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

[Alice a]

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

Yeah, and 5 calls to Amazon and 4 hours later, I got a refund for the items I didn’t buy.

Seriously, I was the only one in there and I bought a bottle of water and a coke. How it managed to charge me over $50 is still beyond me.

It also never emailed me the receipt I asked to receive. And yes, I checked my junk folders.

Edited to add: I’m referring to those ‘enter your Amazon account info to enter’ stores in the airport where you don’t ring out, you just pick things up and leave and find out your total after they’ve charged your default card on your Amazon account.

 

[Blobbles]

THE PROPHECY

 

[PuertoRekinSam]

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.

My problem with it was the lack of the full menu in the mobile app.

Port orleans has my favorite qsr menu on property, and I was really disappointed on my trip last April when I used the app I found out they didn’t have the Gumbo anymore. I was even more upset when I got to the food court and found out they actually did have it,just not in the app but I had already paid for a burger.

 

[DisneyFanatic12]

I’m fine with self checkouts and stuff at my local stores, but I don’t like this stuff at Disney or Universal. It shouldn’t just be buying a product at Disney, everything is part of an “experience”. That starts with customer service, not screens and self service.

 

[WondersOfLife]

Guess who's gonna be stealing bananas!!!

(It's me. I'll be stealing bananas.)

 

[IanDLBZF]

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.

 

[DisneyFanatic12]

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.

I’ll add on, a significant number of orders are mobile orders. I don’t know much about “normal” restaurants to compare it to, but it’s quite significant to my knowledge. Definitely depends on the location though.

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

My problem with it was the lack of the full menu in the mobile app.

Port orleans has my favorite qsr menu on property, and I was really disappointed on my trip last April when I used the app I found out they didn’t have the Gumbo anymore. I was even more upset when I got to the food court and found out they actually did have it,just not in the app but I had already paid for a burger.

We had this problem too at Centertown Market at CBR. My daughter wanted a kids cheeseburger with fries and side cup of mac & cheese. The side of mac and cheese is on the regular menu for 4.99 but not on the mobile order menu. We decided to wait in line because it was short but the couple in front of us had allergies and had to wait for a chef to come out. It took about 20 minutes just for them to order So we waited a ridiculous amount of time just for $5 cup of mac & cheese

 

[the.dreamfinder]

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.

That’s the tension, right? They want to charge luxury prices for what was once a slightly expensive product that offered excellent value for the money and strip out the human element that once was a differentiator.

Efficiency matters, but redesigning the checkout process to make things faster for the cashier and guest still maintains a cashier.

It’s funny because we’re headed towards a future where human interactions in the service and hospitality industries will be the marker of a luxury or higher end experience.

 

[Tori]

SeaWorld has these because it can’t/won’t staff the park

 

[HauntedPirate]

It may not be a "removal of self-checkout" as much as they are looking to reduce usage of self-checkout and add back cashiers instead of having 30 checkout lanes and 3 cashiers staffed at any given time. Doing a quick search says this was announced by Target and WalMart back in March and April of 2024, with Target specifically mentioning only customers with fewer than 10 items would be able to use self-checkout. In certain locations. But expect it to become a regular thing in most locations as they are able to staff up appropriately.

 

[HauntedPirate]

I, for one, would like to read about some first-hand experiences with this, and from some who really put it to the test (gift card, cast discount, DDP, et al).

 

[DisneyFanatic12]

I, for one, would like to read about some first-hand experiences with this, and from some who really put it to the test (gift card, cast discount, DDP, et al).

It’ll be interesting to see if/when they add all of this. To my knowledge it doesn’t accept any of these things.

 

[Andrew25]

I don't mind this stuff, but I think ideally moving to app orders only or kiosks should be the way to go.

Far easier to order your food, grab a table and wait for your food instead of having to wait in a line while the person in front of you struggles with this device.

 

[joshwill]

more jobs lost...whoopee

 

[GhostHost1000]

SeaWorld has these because it can’t/won’t staff the park

Which is also why their load/unload times on attractions is horrific and keeps their lines longer than they should be

 

[Disstevefan1]

Prices go down to reflect the labor savings?

 

[castlecake2.0]

I don’t mind this if it’s like 1 cm per every couple units. It’s not putting the workload on the consumer like a regular self checkout where’d you have to either go through menus on a screen and select items or scan items yourself, you just put your tray down and let the thing populate an order then you pay, you’re just removing the person typing it all in without transferring that work to the guest. I’ll have to stop by and see it in person and see what the cm interaction with it looks like

 

[Lilofan]

I’m fine with self checkouts and stuff at my local stores, but I don’t like this stuff at Disney or Universal. It shouldn’t just be buying a product at Disney, everything is part of an “experience”. That starts with customer service, not screens and self service.

Iger advised that part of his plans in 23’ was to save $5.5B in expenses . When the boss gives a directive you find ways to make it happen or their jobs may be part of the cost savings .

 

[flynnibus]

It’s funny because we’re headed towards a future where human interactions in the service and hospitality industries will be the marker of a luxury or higher end experience.

Let's not forget the big picture. The 'human' element is because we favor personalization, customization, tailoring, emotion... not because we just wanna hang out with some minimum wage person over some inanimate thing. So we don't need 'humans everywhere!!!'

I much prefer having a hotel room door that opens for me, vs having a bellhop that comes with me every time I need to open the door. I don't need a waiter to get my drink at a QS if I can just walk up and make an on the fly decision.

The human element should be there when it provides THE BEST EXPERIENCE and can stroke those favor points I mention above. Don't interject humans where they just bog things down and I have zero use them. Like a walmart greeter.. who really is just there to try to discourage theft.

Paying for my food isn't something I need a human for all the time. In fact, it would be much nicer if a human just served me food and I walked away for instance.

That said, I'm fine with old roles disappearing... but they need to be improvements in service, not just 'optimizations'