The Best Disney World Apps Ever from @goddessofmath

The Best Disney World Apps Ever from @goddessofmath by eswayne

eswayne says: Thinking of going to Disney World soon? Ever? Joanna is my WDW GENIUS, and knows all about how to get through the park smoothly, quickly, and have a great time while doing it - even with kids! Here's her list of must-have apps from her latest trip. Enjoy!

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eswayne's picks

Disney World Wait Times Quite possibly the app I used the most while actually in the parks. I love free apps that only have a tiny ad on them! This app does just what it says: it tells you the wait times for all of the attractions in all of the parks at Walt Disney World. While in the parks it loaded fast and was highly accurate. Often we'd be at the bus stop and check the wait times for the park we were headed to in order to know which attraction we should go to first. It also helped us when we wanted to park hop: "Ack! Disney's Hollywood Studios has become super crowded! How's Epcot looking?" Added bonus? When you're not at WDW, you can still check the wait times and daydream about what rides you would go to if you were in the parks!
Disney World Park Hours Free Another of my favorite in park apps. Again, it's FREE (and free is a very good price), and it has tiny ads. I know we all grab the Times Guide when we walk into a park, so we know the hours of the parks, the parade times, and other event times, but this app has all that in one location! I can put my hands on my phone almost instantly. That little piece of paper? Not so quickly. It lists park hours, Extra Magic hours, parades, and some shows. It's not quite as extensive as the Times Guide, but it gets the basics to you fast.
Disney World Dining An app that's completely worth the $1.99 you will pay for it. Not only does it have every menu (with prices) for every counter service and table service in the parks, but it also has them listed for the resorts. Want to make sure the restaurant you want to eat at has chicken nuggets for the kids? Pull out this app! Wondering where to find a cupcake in Magic Kingdom? This app can tell you! Want to know about your dining reservations like the time, location, date, and reservation number? Oh wow are you in luck! I cannot even begin to tell you how many times we checked this app! Below are the dining reservations that Kyle and I made on our last trip. One evening before the trip I quickly entered them in the app, and voila! Instant reference sheet! It will even email this list to anyone in one email instead of having one email per reservation. Usually one prints all their dining reservation emails or makes a list on a scrap of paper that needs to be found to head to dinner. This way your list is always with you along with your reservation number. Invaluable tool! This part of the app alone is worth the $1.99.
WDW Pics - Walt Disney World Wallpapers Kept my iPhone (and iPad) dressed in gorgeous WDW wallpapers leading up to and during my trip for only $0.99. They update and add to the photo library often, and the shots are always breathtaking and high quality. I could change my background daily and always feel like I was at WDW!
Mouse Trivia: Disney Edition - Free Movie, Disneyland, & Disney World Quiz! Has over 1,000 questions about Disney! While waiting for your trip (or killing time in the line for Soarin') you can brush up on your Disney knowledge about the parks, movies, characters, music, and more! Challenge your travel buddies to see who can get a high score! Play alone before your trip to learn tidbits to impress your friends in the parks! Even better? It's another free app, and they have multiple versions in the app store (like my favorite: Tangled).
WDW Countdown My final favorite. Everyone waiting anxiously for a Disney World vacation needs a great way to countdown to the trip. Kyle posted a screenshot of this app on Twitter one day, and I happily paid the $0.99 to have this app to help me countdown to my vacation. It comes with pre-loaded WDW images for the background of your countdown, or you can load your own photos. There are a lot of countdown apps out there, but this one had a Disney vibe and has a beautiful look to it. You can customize quite a bit on it, and it adds just a bit more magic to your wait (and believe me, when you start your countdown over 100 days out, you need more magic)!

Curated Links & Tweets

Joanna's original blog post of Walt Disney World Apps (Joanna and Her Amazing Technicolor Interwebs)

Joanna on Twitter (@goddessofmath)

Joanna's referenced battery-saving tips for while you're in the Parks (DisneyEveryday)

Discussion

CSully

I might also add Gowalla to that list. It's a bit of a stretch, but Gowalla has a partnership with Disney and there all kinds of special pins and trips that you can only get by visiting the Disney parks. If nothing else, it is simply a complimentary app to this list.

Associated Apps: Gowalla

goddessofmath

I used Gowalla at WDW in November 2010, and while I *loved* the pins and trips in the app, I had issues checking in, and it made me spend quite a bit of time on my phone instead of looking around me at the parks. For instance, I stood in the Dumbo queue for 30 minutes, and Gowalla said I wasn't at Dumbo or close enough to actually check in. I was trying to check in while on the ride, and it still wouldn't work! I'd be willing to try it again on my next trip though. Perhaps they've perfected it some.

Associated Apps: Gowalla