Accuracy of MDE wait times vs other apps

[Ravenne]

How accurate do you feel the MDE app is for wait times? How accurate is it compared to other apps?

I'm still a few months out from being at WDW but I thought I'd download the MDE app to play around with it and to familiarize myself with it now. The last time I went to WDW (3 yrs ago) I used the free version of Undercover Tourists line app and it worked very well for me, especially it being a free version. I have both apps on my phone and I'm noticing significant discrepancies in wait times between the 2. For example, UT's app will have TSM's wait time as 120 mins. MDE says 80. UT has Test Track at 90 mins, MDE says 50 min wait.

And omg the load time with MDE...it's like molasses on a cold winter day. I've tried to remain positive and patient with all this MDE and FP+ business despite limitless complaints about it, but MDE is slooooow. Is that the case when you're at the parks too? I've had a bugger of a time with MDE. It works ok when I'm using wifi but if I'm using 4G it hangs and stalls my phone. I read a post here yesterday where most experiences were the opposite. Do you find that other wait time apps works better than MDE? Should I stick with UT's line app and just use MDE for FP+ changes if necessary? Or is MDE fairly decent and accurate when it comes to wait times?

 

[Dan Murphy]

MDE links to official Disney times, and generally overstated times, just as in the parks. I use Touring Plans "Lines" app. I think it is great. It also has additional functions, excellent.

http://touringplans.com/disney-world-app

 

[DSLRuser]

"other apps" will quickly go away and become less accurate.

Disney is forcing you to use their app. Why would you want to do 2 apps that do the same thing. Especially when the 2nd one is not official and only does a fraction of what the disney app does.

 

[Msmithmd]

The MDE app is the actual data from those little red cards on necklace chains they give out every so often in line. The other apps are either just self reports posted by whatever guests are using them, or else people downloading and re-posting the same data MDE is putting out.

So nothing is likely more accurate consistently. Many could be more accurate anecdotally for one individual experience. And for some things Disney manipulates the data. The big one here is Mission:Space where the system is set to always make the reported time for the orange team longer than the green team, to try to steer people on the fence about the G-force toward the green side.

Park wifi coverage is very good now- there are dead spots in places, but it's no worse than the large building network where I'm employed.

If I were you, I would use MDE for times, for nothing more than the fact that you will have to use it anyway if you need to change a time or experience for fp+.

 

[redrosesix]

We used the MDE app in the parks when the wifi was working and we found that if we could get to the ride quickly enough it would show the same time as the app. We actually didn't find the wifi worked well in the parks most of the time, but it was pretty crowded and clearly they don't have enough bandwidth. Several CMs confirmed that this was the problem.

The problem with wait times now is that with FP+ lines having priority, the SB wait times are not updating as quickly and they can fluctuate wildly. For example, we were one of those families holding the little red car going into MS in Epcot. When we entered the SB line the wait was 5 minutes. And yes, that would have been the wait. But then a bunch of FP guests entered the queue and we were held up until no more were coming -- this added about 10 minutes to our wait and about 10 minutes til the CM could take our card. When we got out of the ride the wait time said 15 minutes, which is about how long we actually waited.

But the reverse is also true. What if you entered that line when the wait time was 15 minutes and no FP holders entered the line? Your wait in SB would only be 5 minutes. I think this is going to throw off all wait times apps, but I don't think it will be more than 10-15 minutes either way.

 

[Farps]

We used the MDE wait times in November and found them to be accurate .