? combining ridemax and hydroguy tips

[My3SonsandMaya]

I posted earlier about my upcoming 2 day trip. I am trying to use the best of the best to maximize our first trip to DL. Ridemax keeps telling me to start out in tomorrowland but many of you have said that on a thursday, with non ee, we should go clockwise around the park.

My three sons are HUGE star wars fans so we want to be at the first showing of Jedi Training Academy. Do you think this is a doable schedule:

Grab Indy FP, ride BTMRR, Ride Pirates, GEt splash FP, jungle cruise, ride Indy, HM, Winnie the Pooh, ride splash then high tail it over to the Jedi Training. While we are waiting for that show to start I will grab a SM fp.

Do all those rides sound doable before 10:30 a.m. if we are there when the park opens?

 

[SunDevilDaddy]

There are a couple of ways you can unconventionally use ridemax and make sure to visit the areas you want during certain times of the day.

The simplest way is to break you day into different "trips" in ridemax.

Set the hours for park opening to noon, then select all the rides in the specific areas you think you can get done in that time (Adventureland, Critter Country, Frontierland...etc).

Then set your desired free times and make sure that corresponds with the jedi training academy you would like to attend.

Now submit it to ridemax and it will develop a schedule for you based on the rides/lands you have chosen.

Repeat the process from noon to closing for the remainder of the park.

This way ridemax is still creating an itinerary that allows you the most ride experience with the least amount of waiting. But you control what areas to start each time block in.

The other way gives you a lot of freedom and flexibility to tour the park your own way and without a schedule but it requires a lot more work on your part. Using this method you will be able to create a spreadsheet that helps you to estimate the wait times for each individual ride on an hourly basis.

First open a new document in excel
In column A1 type "Ride"
In column B1 type "Land"
In column C1 type "Length"
Now in columns D1-T1 type 8am - 12am assigning each column a time of day.
Next in rows A2-A42 type in each individual ride name as it appears in ridemax
Now you have a simple spreadsheet you can fill in with ride times throughout the day.
Here comes the tricky part.

Open ridemax and set your date at the park.
Select the hours in the park as 8am to 9am. (be sure to use no breaks)
Select the first ride on ridemax's list (Alice) and enter it 3 times into your agenda. (the reason being is that you have to enter a minimum of 3 rides and if you type in 3 seperate rides ridemax will attempt to eliminate the most waiting and will not give you a reflection of the wait at that exact hour).
Now click on create my itinerary.
Whatever wait it shows for 8am - enter into D2 on your spreadsheet.
Now repeat this process each hour throughout the day. (Note: at times during peak hours ridemax will inform you that you do not have enough time to create a plan. Adjust the hour from 11-12 to 11-12:15 and you should be able to get an itinerary that gives you the wait times on the hour.)
Once you have the wait times for Alice entered repeat the process with the next ride.

When you are all done, you will be able to quickly check your spreadsheet for advice on what rides have low wait times at that hour, etc etc.


We used a combination of both on our last trip. Essentially I let ridemax create our itinerary for the mornings and used the spreadsheets in the afternoons to base our decisions on. We had a good and relaxed time and still managed to ride everything with never more than a 15 minute wait. This was in June (peak season).

I hope either of these techniques help you to plan the best DLR trip ever!

 

[CanadianPaco]

Excellent advice!!!! I've been modifying my times this way! I get to test it out next month!

 

[Hound 109]

I posted earlier about my upcoming 2 day trip. I am trying to use the best of the best to maximize our first trip to DL. Ridemax keeps telling me to start out in tomorrowland but many of you have said that on a thursday, with non ee, we should go clockwise around the park.

My three sons are HUGE star wars fans so we want to be at the first showing of Jedi Training Academy. Do you think this is a doable schedule:

Grab Indy FP, ride BTMRR, Ride Pirates, GEt splash FP, jungle cruise, ride Indy, HM, Winnie the Pooh, ride splash then high tail it over to the Jedi Training. While we are waiting for that show to start I will grab a SM fp.

Do all those rides sound doable before 10:30 a.m. if we are there when the park opens?

