Ride Hopper

[ibreathesbs]

Don't know if this has been discussed or not yet. Did a search didnt find anything. But for those of you with smartphones [Android, iPhones, and Palm Pre's (not to sure about WinMo)] there's an app to check wait times at parks. It's pretty cool. The times are pretty accurate because you update them yourself, and you can only update them if you're in the park (thanks to GPS). No false times. I just found it helpful, thought others would too.

 

[Mike]

The times are pretty accurate because you update them yourself

So to update the times you have to walk back to the ride anyway to check what the new wait time is?
Doesn't that kind of defeat the point of this app? :?

 

[ibreathesbs]

The times are pretty accurate because you update them yourself

So to update the times you have to walk back to the ride anyway to check what the new wait time is?
Doesn't that kind of defeat the point of this app? :?

No...its a global thing...other people update too. :roll:

 

[Jake]

^ Perhaps, but what's the incentive to spend your whole day updating the waiting times for other people who are in the park anyway? Assuming the ap is popular enough for there to be multiple users in the same park at the same time...

Cool initial idea, but I can't see it working, and if it does, it will only be usable in huge parks with extensive queue time information anyway.

 

[ibreathesbs]

^ Perhaps, but what's the incentive to spend your whole day updating the waiting times for other people who are in the park anyway? Assuming the ap is popular enough for there to be multiple users in the same park at the same time...

Cool initial idea, but I can't see it working, and if it does, it will only be usable in huge parks with extensive queue time information anyway.

You do not have to update at all...I was just putting it out there as a choice...it pulls the times down from when other people updated. Apparently I made this too literal. =\

 

[Jake]

^ Yeah, but if nobody updates the waiting times the ap clearly fails.

I was just asking why anyone would actually bother taking time out of their day to update the times, just for the benefit of a couple of (if any) other people in the park... lol.

 

[Snoo]

Never know.. I do know some geeky enthusiasts who go MUCH farther then simply updating wait times for others.

 

[ibreathesbs]

^ Yeah, but if nobody updates the waiting times the ap clearly fails.

I was just asking why anyone would actually bother taking time out of their day to update the times, just for the benefit of a couple of (if any) other people in the park... lol.

You're waiting in line. It takes like 2 seconds to do something like that. Honestly what else are you doing besides talking. Just something helpful for people who are concerned about wait times. And obviously someone is going to update.

Never know.. I do know some geeky enthusiasts who go MUCH farther then simply updating wait times for others.

Exactly, not to mention sometimes it's nice to know how the park flow is before you get there. Sheesh.

 

[furie]

The longer reaching application of this is that you could also capture trends on queue lengths. SO if there's no information for you today, it could use historical data. I don't know if this app does that, but that's the direction I'd take it in

It IS one of those were only a specific kind of goon is going to get excited enough about it to use it a lot, but I'll bet you'd find Ian surreptitiously updating at a park too - any excuse to use his iPhone