most accurate wait times?

[velotk]

Which app or website has the most accurate ride wait times? We'll be there next week!

 

[APiratesLifeForMe2]

Someone just told me yesterday about the incredible accuracy of disneywaittimes.com. I have never used it before but I will be trying it next time.

 

[LSUfan4444]

I'm not saying I don't believe you, but I would be interested in seeing if those actual wait times are accurate.

5 minutes for TSM?

 

[LSUfan4444]

We used Easy WDW's wait times on our last trip and it was as good as we have ever seen.

We saw one discrepancy at Hollywood Studios, BUT Easy WDW was actually correct while MDE was wrong. I'm not sure how or why it happened, but MDE had a standby for TSM at like 35 minutes when posted and Easy WDW had it at 75.


http://www.easywdw.com/waits/

 

[ScottieMouse]

I was just there and used Disney's app along with the free WDW wait times app. I found that both were very similar to what the in park wait time were listed at.

However, the in park wait time was nearly never correct. In the vast majority of cases they were well overshooting the wait time. Anything that said 10 minutes was a complete walk on. Most of the 40 minute wait times were close to 20. Much better do to it that way than to show short wait times and have them actually be longer.

 

[nuzmom]

OP - I have the same question. Now that disneywaittimes.com is up and running, I'm curious if it is proving to be accurate or not. I also see the 5 minute wait showing right now for TSMM.

 

[mhconley]

I was just there and used Disney's app along with the free WDW wait times app. I found that both were very similar to what the in park wait time were listed at.

However, the in park wait time was nearly never correct. In the vast majority of cases they were well overshooting the wait time. Anything that said 10 minutes was a complete walk on. Most of the 40 minute wait times were close to 20. Much better do to it that way than to show short wait times and have them actually be longer.

That has been my experience, too. You can *usually* take the posted wait time and divide it by 2. I say *usually* because one day our last trip BTMRR was posted at 30 minutes and it took almost 30 minutes. Earlier that same trip BTMRR was posted as 20 minutes and the wait was less than 10. After exiting we rode it again, this time the wait time was posted as 15 and it took less than 5 minutes. We rode a third time with a posted time of 10 and it was walk on. (DS LOVES BTMRR!)

Martin

 

[velotk]

I'm not saying I don't believe you, but I would be interested in seeing if those actual wait times are accurate.

5 minutes for TSM?

I saw this and that is why I made this thread. Found that to be VERY hard to believe.

 

[mjhannaf]

I saw this and that is why I made this thread. Found that to be VERY hard to believe.

I created that site and the biggest thing to keep in mind when using it is what I call "surge" times. Let me explain.

At certain points during the day, the big rides experience "surges". This occurs at park open, after a parade, after fireworks, or after a ride re-opens.

Think about this. When the Festival of Fantasy parade is going on at the Magic Kingdom it draws people away from the rides for 45-60 minutes as they wait for (and watch) the parade. After the parade is over they will rush or "surge" the top drawing attractions and meet and greets.

That means that while A&E meet and greet may be 30 minutes during the parade, it will shoot up to 75 minutes once the parade is done. It takes the site a little while to update the info.

A real world example: I've waited less than 20 minutes the past two nights for TSMM at around 7:45pm because Fantasmic is drawing the crowds. At 8:15 the wait shot back up to 75 minutes.

Just keep that in mind when using the site and have fun!!

 

[nuzmom]

I saw this and that is why I made this thread. Found that to be VERY hard to believe.

It now says 55 minutes.

I wish I understood how this website (& easywdw) determine the wait times. I understand touringplans to some extent because people that are there are using the app to report times. However, when people aren't reporting, it's much less accurate.

 

[nkereina]

We used Easy WDW's wait times on our last trip and it was as good as we have ever seen.

We saw one discrepancy at Hollywood Studios, BUT Easy WDW was actually correct while MDE was wrong. I'm not sure how or why it happened, but MDE had a standby for TSM at like 35 minutes when posted and Easy WDW had it at 75.


http://www.easywdw.com/waits/

We use Easy's too but it's my understanding that his show the posted wait times, and not the actual.

OP - I have the same question. Now that disneywaittimes.com is up and running, I'm curious if it is proving to be accurate or not. I also see the 5 minute wait showing right now for TSMM.

