App Helps Universal Orlando Visitors Beat The Queues

Theme Park Nerd has announced the release and immediate availability of Universal Guide, an application for the iPhone and iPod touch which helps users to make the most out of their visit to Universal Orlando.

The app provides detailed information on all of the rides, attractions and facilities at Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and Universal CityWalk. What's more, you can view live wait time information direct from the resort and even set up notifications so that you're alerted when your favourite rides drop below a specified queue time. It can also show you your position on a map, display everything nearby and generate sat-nav like directions to any item on park.

"We like to think of Universal Guide as a park map on steroids"said Mark Locker, founder of Theme Park Nerd. "It's like having your own personal guide, right in your pocket. Being able to list everything around you sorted by distance is incredibly useful. When you couple that with wait time information and maps, you've got something really powerful."


With the app you can set wait notifications which alert the user when a ride's wait time drops below the specified duration. "Say your favourite ride is Revenge of the Mummy, you can ask Universal Guide to alert you when the queue is less than 20 minutes, for example. This is going to help people avoid long queues and will genuinely enhance their day", explains Mark.

Everything from roller coasters and eating places to restrooms and ATMs are included and users can filter items by various categories. There's also a 'manual locations' mode for iPod touch users, which allows you to manually set your position in order to take advantage of the location based features. "We want to deliver a better park visiting experience to as many people as possible. That's why we've worked hard to implement a way for iPod touch users to still be able to take advantage of the location-aware features of the app."

Universal Guide features the newly launched area in Islands of Adventure - The Wizarding World of Harry Potter(TM), and all future updates to the park will be delivered seamlessly over the air.

Here's a full list of Universal Guide's features:
* View real live wait time information direct from the resort
* Set wait time alerts (push notifications)
* View your location on a map
* Display rides, attractions and facilities nearby
* Get intelligent, sat-nav like directions to any ride, attraction or facility
* Create an itinerary for your day with the inbuilt day planner
* Sort your itinerary by queue time or category
* Search through items
* Filter items by category
* View photos of rides, attractions and facilities
* View detailed ride descriptions, histories and specifications
* View the height restrictions for rides
* See what facilities a ride has, such as on-ride photos or property storage
* Use the location based features even if you don't have a GPS capable device with 'manual locations' mode
* Receive automatic wireless updates, bringing you the latest park info seamlessly


Pricing and Availability:
Universal Orlando Guide 2.2 is priced at $1.99/£1.19/1,59 Euro and available worldwide exclusively on the App Store in the Travel category.

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