Mobile Options for Trip Planning and Park Touring

Google Earth - Walt Disney World in 3D

Now you can explore every inch of Walt Disney World Resort in 3D, in Disney's Google Earth™ tour. With 3D views of all four Theme Parks and over 20 Disney Resort hotels, you can zoom down Main Street, USA, fly around Cinderella Castle, explore Spaceship Earth and climb the Tree of Life.

This tour will transform how you plan your Disney vacation, offering attraction descriptions, videos and photos, and links to menus, event calendars, and tickets and reservations. For information on downloading Google Earth for you computer, visit Disney's Website, or visit Google for information on Google Earth for your iPhone.

Disney Mobile Magic, Mobile Websites & Text Messaging

Mobile Magic: Verizon Wireless users can subscribe to a a service that puts a virtual Walt Disney World Resort or Disneyland Resort tour guide in the palm of their hands. Disney Mobile Magic is an application that works in conjunction with a paid service. Using GPS technology to display park maps based on the user's location, the app can suggest nearby rides and attractions to visit. Park visitors will be able to get current attraction wait times, FASTPASS return times, tips on what’s happening in the parks, and even locate characters using their mobile phones. To keep guests entertain while standing in line, live competitive games will be offered such as Disney trivia, as well as character stories, videos, and more. For those in the planning stages of their vacations, the application will provide information and other guest services.

Currently, Disney Mobile Magic is only available for select Verizon Wireless phones. The cost is $9.99 to purchase and use for 180 days. To purchase, text MAGIC to 2777 from a Verizon phone. Customers can also find the application in Media Center of their Verizon Wireless phone. Just go to “Browse & Download,” then “Get New Applications.” You’ll then find Mobile Magic in the “Travel & Navigation” folder. You can also sign up at VerizonWireless.com. Once you download the app, you will not be charged for additional data usage. For more info you can visit disneyparksmobile.com/mobilemagic.

Also a new Mobile Magic site has debuted that lets you explore the Mobile Magic aap and play a "Magical Disney Dash" game (points are scored by visiting attractions, collecting souvenirs and answering trivia). here is also a Magic Move Sweepstakes that starts in April. Prize is a trip to LA to attend the taping of Wizards of Waverly Place and a visit to Disneyland. Thanks to Naomi for the tip.

For those considering Disney's Mobile Magic, read an in depth review, including a list of phones that work with the new application.

Mobile Websites: Not to leave iPhone and other mobile phone users out, Disney has also unveiled two websites m.disneyland.com and m.disneyworld.com--both designed to deliver information such as that found on disneyworld.com, but optimized to work on cell phones phones and mobile devices. Minus the GPS ability to locate position, users will be able to access park hours, entertainment schedules, shopping and dining information and more with their browser-enabled phones at home or in the parks. For more info you can visit disneyparksmobile.com/mobilewebsite.

Text Messaging: Now you can also register your mobile phone to receive access to the information you want during your upcoming visit to the Walt Disney World Resort or Disneyland Resort. This is not just for Verizon customers. Anyone with a U.S. mobile phone can join the program at no direct cost, although your providers message and data rates may apply. You'll receive information such as:

• Attraction Wait Time Information (Text "Wait" + attraction name up to 4 times per day)
• Character Meet & Greet (Text "Meet" + character name up to 4 times per day)
• Theme Park Operating Hours (any park up to 4 times per day)
• Exclusive offers (random)
• Resort information (when your indicate your resort)
• Personal messages from Disney
• Text your messages to: 37275 for both Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts

Options you can choose from when signing up are specific dates for your trip (Walt Disney World or Disneyland) or the choice of visiting multiple times during the year with the limit of receiving text messages 12 days per year. You can also select your favorite character to customize future messages and to allow Disney to notify you of appearances by that character in the Theme Parks. Disney will text you prior to your arrival and while you are in the park. Per day of your visit, you can send and receive anywhere from 1-12 messages a day depending on how many attractions or characters you text for information. To sign up for Disney's mobile text messaging or for more information, visit disneyparksmobile.com/textmessaging. Opting out of opt-out of receiving messages is easy by texting STOP in response to any Disney Parks' Mobile Message, calling 888-635-0110 and entering your mobile number (allow up to 30 days to be removed) or by doing so online.

For information on all of Disney's mobile options, Disney has provided an FAQ.

Disney has a new web page to help fans stay connected via social networks and and instantly find out what's happening right now.

Fun Stuff: Create a fun Disney Vacation that you can create with your own photos and share your vacation dream-come-true with friends by email, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or with embedded video on your web site. Check it out here.

Lines by TouringPlans.com

By Carla Gesell-Streeter

A while back, I wrote a review for the Disney Parks / Verizon Mobile Magic app which was released in November of 2009. This application gives you wait times and FastPass information for Disney Parks attractions plus all the show times, times for character meet & greets, games to play while waiting in queues and more. But you had to have a non-smart phone (aka not a Blackberry, iPhone or Droid) and you had to be on Verizon. In addition, a 180 day license costs $9.99.

