I’m almost tempted to see if there’s an actual app that lets one walk around Disneyland using location-based data to augment the park. Of course, once that was installed, I’d be glued to my phone the entire visit because there’s just so much history – of animation and otherwise – saturating the Happiest Place on Earth. For now, I’ll have to be content with regular ol’ maps of the park. Not that I need them. I actually do know Disneyland like the back of my hand since I’ve visited there several times a year for the past couple of decades. The only theme park in the area that I could use a GPS at times is Knott’s Berry Farm, since I get turned around there whenever I make the annual trip to Knott’s Scary Farm during Halloween. But staring at a cellphone while walking through ghoul-infested mazes and haunted houses would probably run counter to all the scariness going on.
So how ’bout you? Are there theme parks you visit that you know like the back of your hand? Or do you need to pick up a park map every time you go ‘cuz you always make a wrong turn at the carousel?
lol. Now thats overkill
“overkill” is jefbot’s middle name, jf300! heheh.
and check you out – you just achieved the Shades of Firsting! wear them well – you’ll never make wrong turns again with these babies on:
😎
makes me afraid of teaming up with u when the zombie apocalypse arrives.
yeah, probably not a good idea, jf300. although i may be slightly more helpful on Z-day than jefbot would be.
haha. dont worry dude. i have your back.
sweeeet.
I’ve not seen an augmented reality app, but there are a couple of excellent apps for wait times! My favorite for both DL/DCA and WDW (separate subscriptions, sadly) is Lines from http://www.touringplans.com
i’ll give that one a try, DrRandy! currently, i use DL Waits, which is pretty good (and free, which is nice.) my buddy uses MouseWait, which he prefers but the info is usually about the same as the app i use.
Dont they have maps of that place which are easily understood by little kids or people with horrible maps skillz? I bet even I could find my way there…
yeah, the printed maps they give at the entrance are fairly easy to read, DAS, but that’s not bot’s style. 🙂
I actually went to Legoland in Denmark a few years back, only to realise that it was for kids age 2-5 or something that way, I was 12, so there was nothing to do except read historical things with my family… someone should really create a theme park for teenagers only. No parents, no little brats, just guys and girls hanging out! And we shall call it: “The Land of The Free Teenagers” Now THAT is an awesome business idea
heh. sounds like a good idea. do it, DAS! and i understand the disappointment you felt at Legoland. when one of those opened near me i was so excited, until i went and saw there wasn’t really anything to do unless you’re like 5 years old. some of the lego sculptures were pretty impressive though.
Oh, hey, it’s Christmasy holiday cheer theme! Nice. Makes up for my incomplete job of decorating. /lives in her office, how did this happen, how soul crushing D:
i think i’m gonna decorate my apartment today to get in the holiday spirit, Kate!
I used to know Six Flags in Jacksonvile NJ since I went once a year. But, I haven’t been there in about 10 years so I doubt I know it anymore.
I think you have something there with a map app for amusement parks. Personally I want one for Malls and Wal-Mart, I always get lost in Wal-Mart and the King of Prussia Mall.
yeah, i wonder how much the Six Flags over here has changed since the last time i was there about six years ago, TPC. i used to be hardcore into roller coasters, but now appreciate the more fantastical – but less extreme – atmosphere of a place like Disneyland.
ooh, a mall app’s a good idea! you’d think something like the KoP Mall would have one.
Good Morning BOTVilians and welcome to FRIDAY!!!!!!!!
Ok so i know they have an app that gives you the wait times of the rides at Disney World here in FL and I want to say that yes, it tells you how to get there. What ever happened to discovering things? For instance…I know that when I go to Disney I want to go to the Haunted Mansion first (My favorite ride, though it scared me pooless as a kid) because it gets WAY crowded. Enter the gates, pass the bridge to Cindy’s castle and make a left. It’s on your right.
Now, I haven’t been in YEARS! (It’s damned expensive! Even with the FL resident discounts) But I can pretty much guarantee that when I do get to go again, I;m going to the Haunted Mansion first. They’ve also reopened Fantasyland here in FL with 2 new castles! And 2 new Beauty and the Beast themed resturants. The new castles are Prince Eric’s and the Beast’s I need to see them before I’m too old to enjoy them.
You’re never too only for Disney
true, true.
morning, Pixie!
i do use an app – DL Waits – that’s pretty good for giving wait times at Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure, Pixie, but i’ll have to check to see if there are any mapping apps for the parks! if there is one, i’d use it more for Disney history lessons than using it for finding out how to get around the park, though, unlike bot in the strip. 🙂
and, yeah – expensive is right! the only reason i go like, every month or two is because i have an annual pass, so at this point it’s kind of cheap entertainment for me while i’m jobless. will definitely have to get more out of it before it expires in march!
