Anaheim, CA — The Disneyland Enchanted Guide, an AI that answers park questions spoken or typed into a phone, from the nearest churro to the wait at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, is coming soon to Magic Key holders in the new Disney Imagineering Labs app, Walt Disney Imagineering told reporters at a preview. The app launched Nov. 10, and Disney says experiments open to all guests in early 2027.
The Disney Imagineering Labs App, Free on iPhone
Disney Imagineering Labs is a free iPhone app for guests to “play-test new ideas from Walt Disney Imagineering and Disney Experiences Technology,” according to its App Store listing from Disney Electronic Content, Inc. Each project in the app is an experiment that asks for your feedback when you finish, and Disney says not every experiment will be available to every guest or in every location. The app needs iOS 18 or later and a MyDisney account, and it may ask to use Location Services and Bluetooth.
“Experiments are currently only open to Magic Key holders,” the listing says, and Walt Disney Imagineering’s Instagram post the same day said Magic Key holders “get special early access.” The first experiment, Secrets of the Spire, is an augmented reality game in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and Disney’s App Store screenshots say it requires an iPhone 14 or above and was designed to be play-tested during the daytime.
Disney shut down Play Disney Parks, the games app for waiting in line that I covered in 2019, in September, Theme Park Insider reported. Asa Kalama, Executive, Creative & Interactive Experiences at Walt Disney Imagineering, told Mickey Visit that Imagineering Labs is broader, with tools for the park day as well as games.
One of the listing’s screenshots, captioned “Play-Test New Park Experiences,” shows a Disneyland map with wait times over the attractions, a “Hi there, how can I help?” prompt and a Mickey-head microphone button between a camera button and a keyboard button. The App Store doesn’t name it, but it matches the Enchanted Guide screen that reporters at the preview described.
How the Disneyland Enchanted Guide Works
The Enchanted Guide is a park guide you talk to inside the Imagineering Labs app, and its home screen is a Disneyland map with wait times. Reporters Disney invited to try it pressed the Mickey-head button and asked questions out loud, or typed them.
“It is everything from where can I find a churro nearby to what’s the current wait time for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure,” Kalama told Mickey Visit.
Mickey Visit tested the guide in the park and reported using it for:
- Directions: ask where something is, and it draws the walking route on the map.
- Wait times: it reads the current waits and says whether to ride now or later, based on where each wait is projected to go.
- Alerts: ask it to “let me know when wait time for Big Thunder Mountain falls below 40 minutes,” and it sends a notification to your phone when the wait drops.
- Reminders: tell it about a dining reservation, and it reminds you with enough time to walk there from where you are.
- Photos: take a picture of something in the park, and it tells you what it is or where you are.
The guide also works hands-free with Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses, connected through Meta’s Wearables Device Access Toolkit, or with Bluetooth earbuds such as AirPods, using a wake word that Disney asked reporters not to share and that may change before launch, Theme Park Insider and TechRadar reported. Meta is the wearables partner for the app, according to Mickey Visit.
TechRadar reported that the guide runs on a combination of AI models and that Disney built it to answer from Disney’s sources, including real-time park information. It sticks to Disney: when Theme Park Insider’s tester asked about Harry Potter, the guide said it only answers questions about Disney.
Each conversation stands alone for now, so the guide doesn’t know your account or your interests beyond what you tell it in that session, Mickey Visit reported. It can explain Lightning Lanes, but it sends you to the Disneyland app to book one, according to TechRadar.
Less App Friction for First-Time Visitors
I think the Enchanted Guide is the bigger story, because it makes Disneyland easier for people who don’t already know how the parks work. The Imagineering Labs app, the only thing Disney’s App Store listing and Instagram post announced on Nov. 10, is the smaller one. Learning the Disneyland app takes time, and like learning anything new, it creates friction.
“The goal is to help you problem solve and get the answer as quickly as possible without needing to understand the business rules of how Disney works and functions,” Kalama told Mickey Visit, and he said the point of being in the park is “to not be on your phone.” I agree with most of what Disney says about cutting phone time, but people are going to be on their phones no matter what. They’ll be in the Disneyland app trying to figure it out, or they’ll be scrolling Instagram or TikTok in line.
Cutting that friction is the real improvement, and it’s something every attraction should be thinking about. A first-time visitor who knows nothing about how a park works still has to figure out what to do, where to go, what to see and how to get around. Plenty of people read guides like my Disneyland Christmas guide before they go, and that’s the point of travel journalism. Many more show up and want simple answers, like where to get a churro or what time the parade starts.
Cast members are there for those questions, but pressing one button on a phone is easier. You could also ask Gemini or another general AI the same things. Disney’s guide should do it better, because it has Disney’s information, including live wait times.
On a day with no parade scheduled, some reporters at the preview who asked the guide about the parade were told there wasn’t one, while others got a version of “I don’t have that information,” Theme Park Insider reported. Its tester also found the wake word worked less than half the time on Meta’s glasses. Mickey Visit reported the guide gave one wrong fun fact before correcting itself later in the conversation, and it couldn’t pull mobile order return times. Each experiment in the app carries a status, early development, taking shape or nearly complete, so testers know how finished it is, Kalama told Mickey Visit.
When All Guests Can Use the Enchanted Guide
The Enchanted Guide is coming soon to Imagineering Labs with no launch date announced yet, Mickey Visit and TechRadar reported. The app opens first to Disneyland Magic Key holders 13 and older, according to Mickey Visit, and the guide covers only Disneyland Resort for now, according to TechRadar. Disney’s App Store listing says the app will launch experiments for all guests in early 2027.
Disney Imagineering Labs is free for iPhone in the App Store. My Disneyland Resort guide tracks what’s new at both parks in 2026 and what’s coming in 2027.
