Tip Tuesday: Tip "boards"

Welcome to another Tip Tuesday! (yeah, it's a Wednesday... oh well).

By request, I'm talking about ways to cut down on the amount of time you may spend waiting in lines... and one of the ways to beat the lines is with, well, Lines!

Lines in an application provided by TouringPlans.com that you can download for just about any smartphone (iPhone, Droid, Blackberry, Palm Pre) and/or as a mobile website at http://m.touringplans.com/wdw.

At first, Lines was a free service. Now that the kinks are worked out (and even on the 2nd version), it does require a modest subscription to the entire TouringPlans.com website. Subscriptions run around $10-$12 for an entire year, which is pretty reasonable given that you get 365 day access no matter where you are (as opposed to Disney's official service -- Mobile Magic, which is much more expensive for only 6 months, and it only works when you're actually in the parks).

Lines offers two tools to help you keep track of wait times at various attractions: 1. line estimates and 2. reported wait times.

Let's talk about these for a second. The estimates are generated based on a highly complicated formulas and statistical models using more than ten years worth of data. While these are only forecasts, they are generally pretty accurate. The folks at TouringPlans.com include a bunch of factors when creating their crowd forecasts, and the end result is very helpful for planning, especially if you're one of those who likes to "wing it" sometimes.

Even more helpful (in my opinion) are the actual wait times posted by other Lines users. That's right -- not only are you getting information, but you can be part of the team by uploading your own wait times (more on that in a minute). When you open up the Lines app, you'll want to first select your park, then scroll down past the wait estimates and click on "Reported Wait Times." This will give you a listing of reported wait times and posted FastPass times is reverse chronological order (most recent on top). These are actual posted times and can really help you decide which attractions to head to.

Lines also helps you keep connected to the magic. Even if you're not at the World, you can hop onto Lines and just check wait times to see what's going on. In fact, as I write this, Lines is up and I see that all the parks are, well, closed. But just before closing, Soarin' had a 20 minute wait... not too bad!

If you want to add your own time, you can do that as well. Just go to the park you want to post and click on the button at the top right to add your own time. It's pretty easy and you'll get credit for the posting!

Lines is a fantastic way to stay on top of wait times. Now if you don't want to pay for the subscription, there is a free way to get some idea of wait times through Disney's mobile site: http://m.disneyworld.com/.

Disney's mobile site will give wait times in three categories: see now, moderate or high demand. Though I've not heard of an official explanation, it appears that "see now" wait times generally are 20 minutes or less. "Moderate" wait times usually are about 20-40 minutes, while "high demand" wait times are around 40 minutes or more. This is just my observation, so take this with a grain of salt.

Since I've subscribed to Lines, I rarely check the Disney mobile site. Personally, I think Lines is well worth the money. Think about it, if spending $10 saves you a few hours of waiting over the course of a trip, that's well worth it.

So there you go -- one more way to save a bit of time and keep in touch with what's happening at Walt Disney World even when you're not in the parks.

Disney tip boards go mobile

About a year ago, Disney announced they were working on a new application with Verizon where guests could get in-park information such as wait times, FastPass info and park hours through their cell phone.

About a month ago, Disney announced the new application finally was ready, and so http://m.disneyworld.com/ was born. There are two version of this new Web site, one is free and the other requires users to pay a subscription fee. To be more accurate, the Web site is free, while the smart phone application (called Mobile Magic) requires a fee, though some information in the Web site also is in the app.

It is important also to note that this is an app available ONLY to Verizon customers, meaning all those iPhones using AT&T service are shut out.

I've used the free Web-based version and while it's somewhat useful, it's pretty clear that Disney wants users to download the fee-based app. At first, m.disneyworld.com provided some limited wait time information, such as "see now," or "moderate." About a week or two after it launched, even this limited wait time information was removed. What's unclear about this "light" page is what constitutes a "see now" wait time versus a "moderate" or whatever. The Disney site doesn't specify.

UPDATE: Apparently just this week, the limited wait time and FastPass information returned to the free site.

The downloadable app offers updated attraction wait times and FastPass times for the park the user currently is located in. It also displays GPS-enabled park maps, showing the locations of attractions and restaurants. Also included are tips about different happenings in each park and trivia games to compete against other guests in the parks. That's about the most unique element of the downloadable app. Aside from the wait and FastPass times, a standard paper park map provides much of the same information.

I have not tried the Verizon app, mostly because of the price. What I've seen in demos, however, doesn't make me think that the $9.99 fee per six-months makes this app worth it. You read right, ten-bucks for six months access. That's 20-bucks a year! Further, I'm not much of a fan of restricting information based on location. From what I understand, if you're in the Magic Kingdom, you will not get as much information about wait times in any other park. I'm not sure what info is available when you're not at WDW at all. One things for sure - you're paying for 180 days of access whether you're in the parks or not.

Disney isn't the only group offering mobile-based wait and FastPass times. The folks at TouringPlans.com have recently launched "Lines," which provides wait-times and FastPass return times for all parks, regardless of location (in or out of the parks). Lines also provides park hours, crowd calendars and predicted wait times. The one thing Lines doesn't appear to provide (I couldn't find it) is event information, such as when Spectromagic or Fantasmic is showing.

The major differences between Lines and Mobile Magic are accessibility and price. Lines is completely web-based and so it's available to most popular devices (as of this writing, Lines is available for the iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Palm Pre/Pixl). Support for additional devices apparently is coming. Further, Lines (as of this writing) is FREE while in beta testing. Eventually it will require a subscription to TouringPlans.com. Those that own a current edition of the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World (ding!) can get free access for a limited time. Non-book owners can subscribe for a yearly fee of $8.95. This includes access to Lines and to TouringPlans.com.

I have Lines on my Blackberry and it's a great service. I most especially like being able to see what wait times are like while being more than 700 miles away from the parks. For instance (as I pull up Lines on the BB), Space Mountain only has a 25 minute wait right now, and the crowd level is at a 4, which means most attractions are a walk-on!!

Knowing Disney, I'm sure they're planning to plus Mobile Magic pretty soon. At $20 a year, they need to put more value into such an expensive app. Disney also has to find a way to make this app available to iPhone users. While I don't have an iPhone (don't get me started), there are a gazillion Disney fans with iPhones who are excluded from even having the option to purchase this app.

At this point, if I had to recommend one -- sorry Disney, but I'm going with Lines - for the price (free right now) and the more-specific information, even outside the parks. The Disney free site is nice, but the information, even if it's free, is limited.

What are your thoughts? Do you have Mobile Magic and/or Lines? If so, post a comment -- do you like it?