Well, the folks at the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and TouringPlans.com have come up with their own version on this idea called simply "Lines." Free during the beta testing period, Lines will be included with a Premium Access subscription to Touring Plans. Unlike the Mobile Magic, Lines is actually a mobile web site which means it works with smart phones. So far, Lines works on the iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Palm Pre. I tested Lines on a Motorola Droid, Blackberry Curve and an iPod Touch using WiFi access. I also checked it on out Safari (it doesn't work on other non-mobile web browsers). All but one of the screenshots below came from a Droid and are from December 5, 2009.

As you can see above, the log in screen reminds you that Lines is still in beta and also gives you links to sign up if you need to plus help if you have trouble logging in. Once you're logged in, you see the four parks with their hours and EMH (if applicable) listed. At the bottom, there's the Touring Plans crowd estimate along with best park to visit and park to avoid recommendations. Like the wait times, this information is based on the Unofficial Guide's and TouringPlans.com's years of data collection related to Disney park crowds. The design isn't as graphics intensive as Mobile Magic, but that means it loads quickly and has a nice, clean design.

After selecting a park (in this case, the Magic Kingdom), you get a list of all of the attractions in that park. On this page, the wait times are listed along with the FastPass return time if that attraction has FP. You also choose to view the attractions in different arrangements (see below). Your navigation buttons are at the top: Parks returns you (naturally) to the listing of the four major theme parks and + Time lets you add a wait time to one of the attractions. If you submit a time via this link, you then get a drop down menu to select the attraction you want to update.

Notice the warning that wait time estimates may be off during the beta process, but they will only get more accurate as more people use Lines and update wait times (see below). Also notice that text is black while wait times are blue and alerts are red. A simple design choice, but it makes the information more easy to comprehend at a glance.

A simple feature that I appreciated is the date and time stamp at the top of the screen. It made me feel more secure in the accuracy of the information being provided. Of course, having done some date/time stamp coding myself, I fully realize that the date and time are not necessarily related to the database calls for the wait times, but it still made me feel better.

When you select a particular attraction, you (naturally) get more detailed information about that attraction. The comparison between the posted wait time and the actual wait time is good information to have. Whether there is a single rider line is also indicated here. Below the estimates are the forecasts of the standby waits at different times throughout the day, the peak standby time and when the FastPasses will be gone by. As the program states, "the standby forecasts are actual waits," but "all estimates/forecasts are unofficial."

Part of the strength of the Lines program is that users can improve the data by inputting actual wait times while they are at the parks. The screen above on the left gives users some notes and tips about submitting wait times. The screen on the right is the actual screen for submitting wait times and/or FastPass information. I think the on-screen hints on what should be submitted when has got to be a big help getting more accurate data submitted.

So let's say you want to view the attractions in a different way rather than alphabetically for the whole park. Scroll down and you can change the viewing mode from Alpha to Time (longest to shortest wait) or to Land. In the example above, we chose the Land viewing option and then selected Frontierland.

There were a couple of issues with Lines that I ran into while testing it. First of all, I could never get it to render correctly on my Verizon Blackberry Curve 8330. Instead of looking sleek and stylish like it did on the LinesBlackberry page, it was clunky text like you see on the right. I doublechecked that I had the latest OS from my Blackberry, but never got anything but this.

Second, I didn't like that show times are handled by linking users to Steve Soares' Walt Disney World Live Entertainment web site. His site is great, but it's not really optimized for mobile browsers. This was especially true on the iPod Touch where the navigation buttons at the top were cut off. This made them hard to read at times. Also, the link is for the main page of Steve's site no matter which park you are "in" when you hit the link. If I click the link for Fantasmic, I would at least like to be taken to the section of WDW Live Entertainment for Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Finally, when I'm viewing the attractions in the Time viewing mode, I would like the option of listing them from shortest to longest wait time as well as the default longest to shortest option. Maybe a simple button that lets you toggle back and forth between these two options?

UPDATE: Since I posted this review, several of these issues have been resolved. Turns out that on most Blackberry smart phone (including my Curve), the default for the web browser that comes with the phone is for it to not support style sheets. To fix this, open the browser. Then, bring up the options screen, go to Options > Browser Configuration , then select Support Style Sheets. Finally, Save Options. On the other two issues, Henry from Touring Plans already changed the links so you go to the correct part of WDW Live Entertainment for the park you are interested in and the toggle between longest to shortest and shortest to longest is coming!

All in all, Lines is a really nice program and the price is definitely better than the Disney Parks / Verizon Mobile Magic app. I'm hoping the problems I experienced on my Blackberry Curve will be fixed before our Janaury 31st trip or else my husband is going to be the chief Lines checker on his Droid! Lines is a solid program for both the first time Walt Disney World visitor and the veteran annual passholder on their monthly trip. Enjoy!

Updated January 16, 2010