This site shows both the posted and the actual, but I'm skeptical as to how the actual is calculated. Another app shows the actual as well but it has users reporting that data, and it's not always accurate (some deliberately incorrect submissions for example). I've been checking disneywaittimes.com periodically and the actual seems radically different in comparison to the posted - right now at 11am on a random Monday, a posted 50 minute wait for Jungle Cruise (highest posted time in the park) with the actual being 16 - quite a few like that on any given day. So either their actual data is not adding up, or Disney's posted times are regularly incorrect.

 

[BJSforVols]

Touring Plans app "Lines" is the most accurate in my opinion.

 

[mjhannaf]

So either their actual data is not adding up, or Disney's posted times are regularly incorrect.

It's the latter. Disney posts higher than actual wait times on purpose to re-direct traffic. The most extreme example I can think of is at the end of the night during Frozen Summer Fun at HS. Disney would post 75 minutes to discourage guests from going on the ride before they had to close the area for fireworks. I personally spent less than 5 minutes in line in that example.

Also, see my post above about "surge" times

 

[KimBean]

I created that site and the biggest thing to keep in mind when using it is what I call "surge" times. Let me explain.

At certain points during the day, the big rides experience "surges". This occurs at park open, after a parade, after fireworks, or after a ride re-opens.

Think about this. When the Festival of Fantasy parade is going on at the Magic Kingdom it draws people away from the rides for 45-60 minutes as they wait for (and watch) the parade. After the parade is over they will rush or "surge" the top drawing attractions and meet and greets.

That means that while A&E meet and greet may be 30 minutes during the parade, it will shoot up to 75 minutes once the parade is done. It takes the site a little while to update the info.

A real world example: I've waited less than 20 minutes the past two nights for TSMM at around 7:45pm because Fantasmic is drawing the crowds. At 8:15 the wait shot back up to 75 minutes.

Just keep that in mind when using the site and have fun!!

I saw this "phenomenon" yesterday. Peter Pan was 9 minutes, Buzz was 6 minutes, everything super low. No wait at EtwB then I looked at clock and realized the 3 o'clock parade was going. At about 3:20 when it passed the hub the times went back to normal.

So, I guess the lesson is if you aren't seeing the parade, go ride the long wait rides.

 

[KimBean]

If you compare disneywaittimes.com right now with easywdw it appears that easy's times are just WDW listed times.

I don't know who is most accurate. This is probably hard to test unless you find a local. Who is going to spend too much of their time doing this while on vacation?

I'll try when I'm there. I don't ride coasters so I'll have a little downtime while DH rides them. But, that is usually SIT DOWN time for me.

 

[EGW113]

We used the touringplans.com "Lines" app last year and felt that it was very accurate! We have recommended it to friends over and over again.

 

[mjhannaf]

So, I guess the lesson is if you aren't seeing the parade, go ride the long wait rides.

That's the secret

 

[ktlm]

We were there a couple of weeks ago. We found the WDW wait times free app to be accurate most of the time. Surprisingly, we found that MDE was frequently way off. You could check the "official" WDW app which you would assume to be the most accurate and then WDW wait times, and if they were different than WDW wait times was always the more accurate!

 

[nkereina]

It's the latter. Disney posts higher than actual wait times on purpose to re-direct traffic. The most extreme example I can think of is at the end of the night during Frozen Summer Fun at HS. Disney would post 75 minutes to discourage guests from going on the ride before they had to close the area for fireworks. I personally spent less than 5 minutes in line in that example.

Also, see my post above about "surge" times

Thanks for the info. I like your site and intend to use it on my trip in a few weeks!

Not asking you to divulge trade secrets, but can you advise if you rely on users to submit data to obtain the actual times? Or do you have a way to do it that proves to be more accurate?

 

[wareagle57]

We used Easy WDW's wait times on our last trip and it was as good as we have ever seen.

We saw one discrepancy at Hollywood Studios, BUT Easy WDW was actually correct while MDE was wrong. I'm not sure how or why it happened, but MDE had a standby for TSM at like 35 minutes when posted and Easy WDW had it at 75.


http://www.easywdw.com/waits/

Somehow I never realized EWDW had current wait times. I've only ever seen the estimates based on crowd level.

*edit* Comparing EWDW and DisneyWaitTimes.com, they are pulling the same information for wait times. So I have no doubt you found EWDW's time to match what Disney's POSTED wait time was. But I'll be interested to see if the "actual" times are accurate for DWT.

It does seem ridiculous that 3rd party sites can pull Disney's info and update it quicker than the MDE site can. I agree that MDE is worthless for checking waits. By the time you get there, it can be off by 20 minutes.