For a non-computer generated opinion , i'll offer mine. I like your plan & would tweak it as follows:

- Pick up Indy FP. (while family is strolling over to....
- BMTR (I like riding this one first, if no line at ending, ride it again)
- Pirates.
- HM
- Ride or pick up FP for Splash (OR BOTH).
- Pooh (note - you can ride pooh first if you're too early for Splash FP).
- Pooh Bakery Ride Dump. (Hey, you all got up early. You're hungry & there are fresh pastries, cookies, tigger tails etc. It's only 9:30am, there's no crowd, & it's pretty back in Critter Country. )
- If you need to "high tail it" over to Jedi at this time, do so. If you are early (or have time) both JC & Star Tours are kind of on the way (& normally aren't crowded early) both take about 20 min.

Note: if you haven't seen my thread on Jedi, let me know & I'll link it.

I'd be curious if the results from SunDevilDaddy's suggested tweaking of the Max results in anything similar. (& If it recommends picking up a White Chocolate/Macadamia Nut/Coconut Cookie & a Tigger Tail at Pooh's bakery) before or after Pooh, ....then that software program has got its act together & I'm subscribing.

But most importantly....the fact that you're planning, & the fact that you're planning on getting to DL early, puts you ahead of most folks & I'm sure you're gonna have a great time.

Let us know how it goes.

hound

 

[My3SonsandMaya]

Sounds great, I'm glad to know from the experts here, that I'm on the right track. Hound, I have read your post, in detail, for the Jedi Training, the boys are SOOO excited. TIgger tails sound GGGGRRRREEEEAAAT! And I can't wait to have one.

If anyone has any advice for the order of rides for after the Jedi Training I would love to hear them. I plan on getting SM fastpass while we are waiting for jedi, than after Jedi we want to do SM, star tours, buzz.

Thanks for your help, I will let everyone know how the actual day turns out, only NINE more days, woo hoo doing the single digit dance here.

 

[Hound 109]

Thanks for sharing that ridemax example, SunDevilDaddy. I gonna get ride max before my next trip. That down to the minute detail would take my disney obsession to the 4th dimension.

& I like.

I figure I can insert tigger tail purchases & FP pickups into the itinerary with minimal disruption to the schedule.

But....I still would do Big Thunder (instead of JC) first. JC is a nice sit down ride either right before Jedi or right after it & at 9:40 ish (or even 11ish) I doubt it would have much of a line.

JC, the treehouse & Pirate's Lair might be good things to consider after Jedi.

(or IASW & Toon Town). & if RR line is 15 min. or less, go standby. It's a GREAT Que (how do i spell que?).

AND I WANNA SEE TIGGER TAIL PICS.


hound -

 

[michelleh1]

bumping this older thread. can someone tell me about how long it would take to input the data into a spreadsheet for each day? thanks!!

The other way gives you a lot of freedom and flexibility to tour the park your own way and without a schedule but it requires a lot more work on your part. Using this method you will be able to create a spreadsheet that helps you to estimate the wait times for each individual ride on an hourly basis.

First open a new document in excel
In column A1 type "Ride"
In column B1 type "Land"
In column C1 type "Length"
Now in columns D1-T1 type 8am - 12am assigning each column a time of day.
Next in rows A2-A42 type in each individual ride name as it appears in ridemax
Now you have a simple spreadsheet you can fill in with ride times throughout the day.
Here comes the tricky part.

Open ridemax and set your date at the park.
Select the hours in the park as 8am to 9am. (be sure to use no breaks)
Select the first ride on ridemax's list (Alice) and enter it 3 times into your agenda. (the reason being is that you have to enter a minimum of 3 rides and if you type in 3 seperate rides ridemax will attempt to eliminate the most waiting and will not give you a reflection of the wait at that exact hour).
Now click on create my itinerary.
Whatever wait it shows for 8am - enter into D2 on your spreadsheet.
Now repeat this process each hour throughout the day. (Note: at times during peak hours ridemax will inform you that you do not have enough time to create a plan. Adjust the hour from 11-12 to 11-12:15 and you should be able to get an itinerary that gives you the wait times on the hour.)
Once you have the wait times for Alice entered repeat the process with the next ride.

