Anyone tried RideMax?

[DHM]

I have read some good things about it. What have been your experiences? Has it helped? Is it easy to navigate? Worth the money? I apologize if this has already been discussed. Thanks!

 

[DHM]

Bump Anyone know about RideMax?

 

[gigi1313]

what is it? where is it?

 

[Becky_Boop]

http://www.ridemax.com/
I believe this is what you are talking about.

Never done it, but here's a link for those who need info on it.

 

[gigi1313]

interesting... thanks for sharing

 

[DHM]

So is it so new that no one on the boards has tried it? We are going in November and 2 of us have never been and 2 of us have been, so we are just trying to get the edge. Maybe you guys are so experienced you do not need it. I think I may try it, so I will report back.

 

[Selket]

I bought a short subscription (3 months?) to it before our trip in April. I had heard about it from the Tour Guide Mike boards and it sounded interesting and I was interested in comparing the two types of touring plans. I've used TGM for awhile now so very familar with it.

I was really surprised at some of the recommendations it gave. I can't really say what the TGM tour plan is to give you a comparison but I entered that I was arriving at park opening and wanted to do all the Fantasyland rides and then some of the other big rides (Splash, BTMRR, etc). It had me going to Fantasyland first - which was fine - but riding TEACUPS for gosh sakes! It has been my experience that Dumbo is the hardest thing to ride in Fantasyland - gets the longest line the quickest. Let's just say that if I've busted the backside of myself and my family to get to the MK at a 7am Spring Break early opening I am NOT going to Teacups first.

It would also do some weird things like have big breaks between rides or having me wait in line for 40 min to an hour for some of the thrillers. Frankly with TGM I've never waited that long.

I'll add that I bought it right when it came out for WDW and they may have made some adjustments to it. I thought it was pretty cool actually and I'd probably buy it again just to play with it - but I enjoy trip planning

 

[finnster77]

I bought a short subscription last summer because we had never been to the MK before, and it was peak season. It was worth it, and it was fun to play with. You simply tell the program what time you want to arrive and which attractions you want to take in, and it gives you a touring plan. (the estimated wait times were very accurate, and sometimes the wait was even shorter) If you don't like what you see, you can try the same combo again and many times it will be a little different.

That being said, I don't think that it's anything that an MK veteran with a little common sense couldn't come up with on their own. I probably won't subscribe again, now that I've been there.

 

[RideMax Mark]

Hi, I'm Mark Winters, the author of RideMax. I don't intend to make a habit of commenting on threads like this, because I'm sure the OP is really interested in hearing from "real people" using RideMax. Given that the WDW version of RideMax is so new though, I thought a few comments might be helpful.

We actually just relocated to Orlando in July, so RideMax plans will continue to evolve based on our observations in the parks. So for Selket, yes, we've made a number of changes since you used the program back in April.

As an example, just today I visited Epcot and observed some changes to the way in which Disney is operating the Turtle Talk attraction. These changes should make it easier to see Crush without waiting more than 10-15 minutes, and the nice thing is that we should have RideMax updated later this evening to reflect these changes. That's one advantage of actually living here now and doing RideMax as a full-time job. We should be able to keep much more current with the various changes in the parks.

With regard to those long wait time estimates you saw on some of those plans, my advice is that anytime you use RideMax and come up with a plan you're not thrilled with, keep tweaking things until you are happy. I had relatives in town last week who wanted to go to the MK, and it probably took us 45 minutes of playing with RideMax the night before to finally come up with a plan we thought would work well for us. (And the visit to the park the next day was fantastic!)

The one thing I wanted to point out which, believe it or not, was NOT a mistake, is that "Teacups first" thing that Selket also mentioned. I know I'm probably going to get laughed right off the DIS for this, but there really is a reason for that one!

You're probably wondering how is it that on one of the busiest weeks of the year (Easter week), RideMax would go against all of the "common wisdom" out there and recommend visiting the Teacups BEFORE Dumbo?

