The Apps

I was excited when Apple opened its app store. In my opinion the app store is the biggest cash cow since the iPod – iTunes release. Over one billion apps have been downloaded. There is an app for everything. If you can name it, there is a chance that an app has been developed for it.

There are an ever growing number of Disney World / Disney Land applications that have been released for use with the iPhone and iPod Touch. I’ll say up front that a majority of these apps are average at best and could easily be replaced by a better app.

The first group of apps are what I call the map apps. They are basically a crummy map of one of the parks or areas with some info on them. The maps themselves are rather ugly. They could stand to be sharper and cleaner in appearance. On the maps are points of interest. They include shops, restaurants, and attractions. When you click on one it will bring up some information. The information is very limited. You can use a link from there to get more info but it will take you online to wikkipedia or allears.net.

There is a somewhat hidden feature that is possibly the best feature on the map apps. If you click the “more” button another button will appear at the top that says calendar. This will bring up a full calendar for the next three months. This feature alone might make it worth the 99 cents for each map.

There are a lot of places where this app could be improved. One – a better looking map. Two – have better descriptions and don’t require internet access for it. Three add ride reviews. Four have a weather forecast included.

A step up from those apps are the Notecast apps. The two I will mention are the WDW Secrets and the WDW Guide. The Secrets has a lot of great information on it. A good portion of the things they mention I’d never heard of before. The Guide is good. It has a lot of information on a lot of different subjects. It also has a bunch of photos too. Both apps are only 99 cents through iTunes.

Now that the other apps are out of the way we can talk about the best Disney app available right now. By far the best Disney app is WDW Dining. This app is easily worth five dollars but they only charge 99 cents for it. This app is amazing. It gives detailed information about every place you can get food in Walt Disney World. It includes price points, full menus, item prices, dining plan participation, locations, and descriptions. Beyond the info this app includes an amazing search function. It lets you search by location. I mean any location. Every single park and resort is listed separately. If you don’t know where the place is located you can search by name too. Once you’ve found the place you want you can click one button to dial Disney Dining to make a reservation. They only way this app could be better, is if it included reviews.

I think this is a prime market. I think that there are a lot of good Disney apps waiting to be built. More and more are being developed and released on a weekly basis. I’m very surprised that Disney hasn’t done more with the app store yet. I also think that this is an amazing opportunity for some of the members of the Disney community to develop some amazing things.