What happened to the actual wait times?

[ruthies12]

I love checking the wait times and I use easywdw and the blog mickey app to compare the posted and actual wait times but the actuals have disappeared. They have been gone for a while now. I'm wondering why and if they are coming back? Anybody know?

 

[nkereina]

I'd suspect there was a change in the script/algorithm they use to pull this data. The owner of one of the wait times sites is a frequent poster here, maybe he or she can fill us in.

 

[turkey1031]

That sucks. I was looking forward to using the app for my trip.

 

[KimK2006]

If you use the MDE app, you have the wait times straight from Disney. This would be the most accurate wait time app.

 

[nkereina]

That sucks. I was looking forward to using the app for my trip.

If it's any consolation, the actual wait times weren't much better than the posted ones in terms of accuracy in our experience in November. For example, Splash was posted at 45 minutes with an actual of 25. We got in line and waited about 35 minutes. We experienced this several times on different attractions. The sites are still good resources for checking posted wait times, however, and you can expect the actual to be at or very close to that.

 

[nkereina]

If you use the MDE app, you have the wait times straight from Disney. This would be the most accurate wait time app.

I believe Disney only posts the posted wait times, which can sometimes be inflated or inaccurate. These other sites were posting the actual wait times.

 

[perditax]

http://touringplans.com/magic-kingdom/wait-times

 

[Laketravis]

If it's any consolation, the actual wait times weren't much better than the posted ones in terms of accuracy in our experience in November. For example, Splash was posted at 45 minutes with an actual of 25. We got in line and waited about 35 minutes. We experienced this several times on different attractions. The sites are still good resources for checking posted wait times, however, and you can expect the actual to be at or very close to that.

Good point. WDW measures both SB and FP "Actual" wait times. The API that provides (or provided) that data did not distinguish whether the last sampled "Actual" wait time was for the SB queue or the FP queue. Which is irrelevant now since that particular data field is no longer available.

 

[MermaidMommy]

On the easyWDW forums, Josh said that Disney "cut the feed."

 

[HopperFan]

If you use the MDE app, you have the wait times straight from Disney. This would be the most accurate wait time app.

We used the apps in December and January and found the Disney times to be very inaccurate. We entered many lines based on the non-Disney apps that we would not have entered based on Disney times and got so much more done than we expected. Those apps made our trips much more productive.

 

[ruthies12]

I must have missed the post where Josh said they cut the feed. I wonder what that means exactly? Does that mean it is never coming back? I thought it would be very useful to use the apps while there when making a decision whether to get in a line or not. I know Josh said that in general you can expect your wait time to be somewhere between the posted and the actual. Sometimes the posted is actually lower than the actual and that is what I really want to know before getting in a line, is if there is a chance it is going to be much longer than what is posted.

 

[Brian Noble]

Does that mean it is never coming back?

Probably. Disney posts the Posted times for a reason---we don't necessarily know what the reason is, but there is one. Giving guests widespread access to something else is probably not something Disney is excited about doing.

 

[livingthedream]

Hmmm...total speculation on my part, but if Disney did indeed "cut the feed" on the site mentioned in previous post(s), then this suggests to me that Disney is definitely applying more effort into "crowd management", aka "crowd control"!!

 

[nkereina]

Sometimes the posted is actually lower than the actual and that is what I really want to know

FWIW, we very rarely saw this and when we did, it was because the ride was stopped or delayed with a technical difficulty.

 

[DougEMG]

On the easyWDW forums, Josh said that Disney "cut the feed."

Crap, I use Josh's wait times all the time. I hope that the "feed" comes back since Disney's times definitely seem wrong a lot of the time.

 

[mom2rtk]

Hmmm...total speculation on my part, but if Disney did indeed "cut the feed" on the site mentioned in previous post(s), then this suggests to me that Disney is definitely applying more effort into "crowd management", aka "crowd control"!!

I've felt for some time that the posted wait has as much to do with motivating certain guest behaviors as it does with reporting actual data.

 

[livingthedream]

Me, too!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Touring Plans' Lines app still has both posted and actual.

 

[ruthies12]

Touring Plans' Lines app still has both posted and actual.

Do you have a link to that? The link above goes to some sort of wait time graph which doesn't look very helpful and I can't find a location for actual times on their site anywhere?

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I've felt for some time that the posted wait has as much to do with motivating certain guest behaviors as it does with reporting actual data.

Agreed - since the implementation of FP+, the times reported by Disney have been very inflated for some rides. IMO, that is because they are trying to push people away from those rides and toward other areas of the park.

That said, I have not noticed them under-reporting wait times, so it doesn't really bother us.