining meals/credits and asks how many of each to redeem.

Used one of these at Radio City last weekend. It completely missed a box of candy because there was no physical space between it and another box. Plus it thought the popcorn bucket was something to do with cookies. I'm not confident in this process.

Can't wait for the DFB "Hack your WDW Meal!!!" videos.

 

[monothingie]

I've used a system like this before and it worked really well, apparently unlike the experiences of most others. While I got it quickly others were confused by the process, but overall it's faster. Some people are slower but with multiple POS they slow down one checkout instead of a whole line. (Line should feed multiple self checkouts, like we see everywhere else)

Never underestimate the ability of a Disney guest to screw something up.

I can't imagine theyd not take gift cards. May require cashier help?

Dining credits should be pretty easy to use. A local grocery runs a meal deal for $25 for a package of items. Whole order is ring up by cashier and Deal items show up on POS screen non discounted a la carte and then are automatically discounted when the last item required item is scanned. Applied to Disney, the system will recognize that are potential snack credit uses. (step other from here can vary). 1. Screen can ask if using any meal or snack credits, 2. (if yes) Screen prompts to tap magic band, 3. Screen shows remaining meals/credits and asks how many of each to redeem.

The machine will take any and all forms of payment - Major Credit Cards, Cash, Bitcoin, Gold Bars, Snake Venom, Barrels of Crude Oil, Pirate Treasure Chests, Imperial Credits, Bars of Gold Pressed Latinum, Frozen Concentrated OJ Futures, and tears of haters, but not Diners Club Cards.

Can't wait for the DFB "Hack your WDW Meal!!!" videos.

DFB hasn't talked about Disney Food in a decade.

 

[flynnibus]

Disney post Covid heavily pushed mobile ordering on guests, but guests were not happy with this because they preferred to order with a live person. Now it seems the majority of QS orders are in person again.

The rejection of mobile ordering has a lot more to do with the execution of the entire end to end experience than it does to the ordering part.

 

[monothingie]

The rejection of mobile ordering has a lot more to do with the execution of the entire end to end experience than it does to the ordering part.

The experience was actually pretty good. It was the personal preference to engage with a human, even if it meant a longer wait that drove people to not use mobile order.

Retailers like Walmart, Target, Dollar Tree are removing self-checkout to as they claim to enhance the customer shopping experience, but equally likely to cut down on theft.

 

[GhostHost1000]

obviously this is to cut costs so they can further discount food to the customer

 

[monothingie]

obviously this is to cut costs so they can further discount food to the customer

 

[flynnibus]

The experience was actually pretty good. It was the personal preference to engage with a human, even if it meant a longer wait that drove people to not use mobile order.

Except Disney's version wasn't just "mobile order" it morphed into "scheduled time slots" and availability booking for high demand places, horrible implementations of crowd management for pickup, location setup, not actually being faster, etc.

Disney's version pretty much sucked and was exposed as such when "lunch sold out" and other non-sense like that because the system didn't have the right kind of approach.

Places like McDonalds have actually figured it out much better than Disney.. and Disney never did the kind of commitment that would be needed to morph their locations into something that worked well for mobile order at scale. It was half baked...

Retailers like Walmart, Target, Dollar Tree are removing self-checkout to as they claim to enhance the customer shopping experience, but equally likely to cut down on theft.

No - it's all about the trade off of theft vs labor. All those chains never eliminated regular cashiers. Their "claims" are just the usual PR spin... everything is for your (the customer) benefit... even closing stores so they can better focus their efforts and deliver better experiences...

 

[Lilofan]

This seems like a really good use of AI. I'm sure it's just testing right now, but I hope it works out for them. Glad to see they are still committed to new technologies too.

Some areas of airports in the Northeast are using this tech already.

 

[Purduevian]

The thing is... the food courts already have such a finite, limited menu. Wouldn't it make more sense for Disney to just streamline and have the guests just tap the big picture of the 4 things they bought?

Think the kiosks at Sheetz or Wawa... but the menu is like 1/5th the complexity... that's what Disney really has here. The whole image recognition stuff is just asking for the system to be more difficult IMO. Stick to using the image recognition to identify anomolies vs trying to make the system fully automated. Then they have their own data to know how good their system is and how much faster it could be vs making guests live through the trial.

I mean why have checkouts at all, why not just have everytime you get something log it right then? They hand you a plate.. you tap your band or a token.. and you walk out.

Sometimes automation isn't the fastest path...

I'm wondering if Disney would have a large issue with theft if it was fully up to the customer. Everyone knows Disney is expensive and people don't feel bad about trying to sneak one past the mouse.

For example, my sister worked at Camp Dolphin with a minimum age of 5. 3-4 year olds apparently were confused about their age because they would say 2 at the park gates, but 5 at camp dolphin.

 

[flynnibus]

I'm wondering if Disney would have a large issue with theft if it was fully up to the customer. Everyone knows Disney is expensive and people don't feel bad about trying to sneak one past the mouse.

Exactly why they are still going to have to keep staff there standing over guests all the time to make sure they put everything on the counter. And still have to deal with confronting guests where that interaction is even harder than before... because people will confuse mistakes and stealing attempts all together.

It's just a bad choice period. If they wanted to streamline labor they could have gone other directions that were more direct.

This screams tech for the sake of tech..