Disneyland App Wait Times Accuracy?

[IBLarsen]

How accurate are the Disneyland app wait times? How often are they updated?

 

[figment_jii]

I like the Disneyland app and pretty much that's the only app I used at this point. It has the current wait times (fairly consistent with what you'll find on the times boards in the parks and at the ride entrance, but there is about a 5 minute lag between when times are updated on the boards and when it shows up on the app) and current FP return times (that seems to lag about 10 minutes in this case). In terms of how accurate are the wait times, that's a slightly different question because sometimes DLR's "official" estimates of the wait times may be off, so the app will also be off in this case. Basically, the app does a pretty good job of replicating the wait times you'd find on the sign board or times boards in the park.

 

[IBLarsen]

I like the Disneyland app and pretty much that's the only app I used at this point. It has the current wait times (fairly consistent with what you'll find on the times boards in the parks and at the ride entrance, but there is about a 5 minute lag between when times are updated on the boards and when it shows up on the app) and current FP return times (that seems to lag about 10 minutes in this case). In terms of how accurate are the wait times, that's a slightly different question because sometimes DLR's "official" estimates of the wait times may be off, so the app will also be off in this case. Basically, the app does a pretty good job of replicating the wait times you'd find on the sign board or times boards in the park.

Thank you! That helps! I totally understand about posted wait times can be off, but that's all any of us really has to go on, so this is helpful to know the app is a good indicator of what to expect for posted times. I'm trying to keep watch of the wait times on the days of the weeks we will be there in a couple weeks just to get an idea of current trends.

 

[clb79]

It worked well for us. The times seemed to be accurate or even a little longer than the actual wait on occasion. I would say they were within 5min +- when I was actually paying attention (we noticed the delay on the app most when something was down and it didn't show on the app yet or when something just reopened and hadn't hit the app). We had to use child swap a lot and did a lot of carrying the cards they use to track times (at least for the FP queues). What they do is they scan a contactless card at the entrance and then scan it again when you give it back to them as you board the attraction. They give the cards to people in the standby lines to get times too.

 

[BriannaRuth]

I tend to like the Lines app because it gives the posted time plus the estimated actual wait, which is usually a little less. Which makes sense because I've heard that Disney purposely overestimates the official wait by 5 or 10 minutes. To give an example, here are listed wait times for Indy from 3 different apps right now as I'm typing this at 10:25 AM:

Disneyland App: 35 minute wait, now distributing 11:05-12:05 FP tickets
Lines: Posted 35 minutes, Expected 32 minutes, FP 11:10 AM (updated as of 10:24 AM)
MouseWait: 20 minutes at 10 AM, No FP Available

The DL app doesn't say what time it updated last but it's often -- I just refreshed and the app is now giving a five minute later FP return, matching Lines.

Since I'm not in the park I don't know which one is right but you can definitely see that DL and Lines are *probably* more accurate just based on how often they update.

I think Lines is the only one of these that isn't free, but since I bought Touring Plans already it's free for me.

 

[ktlm]

We are there now- the app wait times are pretty accurate, but the character meet and greet times are hit and miss. We have been on a wild goose chase with the app multipke times yesterday and today. Today we waited almost 45 minutes for Daisy (saw Cruella and didn't want to leave the area and come back to the area 30 minutes later) in her 60th outfit because she was the one character DD really wanted to see today with 2 character handlers telling us if it showed on the app, she would be out at that time and approximately where she would be, then when she didn't come out a 3rd handler went and checked and told us she would not be out the rest of the day and the app times (she was supposed to be out 3 more times per the app) were wrong.

 

[Imdboss]

Just finished 5 days in the park and found the estimated times to be pretty accurate. I sort the rides to just give me a listing instead of the map view, I'd refresh the app then look at the times however sometimes the listed amount would be different than when I click on a specific ride. It's almost like one part of the app lags a few min behind the other, not sure if what I'm saying makes sense. I just got in the habit of always clicking on the ride to make sure it wasn't suddenly closed or to see the current wait time.

 

[seth_r]

I have used other apps in the past. This last trip I used the Disneyland app and really enjoyed it. The times were pretty accurate, and helped us plan accordingly. Every once in awhile the line went a lot faster then what was being quoted.

 

[disneybirds]

We were just there last week and used the Disneyland app. We thought it was pretty accurate. MouseWait was not updated frequently enough, so we didn't use it.

 

[avalon451]

One thing I've noticed with the DL app, and others have commented on it, too, is that if you have an iPhone 6, (not the 6s) Soarin' looks like it is always out of FPs, even right at park opening. It's a known glitch that they haven't fixed yet. It's annoying, I haven't been able to gauge how long the Soarin' FPs are lasting. Although I have the Lines app, too, I thought it wasn't as accurate. Maybe it's fine and I should just watch that?

 

[IBLarsen]

One thing I've noticed with the DL app, and others have commented on it, too, is that if you have an iPhone 6, (not the 6s) Soarin' looks like it is always out of FPs, even right at park opening. It's a known glitch that they haven't fixed yet. It's annoying, I haven't been able to gauge how long the Soarin' FPs are lasting. Although I have the Lines app, too, I thought it wasn't as accurate. Maybe it's fine and I should just watch that?

That is very interesting! After someone mentioning about the Lines app, I've used them for previous trips, so went ahead and renewed my subscription for this trip. I've been watching both this and the Disneyland app the past couple days and keeping a spreadsheet of waits and fp's for the same days of the weeks we will be there in a couple weeks. Just to get an idea of the trends for planning. I will say both apps are pretty much on par with one another. I feel like the Lines app is actually easier to use and refreshes quicker. As a pp stated, on the DL app, if you click on the ride and go into it, the time on there seems to update quicker than the overview times on the list. The Lines app seems to update quicker if a ride is down or back up (assuming it's correct, but it does look like it changes faster, then the DL app follows). I like how the Lines app is giving me the crowd levels for the day, it helps put into perspective what I'm seeing.