These data scientists are disrupting Disney World's long wait times

Out there, beyond the anthropomorphic mice and never-ending queues is a man who is quietly trying to disrupt your next vacation to Disney’s Magic Kingdom. His name is Len Testa and his annual subscription-based service, Touring Plans, will predict how long you’ll wait at any ride, any time of day, any day of the year for $14.95—less than the price of a giant turkey leg and a Dole Whip.

With statisticians, programmers and data scientists among its eight full-time staff members and dozen part-time employees, Touring Plan upends trips to Disneyland, Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando resorts with customizable itineraries centered around how to smartly skip the lines at every single theme park. In addition to optimizing which time to board each attraction with its Touring Plans itinerary guides, their free-with-subscription app, Lines, says how long you’ll actually wait in every line, and the freakishly accurate Crowd Calendar recommends the best times to book a trip, even displaying how busy each theme park will be in advance.

Sounds more magical than the last time you met Cinderella in the sweltering Florida sun? Oh, it is. The various arms of Touring Plans are made possible due to its tour-de-force system, which harnesses 600 features and updates every few minutes to determine the most accurate wait times. Touring Plans goes beyond factoring in rudimentary information like Christmastime and special on-site events, adding data sets on everything from Jewish holidays to the hourly capacity impact caused by rides that are closed or temporarily broken down.

Instead of simply considering spring break, they pull information for the hundred largest K-12 public school systems in the country and pair it with data from the Orlando Visitor Convention Bureau on where families are visiting from to determine the true impact of schools being out of session on the theme parks.

Read More at:
https://www.popsci.com/touring-plan-app-disney-lines

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