Good iPhone Apps for the Parks?

[cjgren]

Hello all! Long time lurker, first time poster (how often is that heard?).

I'll be heading back to the parks for the first time since 2003, this time on my own, 21+, and with friends as opposed to family. My question is what are the best iPhone apps for at the parks?

I know Disney released official apps for Verizon customers only and can only hope they'd be released by the time my trip comes in November, but I don't think it'll happen.

 

[Tybee]

In preparing for our January trip to WDW, I downloaded the much praised WDW Dining app and have been very impressed with it. It includes all of the on-property restaurants (including Downtown Disney and Resorts), with current menus for each (including full descriptions and pricing). It includes DDP and TiW info for every restaurant (i.e., what categories -- S, CS, TS, SS -- it falls under). It also allows you to create a dining schedule with dates, times, and ADR numbers. I'm not sure if it will provide alarms/notifications associated with those. Need to put in a dummy date right now to see if it does.

It's a very well-designed little app and well worth the $1.99 I paid for it. I honestly don't understand the people who balk at paying a couple bucks for a competently made iPhone app that will improve a trip for which they've already laid out hundreds or thousands of dollars.

The aforementioned Lines, an app from the folks that run touringplans.com, also appears to be extremely well put-together and more accurate in its wait times than a lot of the other apps out there since it doesn't rely solely on user data and general park attendance numbers, which are unreliable. But that accuracy comes at a cost. It's free to download and there's a short trial, but you must subscribe to their service for it to keep working.

It'd be nice if Disney ported their Mobile Magic app to the iPhone, but as someone mentioned, the parks have an exclusive contract with Verizon, so it's only available for devices on that carrier for the foreseeable future.

WDW Pics has a nice collection of wallpapers, but until a recent update it crashed instantly every time I tried to open it on my iPhone 3G. Seems to work now, and some of the pictures are great, but others are inexplicably blurry. :shrug:

 

[ShookieJones]

Wdw lines from touringplans.com is a great app, it costs $10 a year. Wdw dining and maps is great too.

I've had this since last year - worth every penny.

 

[YoungNY]

I know about the WDW Dining, but what "maps" are you referring to? Is it anything that uses GPS to show your location in the park and guide you to wherever you may want to go? We will be in WDW the first week of Dec. and I was hoping the Disney's Mobile Magic would be released on Android by then.

It's called WDW Maps by pinpoint.com. It does link up to your location, it has the maps of all WDW parks plus sea world, univeral, busch gardens, several resorts and the Orlando Airport. It also offers wait times, but only if your actually in the park. I don't remember how much it costs.

 

[Fashionista007]

Here's my iPhone wrap up from my recent Trip Report: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=637161

TripIt (Free) – This is a must have for all vacations, Disney or not. I kept copies of all of our hotel, transportation, and restaurant reservations and itineraries. I can’t even believe this is a free service. It even shares information on Facebook if you opt in.

WDW Maps ($2.99) – I have mixed feelings about this one. It was incredibly awesome until it crashed on day 4 and was down for about 2 days. It did come back on its own but that was pretty inconvenient. Other than that, the map was very accurate and you can walk around and your marker moves with you on the map. Needless to say we never picked up a park map while we were there.

WDW Hours (Free) – An absolute must have for quick info on what’s going on in the parks on a daily basis. And it’s free to boot!

WDW Waits (Free) – I did not end up using this one because WDW Lines and Undercover Tourist have the same information and I paid for them

WDW Dining (Free) – I used this one occasionally and I really like that it has full menus and prices. However, Undercover Tourist has something similar and the interface is better.

What 2 Ride (Free) – This is cute but I never really ended up using it.
WDW Lines (need to be a member at touring plans, app is free) – Incredibly accurate wait times and also has some show information. I felt that this app had more accurate wait times than the actual times posted at the rides.

Undercover Tourist ($3.99) – I think this is a must have even if you have WDW Lines. I really like the interface and it also includes dining information and the ability to save an itinerary. This was the app that I used the most throughout the trip. It’s basically an all-in-one. It even has GPS enabled maps so I used this as a backup with WDW Maps crashed.

GateGuru (Free) – This is a neat app that lists what is nearby at any airport in the US. Using this app, we were able to find a Burger King to chow down at Orlando International.

iTripBook ($0.99) – I am so glad that I got this app and kept a journal the entire time. Not only did it make it easier to write my TR but now I have a journal full of memories of my vacation! I am the kind of person that if I don’t write it down, I won’t remember! I used my bus riding time to keep an up to date account of every event on our vacation.

