App for IoA and US

[tgrunewald]

Hi all,

Sorry for what I'm sure is a repetitive question. Is there an app for wait times for IoA and Universal? I thought I had seen something about either touringplans or undercover tourist having it in theirs. I have both and don't see it. Any help would be awesome. Thanks.

 

[Metro West]

I'm going to steal this post from Harry Potter and here's what he reports:

A new free BlackBerry app for Universal Orlando wait times has been released by UnderCover Tourist.

http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/44466?lang=en

I don't think I will use it, as it seems to be requiring user submissions to get accurate wait times. So if nobody bothers to d/l this and update regularly, then obviously the posted wait times won't be accurate anyway.

But I know some people have asked for it, so I've let you know.

(same user has released WDW app too).

 

[truck1]

I have Under Cover Tourist for both Disney and Universal. Thats for my Droid though. Not sure on what phone you have. I did a search for Disney wait times, downloaded it, and then did one for Universal.

 

[UnderCoverTourist]

Please don't worry, our apps do not rely solely on users:

1. We started in 2009 with 2,000,000 data points (for Disney & 600,000 for Universal) created from the collection of data from the parks over the years. It was good enough.
2. That data was enhanced with real time wait time submits from users.
3. We were not perfect with our wait times during the park opening and closing but good enough. We listened and enhanced our smart algorithm, it learned and dynamically tightened the quality over 2010 and 2011. We just released a brand new version of it.

After 15 months of live data from the parks sent in by hundreds of thousands of users across Android, Blackberry & iPhone platforms we have great insight into the day to day happenings.

The experience is far better than before as the tech is stable and our user base is huge because we are the bestselling Universal & Disney app in iPhone, Blackberry & Android charts.

Thank you for considering us.

Thank you

Undercover Tourist

 

[PharmerJan]

We used the UCT app for Blackberry for our first visit on Monday June 6 and found it terribly inaccurate. Wait times were 45 to 50 minutes LONGER than the application stated for IOA coasters, in particular HP stuff. (sorry!!!)

 

[christophfam]

I found it to be very accurate when I was there June 2-5. I had the iPhone app.

 

[UnderCoverTourist]

We are always looking to make improvements.

We looked back at our output data during the day you mentioned.

The app outputted 100 - 120 minutes for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (for most of the day). Was this the ride you were referring to? Any help would be appreciated.

It may be that your Blackberry app did not refresh automatically and receive the latest data from our servers. We do have a manual refresh button that would certainly send your app the latest times we have. It is a new app and any extra information would be appreciated.

Thank you for trying the app.

Undercover Tourist

 

[PharmerJan]

The highest wait time for FJ was 55 min on the app for Monday June 6. This was in the morning, when posted wait time was 120min, and actual wait was 90min.

I did refresh each time we checked for times, manually. This was not our first rodeo with a wait time application. When refreshed, it tells us the last updated time is... and it is the time we manually refreshed the application.

When we tried to submit a ride time, we were told "GPS not enabled, please enable GPS to submit wait time". So we were not able to update a time because my BB doesnt have GPS activated.

Lead us to believe that others were unable to update times, therefore the times were "stuck".

In contrast, we found the WDW wait times from touringplans to be very accurate. Same smart phone. We were able to update those times without any issues.

 

[UnderCoverTourist]

Thank you for the information

There was definitely a display issue then (we will look into this) - we displayed much higher times throughout the morning.

Wait Times were not stuck as a result of the Blackberry GPS issue, as we still received many submits from the iPhone and Android phones that all have GPS.

From 9am on June 6th our servers outputted:

60 60 80 90 100 120 120 120 120 120 120 120 thru 12pm onwards with a couple of dips here and there to 90.

Due to the sheer volume of visitors and the length of time our Disney app has been out - our data for Disney is superior.
The good news is everyday tightens our data curves for Universal and it is getting better, and as we build the user base, it enhances the improving curves each day (with more submits).

We sincerely appreciate the time take for the helpful feedback and will investigate the output on Blackberry.

Thank you

Undercover Tourist

 

[DonnaLeah]

I just downloaded the free apps for both Disney and Universal from UT. ( Had to purchase those tickets before the increase.)
Unfortunately, I won't be able to give any feedback until the end of July.

 

[sbevione]

Does anyone know if there is free Wi-fi inside IOA/US? I would really like to use these apps, but I don't have a smart phone. I *do* have an ipod touch, though, so I could use the apps on that if there was wi-fi access in the parks.

 

[christophfam]

Does anyone know if there is free Wi-fi inside IOA/US? I would really like to use these apps, but I don't have a smart phone. I *do* have an ipod touch, though, so I could use the apps on that if there was wi-fi access in the parks.

Nope, no Wi-fi in the parks that we found. My daughter tried with her touch at IOA last weekend.

 

[sbevione]

Nope, no Wi-fi in the parks that we found. My daughter tried with her touch at IOA last weekend.

Darn! I was really hoping... thanks for letting me know!

 

[carmiedog]

I'm not sure which app version I have (looking at my phone and can't figure it out), but I wouldn't call it reliable. It had RRR at 120 minutes this morning just 20 minutes after opening. And the wait times for Nick Toon Blast kept changing. We were at IoA and went over to Universal just for Nick Toons since it hasn't been open the 4 days since we've been here. I saw a wait time and got excited. Got there and it was closed. It didn't come up as closed until around 10:30.

 

[ABC Mom]

How do you refresh the wait times on the iPhone app? I downloaded it just to play with and watch wait time patterns and while the "last updated" time changes, the wait time predictions don't. I have to move put of the app, then double ckick the home button. Select and hold it to close it out all together, then relaunch.

Is there a tap to update button or something I am missing?

 

[UnderCoverTourist]

Edited due to the Frog temporarily losing it's mind!

Thank you

Undercover Tourist

 

[UnderCoverTourist]

carmiedog - Thank you very much for your help and sincere apologies

We had a bug in our code that was displaying the wrong data from our database! In the app we are currently displaying Jimmy Neutron as open when our database has know it was closed for days! We are fixing this issue right now and you should see the correct display today!

The wait times displayed for a few rides were also wrong for a few days such as Harry Potter.

This occurred when we introduced a far superior algorithm but we did not switch back to the new database from the test one!

Thank you for helping us spot our error.

We love this community. You have helped many others.

Sincerely

Undercover Tourist

P.S. if you PM us here on the boards (with your address) we will send you a token of our appreciation.

 

[christophfam]

How do you refresh the wait times on the iPhone app? I downloaded it just to play with and watch wait time patterns and while the "last updated" time changes, the wait time predictions don't. I have to move put of the app, then double ckick the home button. Select and hold it to close it out all together, then relaunch.

Is there a tap to update button or something I am missing?

Slide and hold your finger down on the screen when looking at the wait times. You'll see a little icon at the top of the screen saying it is updating.