What a lot of folks don't realize is just how date-specific a RideMax plan is. When you use RideMax, you first select the date of your visit. So a RideMax plan created for a summer visit will differ substantially from a plan created for the fall. And even from one day to the next during the same week, you'll see variations in the plans, depending on the parade schedule or Extra Magic Hours (EMH) days that week.

This "date-specificness" is also coming into play with the plan which Selket mentioned, created for Easter week. The exact date of this plan was on an EMH day when the park opened at 7am for EMH guests, during a week when the Magic Kingdom hosted the EMH every day of the week. The MK even shared the morning EMH with another park on some of those days. The net results of this "aggressive" EMH schedule at the MK were extremely light crowds during the 7am EMH hour that particular week, and that is what RideMax assumed in this case.

Just how light were those EMH crowds? Well, on Monday of that week, as I walked by the Dumbo line at 8:15am, more than ONE HOUR after the EMH began, Dumbo STILL had just a one-cycle wait of about 5 minutes. And the same thing happened last Christmas week as well (when the EMH schedule was similar). In fact, I still remember visiting the MK the morning after Christmas, coming into Adventureland at 8:15, and seeing absolutely NOBODY in line for the Aladdin ride. The CM's staffing the attraction were just standing there waiting for someone – anyone – to show up! I literally laughed out loud when I saw that, since it was so opposite to what I was expecting during the busiest week of the year!

My point is that this plan which recommended visiting the Teacups first was only intended for use on this specific date, when it really wouldn't make too much difference if you rode Dumbo first, or the Teacups first, or stood on your head in front of the castle for 15 minutes and counted strollers first. The crowds were so low during the 7am EMH that you could almost roll the dice and end up with the same overall wait time any way you looked at it. RideMax still had a small "bias" to do Dumbo early, but this bias wasn't nearly as strong as it would be on a more "normal" day, when the crowds for Dumbo build much more quickly.

So, on a more "normal" day, such as today, by all means yes, do Dumbo first! On this particular date back in April, though, you might have actually had more fun doing as RideMax suggested and visiting the Teacups first, while everyone else headed to Dumbo.

(And who knows, that souvenir photo of your family all alone on the Teacups might have made for some nice memories someday!)

Of course, if anyone does use RideMax and has questions about the plans it produces, please feel free to email me directly and ask!

Regards,
Mark Winters
RideMax

 

[peachgirl]

I've only used ridemax for Disneyland and it was wonderful! Also, they were extremely prompt when responding to questions we had using it.

It's amazing how accurate they are on wait times etc...made the trip much less stressful.

I thought I knew way too much about WDW to need ridemax, however my guess is I would have saved the first 2 days of our park time had I gone ahead and purchased it. If it's as accurate as the DL version, it would have known what a nightmare emh would be for the week we were there!

And it's fun to play with to boot!

 

[donnahead]

Mark, When will you be updating Ridemax to reflect the reduced Mk hours (closing from 11 to 10) on August 11th and 12th? I'm leaving Tuesday morning, and cannot finalize my plan for these days because they still reflect an 11:00 closing.

Thanks.

 

[OhhBother]

Any chance you're going to have a Mac version of the software?

There are lots of us Mac users out here!

Amy

 

[RideMax Mark]

Mark, When will you be updating Ridemax to reflect the reduced Mk hours (closing from 11 to 10) on August 11th and 12th?

Consider it done. You should see the new closing time the next time you use RideMax.

Also note that if you've used RideMax to create your Epcot plans, if they include Turtle Talk, Mission:Space, or the Living with the Land Boat ride, I recommend creating new plans instead. (I mentioned the changes to Turtle Talk in my post above; the changes for Mission:Space and Living with the Land are due to some major FASTPASS tweaking Disney's been doing there recently.)

Have fun!

Mark Winters
RideMax

 

[donnahead]

Thanks for the update Mark, now I can finalize my plans.