Accuracy of DL app wait times?

[twinsmama]

Are the Disneyland app wait times pretty accurate? If not, what is a good app to use?
We are going next week, first time to DL for me and my daughters (wdw multiple times) and first time Disney at all for my husband, son, and brother in law.

I am asking because I am shocked that most rides have been 30 minutes and under waits every time I have checked this week!

 

[Mikedaman]

Last year when I used it I felt it wasPretty accurate.

 

[midnight star]

Yes it's pretty accurate. This week has just been good for crowds, which is why you see nice wait times.

 

[ButterflyKisses77]

I like MouseWait

 

[twinsmama]

Thanks everyone! I hope this upcoming week is similar

 

[lalasmama]

I always prefer the official Disneyland app for wait times. They give a fair idea.

In the past, some of the other wait-time apps went by user input, so from my home in Oregon, I could say that King Arthur's Carousel had a wait of 60 minutes, or some other ridiculousness. No idea if they've somehow changed that now, but anything that allows user input without additional verification concerns me when I'm using it to plan

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

For some rides the times are notoriously wrong. Mostly some of the kiddie rides (Casey Junior Train, Canal Boats, Nemo, etc). But often they are pretty close.

 

[Kender]

Official hands down. Third party rely on user generated data as previously stated and are not only open to mischief, but also are at the mercy of anyone providing the information at all. Even if they were to rely on another source, that source would still not be as direct as the official.

The official also provides you with current distributing times for FP.

The only time I've found the times to not be accurate were shortly after a ride reopened and people were still piling into the line (people see the lower wait time too and head there). Or something that has two elements (like Soarin' with two screens) and one goes down, that can drastically affect a line wait time with little to no warning.

 

[ButterflyKisses77]

In the past, some of the other wait-time apps went by user input, so from my home in Oregon, I could say that King Arthur's Carousel had a wait of 60 minutes, or some other ridiculousness. No idea if they've somehow changed that now, but anything that allows user input without additional verification concerns me when I'm using it to plan

With MouseWait you have to be in the parks to input wait times. I’ve checked both and I prefer MouseWait to the official app.

 

[smartlabelprint]

With MouseWait you have to be in the parks to input wait times. I’ve checked both and I prefer MouseWait to the official app.

Last two trips I haven’t used mouse wait because it wasn’t accurate due to not enough people inputting. I feel like since the Disney app launched less people use mouse wait.

 

[MonocularVision]

MagicMinutes is pretty dang awesome as an alternative: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/magicminutes-for-disneyland/id1255706004?mt=8

Loads much faster than the real app and must be using the same API as the app as it always seems to match (it may be scraping the website). The ability to add notifications and easily browse FP return times is amazing. It also has “Favorites” so you can easily access the rides you are most interested in.

 

[tarheelalum]

Disneyland's official app is very good.

 

[katyringo]

It’s been dead on the last two days. The posted time for peter pan was 30 minutes. We entered the line at 8:02pm. We walked off the ride having done it at 8:33pm. I remember becuse we checked our phones to see if we missed the castle lighting show l.

 

[apple9117]

We just used it this past November and it was super accurate!

 

[sky13]

Used both Disneyland wait times and Touring Plans wait times in the park today. As always I find the Touring Plans apps easier to use than the official Disney apps (based on my experience from WDW), and with the bonus of having times for things like shows, Christmas tree lighting, etc included in the list for easy reference.

Disneyland wait times varied from fairly accurate to wildly off the mark, especially at the start/end of the day. The most inaccurate I encountered today was the Matterhorn at around 11.45pm - it had been down just before, and came back up posting a wait time of either 20 or 30 minutes (can’t remember exactly). In reality, it was a walk on - not complaining though!

 

[FallsChurchDad]

I like the Touring Plans app for wait times, but I just look at the "posted" wait times, which are the same as what Disney has on their official app, and I ignore the "expected" wait times.

I am not sure exactly how TP calculates "expected" times (I assume from some combination of posted times, historical times, and user input), but it sometimes gives wacky results that understate the waits. If you see a posted wait of 35 min and expected wait of 14 minutes on the TP app, you can't really rely on that to jump in line - it will probably be worse than 14.

In general, you can expect that the official wait times will be pretty accurate for the middle 85% of the day, but Disney will slightly overestimate the waits in the first hour, and drastically overestimate the waits at the very end of the night, because they want people to start clearing out of the parks. BUT let's say you spend an entire day riding rides, you will probably have one "bad" wait time, where the posted wait is 10 and you wait 25 - or potentially a lot worse. This could be due to an unexpected problem with the ride, a sudden rush of everyone using their FPs at the same time right after you get in line, etc. It happens, and it can be frustrating, but you just need to keep your group in a good mood - you will still get to ride lots of rides!