Help!!! Ridemax!!

[aashaddy]

Ridemax seems a bit overwhelming for me! Any tips on making it work the best for my family? If going to the parks more than one day, is it best to do certain lands one day, then the rest the other?

 

[HydroGuy]

Ridemax seems a bit overwhelming for me! Any tips on making it work the best for my family? If going to the parks more than one day, is it best to do certain lands one day, then the rest the other?

I do not think so, unless your group has mobility issues (wheelchair, etc.). DL and DCA are not that big to justify doing sections of the park, IMO. Plus, RideMax tries to minimize your walking as well, since rides that are spread further apart take longer to get to. So it naturally groups rides that are closer together because that minimizes your time which is its goal.

You should just experiment with it, adding rides you would like to do.

 

[bouncy54]

I purchased Ridemax for our trip to DL in November. I don't know what would work best for your family, but I can tell you how we're going to use it our first day.

We won't be getting into the park until 3:00 PM on the Saturday we arrive, so I set up Ridemax for 3M arrival and 9:15 PM as our last ride because we want to take in the 2nd Fantasmic show if they have one that weekend. (I used Easter weekend as our dates because we're going over Veteran's Day weekend, so I figure the crowds will be about the same)

Fastpasses for Indy, Space Mt., and Splash Mt. will proabably be gone by the time we get to the park, so I entered Big Thunder, Pirates, Jungle Cruise, and Haunted Mansion into Ridemax as the attractions I want to ride. All of these are on the same side of the park. Ridemax says we should be able to get a Fastpass for Big Thunder right away, so that will be the first thing we do, and it also says that Pirates, Haunted Mansion and the Jungle Cruise should all be walk ons during the first showing of Fantasmic & during the Fireworks so that's when we'll do those...maybe even twice each.

During all the free time in between, we'll ride the train around the park, (I love the Dino scenes), and go on It's A Small World since it's a pretty fast people loader. We may go see Billy Hill & The Hillbillies too....maybe take a raft over to Tom Sawyer's Island. I would really like this first 1/2 day to be slow-paced because we're going to be pretty tired from traveling.

Personally...I would love to just sit by The Rivers of America and soak in the atmosphere.

Now...if DL is as crowded as it was last Veteran's Day and we can't get into the park, we have a Plan B to go over to DCA. According to Ridemax, we'll be able to get 1 Fastpass that late in the day for a major attraction, so it will probably be Tower of Terror. Plus we can get a Fastpass for Grizzly Rapids because it's Fastpass is not connected to the other Fastpass attractions. While we're waiting for our Fastpass time...we'll go see Aladdin, Crush Turtle Talk, It's Tough To Be A Bug, tour the bakery and tortilla factories, and watch the Electric Light Parade.

With Ridemax, you can enter your arrival time for the opening of the park and your last ride...say...at 12:00 PM. Then you can just enter one land's attractions for those 4 hours, or one side of the park. You can set up the time for as little as 1 hour too.

Don't be afraid to play with the software. I've probably entered at least 100 different schedules and am learning a lot from doing that...like patterns for wait times at attractions.

 

[aashaddy]

Thanks for the tips! I have exactly 41 days to play around with it!

 

[ozbrooke]

I would also suggest just playing around with it. I've even got a couple of different scenarios to take along with me - one that allows a lot of free time (so DS can see characters/just take it all in) and one that has more rides, so we can go with either depending on his moods for the day.

I'm loving the program and am really hoping it works b/c the estimated waits on it are really good!