I hadn’t been to an amusement park in YEARS – since the early 1990s I think. Then this summer I took Taranchilla to one in Denver. It was his first time going on real roller coasters. So no, there aren’t any I know like the back of my hand these days. However, when I was younger I knew Bush Gardens Williamsburg, Hersey Park, and Kings Dominion without a map.
My husband has an app on his phone that lets you take a picture of a trail map or whatever. You mark where you are at some intersection or other identifiable spot. Walk to another intersection and mark it, and then it becomes a functional map showing you where you are as you walk. It is quite cool.
ooh, there was a Busch Gardens in L.A. when i was a kid that i loved visiting, Shanna. lots of parrots flying around and tours on how they make beer. heheh. then they moved it to Florida, i think.
and that map app your hubby has sounds awesome. hoping to hike more now that i’m in the neighborhood more. i think i’m gonna have to buy that app for my treks around the hollywood hills. 🙂
Cedar Point is my theme park of choice. America’s roller coast! I’ve only been there 5 or 6 times but I run around there enough while visiting that its easy.
i’ll have to check out Cedar Point if i’m ever in the neighborhood, dj! Magic Mountain out here has some great coasters but it’s kind of a blah park otherwise.
its a great place for roller coaster enthusiasts. I think we’re up to 10 and they are opening another at the start of next season.
I want to say that Disney has put out an app for an “augmented experience” at their parks, but I’m not sure. Wouldn’t surprise me. I think there was a thing with phones for a interactive Kim Possible mystery type thing a few years ago though.
i’ll definitely have to check it out, GG11. i’m sure it would annoy my friends if my face was stuck to my iPhone the whole time, though. if there is an app, i might just have to sneak down to Disneyland by myself one day with my iPad.
I go to Dorney Park in Allentown, Pa at least twice a year and generally go to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Va. annually. Unfortunately, I was forced to forgo my trip to Busch Gardens this year due to expenses with buying my new Windstar. My favorite rooler coaster in Dorney Park is the Hydra. In Busch Gardens it’s the Alpengeist. Usually, I make a beeline for those upon arriving at the park. I know how to navigate both these parks without the aid of maps. However, maps are still helpful if the parks contain new additions.
i have favorite rides i always make a beeline for, too, Rainey: Radiator Springs for California Adventure, Space Mountain or Indiana Jones when at Disneyland, Viper at Magic Mountain and Ghostrider at Knott’s Berry Farm. enjoy your new Windstar! 🙂
A generation of hopeless idiots. No offense, Bot.
uh… none taken, i guess? although you do realize this strip is created for humor, yes?
LOL! That short cut always confuses me too! …and I spent a summer workin’ it there! Great job as always Jefbot! LOVE Disneyland!!!
that’s the only place in the park that confuses me, FunnyShaffer! sometimes i’ll think i’m going around that curve where Thunder Mountain is, then all of a sudden i’m where the old Country Bear Jamboree used to be! i think i’ve got it down now, though. 🙂
A good app would be one that not only shows your way around the park you’re visiting, but more importantly, where the lines are currently the shortest. Besides, obviously, for the rides everybody avoids after they tried it once.
But maybe those lines i keep talking about aren’t as long for the popular rides in the USA as they are in here…
i use an app that shows the shortest lines at Disneyland/California Adventure, dralou – it’s called DL Waits, although there are a ton of others. doesn’t have maps on it though, sadly. and you have it right – the popular rides have CRAZY long lines in the U.S.. there’s a ride called Radiator Springs Racers that opened recently and the wait times are super long unless you get there early or go in the single rider line.
Nope, theme parks arent our thing in Slovakia. More like visiting museums set up in still standing castles and palaces.
Maybe Skanzen can be considered theme park, it is outdoor museum of buildings mostly living houses old several hundred years moved from whole country to few locations. They are furnished and You can walk in and just explore how people used to live.
Or just go look for beauty of nature were lucky to have lots of it.
i love southern california but i’d love it even more if it had real medieval castles and palaces, Maryz! i went to Scotland when i graduated high school and visiting the castles there was an amazing experience. fortunately, the beauty of nature is pretty close here, too. 🙂
I think you have pissed off the Deity of Directions somehow. (Sent from Moscow)
i think so, too, G.L. Sytnos. or maybe bot’s praising the Deity of Directions too much?
and hello to Moscow from the States! always love seeing where BOTreaders are reading.
an App to guide you through Disneyland? be careful what you wish (upon a star) for….
seriously! i’m sure it would be more trouble than it’s worth, Maesonic. but still… i might wish upon that star just because.