 

[tecowdw]

It'snot going to happen.

The 'offical' Disney apps are only on the Verizon network. It's an exclusive deal between Vz and Disney. And I think that it's pretty sweet that DIS is now tracked on the stock crawl in our corporate cafeteria.

-dave

Wish they'd hurry up on a VZW DroidX version!

 

[eyeoftigr]

WHOOHOO!!!

 

[LSU_Tigger]

Found this on a web site for those hoping for this to happen. I have an iphone on the AT&T network. I'm hoping this happens soon! IMO this will not happen.....BUT! Here is the web page so y'all don't think I photoshoped it. http://gizmodo.com/5659962/ny-times-verizon-iphone-coming-in-early-2011

The Verizon iPhone Might Really Happen This Time

The New York Times is independently confirming what the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week: a Verizon version of the iPhone 4 will be released in early 2011. People, this Verizon iPhone thing could finally, really happen.
The Times says that what likely drove Apple to finally end their AT&T exclusivity is the looming threat Android poses to the iPhone's market lead, since Android phones now collectively outsell the iPhone—largely because they're on multiple carriers. Oh, things are about to get interesting. [NY Times]
Send an email to Casey Chan, the author of this post, at cchan@gizmodo.com.

Ads by Google

 

[todpatcam]

We just returned from a 7 day visit to WDW; we used Undercover Tourist – great for lines waits and menus and we also used Touring Plans – for the same. For the most part both sites were consistent with the info but I think Touring Plans had better info for the best parks for each day.

The QS menus were great when we were trying to pick somewhere to eat. I have an iPhone 4 and it had great reception and I took some really good day pics with the camera – night pics were not very good – day pics turned out great!!!

 

[10011971]

Has anyone compared Undercover Tourist and WDW lines (Touring Plans) to each other in the parks? Which one did you find usually had the most accurate wait times? I have both apps and have been checking them both at various times throughout the day, and Touring Plans consistently shows lower wait times - sometimes alot less. I'm doing this in preparation for our Nov. trip and I am trying to figure out which app will provide the most reliable information, so if you have already compared them I'd love to know what you came up with. By the way, I'm using Undercover Tourist Lite since Android does not have the full version yet. Thanks for your help.

 

[WDWFigment]

WDW Pics has a nice collection of wallpapers, but until a recent update it crashed instantly every time I tried to open it on my iPhone 3G. Seems to work now, and some of the pictures are great, but others are inexplicably blurry. :shrug:

I'm one of the contributing photographers to this app; if you, or anyone else, has any issues with it, please contact the developer. I know there have been some issues with it, but I am hoping he has most/all of them straightened out now.

 

[Tybee]

I'm one of the contributing photographers to this app; if you, or anyone else, has any issues with it, please contact the developer. I know there have been some issues with it, but I am hoping he has most/all of them straightened out now.

I did email the developer immediately after I bought it and it crashed without ever starting up properly. He emailed me back immediately saying they were working on it and an update came out within the next few days that got it working.

To your knowledge, will new photos be added in the (near) future?

 

[Frau Farbissina]

Has anyone compared Undercover Tourist and WDW lines (Touring Plans) to each other in the parks? Which one did you find usually had the most accurate wait times? I have both apps and have been checking them both at various times throughout the day, and Touring Plans consistently shows lower wait times - sometimes alot less. I'm doing this in preparation for our Nov. trip and I am trying to figure out which app will provide the most reliable information, so if you have already compared them I'd love to know what you came up with. By the way, I'm using Undercover Tourist Lite since Android does not have the full version yet. Thanks for your help.

All I had was the lite version as well. I think TP was more accurate because when you input a time, it adjusts based on their historical data. Those times seem very on target. UT seemed to vary more, but maybe I'm missing something with only the light version? Next time I go I'm hoping to compare them more closely. Right now, I have to say I trust TP more than any other app and have found them to be very useful on multiple trips. Plus, they're very involved in the whole Disney community and I know that if something changes in the parks, they're on it.

I wish the Verizon app was available on smart phones. I'm kind of shocked that they released it a year ago and it's still only available on basic phones.

 

[eyeoftigr]

WDW Character Quest for the iPhone! :sohappy::sohappy:

 

[Worktillidie]

Apps 4 Verizon

They are a couple of disney apps..........Undercover Tourist and Disney Wait times....UT very good...sorry no apps 4 tha apples peeps....get Steve Jobs to come off some of that money and make a deal...Im sure Disney's Dumbo ears are wide open 4 some more moolah