MouseWait: An App for Losing Wait at Disneyland

Quick: what's the worst part of any Disney vacation? Wrong! (Or maybe Right!, since I can't hear you.) It's the wait. You wait in line for the rides, you wait for the characters, you wait for your table, you wait for your bus, you wait for your beard to grow while you're waiting, waiting, waiting.

A free iPhone app, MouseWait, provides 'wait loss' for pretty much everything except your waist line. According to its creator, App316 Mobile Productions, MouseWait is the "highest rated Disneyland app in the history of the iPhone app store", and judging from the single metric of MouseWait's nearly 13,000 Twitter followers, I'd have to say that's an accurate statement.

Even MacWorld, a notoriously tough customer when it comes to doling out praise, calls MouseWait an "absolute must".

But no matter how clever the algorithm, no matter how current the user-supplied information, no app that claims to cut your wait times will ever be completely accurate. If you've been to Disney, you've seen for yourself how quickly lines can form and how, suddenly, they seem to start moving - or stop moving. The gold standard is 'substantially' accurate. MouseWait hits that standard, no sweat, and keeps getting better as it aggregates more data.

In addition to its core function, MouseWait has a slew of other useful features including restaurant menus, park tips, Facebook and Twitter link-ups, and real-time access to "all of the top Disney blogs". That last claim is dubious since I don't remember Disney Dispatch ever scrolling across a MouseWait screen. Maybe I'm a 'premium' feature.

One of the coolest things about the app is using it to watch live Disneyland cams whether you're in the park, at home, or waiting in line at the supermarket. (No app will help you with that kind of a line.)

For a free app, MouseWait packs impressive features. If I were visiting Disneyland, I'd download it in a flash. The future of information retrieval is tilting more toward mobile apps and MouseWait seems the clear leader in its niche.

Unfortunately, MouseWait is useful only for Disneyland visitors. For Disney World visitors, there's another iPhone app that provides similar information: Lines from industry stalwart Touring Plans. Unlike MouseWait, however, the full version of Lines is free only if you've first bought a subscription to TouringPlans.com.

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