As a theme park enthusiast and a self-hosting nerd, I decided to combine my two passions by integrating theme park wait times into my Home Assistant setup. This project has been a fantastic way to visualize park data in my living room, and I’d love to share my journey with you!
Phase 1: Setting Up the Basics
My goal was to create a rotating dashboard displaying wait times for my local park. I used the Queue Times API to pull real-time data and set up sensors in my configuration.yaml. Each park and attraction is represented by a sensor, making it easy to expand to other parks.
Here’s a snippet of how I structured the sensors:
yaml
sensor:
- platform: rest
resource: https://queue-times.com/parks/7/queue_times.json
name: “Theme Park Wait Times”
value_template: “{{ value_json[0].wait_time }}”
I also created a basic dashboard using Wall Panel to rotate between different parks. It’s been a great way to keep an eye on wait times without leaving the house!
Phase 2: Expanding Functionality
Once the data was in Home Assistant, I wanted to do more with it. I set up a Combine helper to calculate average wait times across parks, which I then visualized using History Graph cards. This was especially helpful when planning trips to Universal Orlando Resort and comparing wait times between parks.
I also explored mobile notifications to alert me when it was a good day to visit. While I ran into some challenges with calculating historical averages, I’m excited to refine this further!
Challenges and Next Steps
- Manual Setup: Adding a new park requires a lot of copy-pasting and adjusting sensor configurations. I’d love to find a way to automate this process!
- Graph Anomalies: My graphs occasionally show strange spikes. I’m curious if there’s a setting or adjustment I’m missing to smooth these out.
- Entity Bloat: With over 500 sensors, I’m wondering if there’s a smarter way to organize or compartmentalize these entities without sacrificing functionality.
If anyone has tips on automating sensor setup, improving graph accuracy, or managing entity bloat, I’d love to hear them! This project has been a rewarding way to merge my hobbies, and I’m excited to see how others might expand on it.
Thanks for reading, and I hope this inspires someone to try something fun with their Home Assistant setup!