I can just imagine the Disneyland app, with optional Goofy alert:
“You are 94 feet from the entrance to Big Thunder Mountain . . . You are standing in line . . . You are still standing in line . . . You are standing in li–Recalculating . . . recalculating . . . HYUCK, HYUK!!! You are 92 feet from the entrance to Big Thunder Mountain. . . You are standing in line . . . “
okay, maybe i need to rethink this Disneyland app thing, Sarah W…
I don’t understand how people don’t remember where what rides are where in Disneyland, but then again I had to go every year for summer camp. I’M MY OWN DISNEY GPS.
there’s only one part of Disneyland where i get turned around sometimes Nat – it’s right after you pass Pirates of the Caribbean: if you continue on, you go to Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain and Winnie the Poo. if you go right you go to Thunder Mountain then back around to Fantasyland. i think i get mixed up cuz i expect Splash Mountain to be in the same area as Thunder Mountain. the way it’s kind of off on its own confuses my brain’s sorting mechanism.
The two “major” amusement parks in Indiana are Indiana Beach and Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari. (There are a few other, smaller parks as well.) I haven’t been to either of them as they are too far away.
The last theme park that I can remember going to was a very small one on the coast near the 101 back in the early 1970s. It was one of those places where strange phenomena supposedly occurs.(i.e. stuff rolls “uphill” and things “stand” on their own on a supposedly “tilted” surface, etc.) I rather doubt that it’s still there.
Okay, I did some research (Google is indeed our friend!) and found it. It’s theMystery Spot in Santa Cruz. I must admit that I’m rather surprised that it’s still open. (And, yes, I got the road wrong. It’s Highway 1, not 101. it was 40 years ago. Sue me.)
that Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari looks fun, r61! i haven’t been to a water park in soooOooo long. used to love ’em, especially when some of the ones out here had arcades.
and i’ve never been to the Mystery Spot, but there is a place called Gravity Hill in the Valley that i went to a couple times in high school that employs the same illusion.
I can navigate the Oshkosh Wisconsin Airventure EAA fly-in like it’s the back of my hand.
hmmm. sounds like an interesting park, Drakey. next time i’m in Wisconsin i’ll have to check it out.
I’ve only been to a park a couple times. So I usually grab a park map, or wander around and do whatever catches my fancy at the time. But when it comes to fun, I only worry about where I am if I need to meet someone at a specific time.
what kind of amusement parks does Alaska have, T? do you guys have rollercoasters out there? i’ll go out on a limb and say you don’t have water parks. 🙂
Believe it or not, the only amusement park I can think of in all of Alaska /is/ a water park. Indoor, of course, or we’d all die horrible deaths every year. We don’t really do the amusement park thing; too cold to have them outdoors, and with earthquakes, it’s not usually a good idea to have buildings big enough for a proper park. So I grew up in a world where amusement parks were something we saw on TV.
ha! i never would’a guessed you had a water park, T! that’s awesome. 😀
I find it funny that even with all the fancy high tech directions Jefbot ended up in the wrong part of the park.
That does sadly remind me of a lady I saw when I was there. She was in front of me on The Haunted Mansion and was constantly on her phone texting. Everytime I saw her she was looking at the phone. Why do people do that?! She’s missing out on a great ride because she can’t wait four minutes to respond to a text!
Sorry, I started to rant there but managed to stop myself early.
and it’s annoying when these people are so busy looking at their phones while they’re in line for a ride that they don’t realize everyone is moving ahead while they’re holding up the line, GB! i have to bite my tongue whenever someone does this so i don’t yell “MOVE!” and scare all the kids in the area.
How complex can theme parks get? I remember going out with my family and we ended up on the other end of this area when we were supposed to be in an entirely different area. heheh. Good times.
yeah, getting lost in a theme park can be fun unto itself, ROM!
Good heavens, NO! I’ve never been to Disneyland, but gone to Disney World several times (lucky us!!!). We don’t even take our phones with us! And is not because they wouldn’t work in the USa, out cell phone plan works in the USA as well (a brother of mine does a lot of business abroad so we DO need to make sure he can make his phone calls). It’s just, is vacation, man! Don’t call me if I don’t call you!
The whole idea of going into one of these parks is to forget the screwed up world with live in 24/7! We decide where are we going, until what time we’re staying and where and when we’ll get back together. We get vacations of our phones when we go to the parks >_<
i have to get back to Disney World, JCB, as it’s been a loooong time since the last time i visited. i really want to get back there to check out the Harry Potter world at Universal Orlando, too! chances are, i’ll be bringing my phone with me, though. 😉