How accurate is the MouseWait app for Iphone?

[jacobsmommy]

How accurate is the MouseWait app? I keep checking it multiple times a day, and the wait time for things like Pixie Hollow and PFF have never been over 55 minutes. I thought that I had read that those lines get to be enormous. Is the app just way off in calculating the times for thos two things? Has anyone used this app and found it to be pretty well correct?

 

[Funball]

the one i used it, it said that Soarin over california was a 50 minute wait.. sure enough when we got to the line it really was a 50 minute wait!

 

[Lissame]

What you have to remember is that it is user entered data. If you look at the little time underneath the minutes--like currently it says :
Princess Fantasy Fair 35 1:22 PM--which is when the user entered the data. Snow White says 5 10:05 AM--so that one hasn't been updated in a while.
Pixie Hollow says 45 12:17 PM--so this could be accurate, but also it could be longer or shorter because it hasn't been updated for an hour and a half.

 

[ktlm]

We were at DL/CA June 5, 6, 7, and 8. I have used the free wait times app for WDW and found it very accurate and I also had the free wait times for DL. We found MouseWait to be accurate on Saturday and Sunday, but way off on Monday and Tuesday. Didn't make much sense to me because the parks were much more crowded on Mon. and Tues, so you would think there would have been more inputing and it would have been more accurate on those days. (It also surprised me that the parks were not crowded at all over the weekend and wait times were short everywhere, but that they were so much more crowded on Mon and Tues). Mon and Tues, the free wait times app was much more accurate than Mousewait. I still love the Mousewait app though. I wish there was one for WDW.

 

[ktlm]

Oh- I should also add that we noticed that when it was way off, if you put in the right time, it barely adjusted it- it must work on some type of average of what people have input. For example, on Tues, it showed Toy Story Mania was 45 minutes. We were at the ride and the wait was actually 75 minutes. I input the 75 minutes, and on Mousewait it was still showing up as only 46 minutes. We checked again about 30 minutes later, and the TSM line was still over an hour, but Mousewait still showed 46 minutes.

 

[ginormous]

I find MouseWait times to be accurate, especially if the time was recently submitted.

I keep reading that MouseWait calculates times based on user submissions using a proprietary algorithm and a secret blend of 11 herbs and spices. I don't really buy that. (At least not yet. Maybe it will become more sophisticated and begin to anticipate times using historical data.) From my experience it looks like it is predominately based on user submissions, but they do some weighted averaging between submissions.

Issues seem to arise when there aren't as many people in the park. The wait times are either not submitted, or there is a big lag since the last submission. Then again, maybe people don't submit if the time is roughly the same as posted.

The other issue I've seen on rare occasion is when people submit 90 minutes wait time when it is clearly not (like right at opening). I don't know if they key it in accidently or maliciously. However, that takes forever to correct since each subsequent time submission only averages with the 90 minute time, rather than correcting it.

That said, I think it works great most of the time. And it is good to see something is closed rather than walking all the way across the park to discover that fact. It's a fantastic application. I use it along with RideMax.

 

[Lissame]

I think that the other thing they take into account in their averaging (and this is just a guess, i don't know it for sure) is when you're a user with a high rating, you input numbers a lot, they probably weight those higher than other peoples' numbers.

I hope that more and more people start to input times as much as they can--I plan to do it a lot during our next visit in a couple of weeks.

 

[ginormous]

For example, on Tues, it showed Toy Story Mania was 45 minutes. We were at the ride and the wait was actually 75 minutes. I input the 75 minutes, and on Mousewait it was still showing up as only 46 minutes. We checked again about 30 minutes later, and the TSM line was still over an hour, but Mousewait still showed 46 minutes.

Yeah, this looks like the compliment of the false 90 minute submission issue. Maybe they should make the wait times less influenced by previous submissions.

 

[blackjackdelta]

It is only as accurate as the submissions. I am sure there are people who like submit false times, but for the most it is as accurate as anyother "wait" software.

Jack

 

[jseargent]

We were @ DL the first week of June and DH has MouseWait. It was GREAT - we found the times to be fairly accurate! Not only that - we ended up with some fastpasses we couldn't use so we hid them and posted the hiding spot on MouseWait. It was great fun.

 

[Onetrue]

MouseWait 2.0 is getting ready to be submitted to the app store, the wait times will be way more accurate in this release. MouseWait relies on user submissions (to a certain extent) but it also calculates those submissions against a huge database of historical times. The algorithm actually gets "smarter" with each submission. Newer users have less of an impact on the wait times, that is why you notice the averaging in some cases - other users (based on their MouseRank) have more impact on the times, so the system is based on authority.

The new version will take wait times to a whole new level and will increase the accuracy of wait times significantly.

 

[3TinksAndAnEeyore]

Ooooh! A MouseWait person on the DIS! I like that!

I haven't had the opportunity to use the app since I was there last February, but I found it to be so accurate and helpful, that I pretty much ditched my RideMax plans and just used MouseWait to plan the next three or so rides. Really helpful when you're touring the parks with younger children.

 

[Janell]

I have had good luck with this app. Its user based, so others have to be using it too. When the parks are busy, I have found a lot of people were on and updating the times.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

It is only as accurate as the submissions. I am sure there are people who like submit false times, but for the most it is as accurate as anyother "wait" software.

Jack

I agree. Last week in mid afternoon it said Splash Mt was a 5 min wait while another app said 55 min.

 

[blackjackdelta]

I would not rely on it and then get wicked. Just use it as a guide and see how times correspond.

Jack

 

[Mike_M]

I had it with me last week in the parks and the times posted in the APP were correctly reflecting the wait times posted at the rides but the lines were mostly running faster than the posted wait times so it would seem to me that submissions to the app were based on the posted wait time rather than someone timing how ling they were in line and then submitting that.

It was definetly a usefull tool overall and helped swing the vote on more than one ride decision.

 

[DirkLogan]

I have used it on 4 or 5 occasions and found that it is pretty good. The first hour or so it is not updated well. Usually you can expect the wait to be in the ballpark. I have found some exceptions for sure.

I also made a Ridemax chart like Hydroguy did for my last trip and it was pretty close too. The only exceptions I found were when a ride had closed for a bit.

I would say both were give or take 5-10 minutes.

 

[Aussie Princess]

Does Blackberry have a similar application? i have a blackberry and am tossing up whether or not to bring it and if they do it would provide a case to bring it with me