When you are all done, you will be able to quickly check your spreadsheet for advice on what rides have low wait times at that hour, etc etc.

 

[S. S. Columbia]

bumping this older thread. can someone tell me about how long it would take to input the data into a spreadsheet for each day? thanks!!

I think it would take an hour to get the data for DL, and another hour to get the data for DCA.

But IMO you really wouldn't need to make a separate spreadsheet for each day.

The wait times are fairly close from day to day, although you'll need to understand that there are differences between Magic Morning days and non-MM days

HTH

 

[Dobie]

I figure I can insert tigger tail purchases & FP pickups into the itinerary with minimal disruption to the schedule.

hound -

Dear Hound:

Ridemax actually tells you when to pick up FPs and how long it will take. So all you have to worry about are Tigger Tails!!

 

[HydroGuy]

Dear Hound:

Ridemax actually tells you when to pick up FPs and how long it will take. So all you have to worry about are Tigger Tails!!

I am sure he knows that. But many of us RM users are more aggessive about FP pickups than RM itineraries. Just to stay ahead of the game.

 

[michelleh1]

I think it would take an hour to get the data for DL, and another hour to get the data for DCA.

But IMO you really wouldn't need to make a separate spreadsheet for each day.

The wait times are fairly close from day to day, although you'll need to understand that there are differences between Magic Morning days and non-MM days

HTH

well, I've started my spreadsheet but I'm not finished yet. I'm 2 hours into DL. I'm thinking it will be 2-3/4 hours by the time I'm finished. then I need to do DCA. definitely longer than I planned on. I really hope it's worth it to have the spreadsheets with us on our trip.

 

[S. S. Columbia]

well, I've started my spreadsheet but I'm not finished yet. I'm 2 hours into DL. I'm thinking it will be 2-3/4 hours by the time I'm finished. then I need to do DCA. definitely longer than I planned on. I really hope it's worth it to have the spreadsheets with us on our trip.

It's not just about having the spreadsheets; it's also about taking the time to learn about the rides.

I think you'll be glad you did.

 

[HydroGuy]

well, I've started my spreadsheet but I'm not finished yet. I'm 2 hours into DL. I'm thinking it will be 2-3/4 hours by the time I'm finished. then I need to do DCA. definitely longer than I planned on. I really hope it's worth it to have the spreadsheets with us on our trip.

For me it is totally worth it on busy days. If you are fortunate to visit on a light crowd day I suspect you will conclude it was not worth it.

An anecdotal story to clarify what I mean...

Last summer I was at DLR with all four of my kids, one niece, one nephew and one of my kids' girlfriend. So I toured with seven - count 'em - seven teenagers that day - all good kids and we had a truck load of fun.

DS18 and his GF wanted to see Mickey at Mickey's house. The others did not want to see Mickey. They wanted to ride Star Tours. Star Tours makes me feel sick and I decided it was good time to hop into DCA and get FPs for Soarin Over CA.

So... I sent DS18 and his GF to Toontown to see Mickey and told him (based on my RM inspired spreadsheet) the wait would be X minutes that day at 9:30AM. I sent the others to Star Tours and told them the wait would be Y minutes. And I headed for DCA and knew it would take me 15-20 minutes to get there and back to Star Tours. We all planned to meet at Star Tours afterwards.

DS18 and GF got to Mickey's house and called me because the line was really long and asked me if he should still wait. At this time I was walking into DCA. I told him RM was pretty good with wait time data and they should stick it out.

Turns out RM was right on with wait times for Mickey's House and they got to see Mickey right when they expected. I got back to Star Tours from DCA right when the other kids got out and, knowing DS18 and GF were still in Toontown waiting for Mickey, judged we had time to ride Buzz LY thru standby before they got back. Why? Because RM said the Buzz line would be like 5 minutes and we could visually see Buzz from Star Tours and see the line was very short. So we rode Buzz and as were coming off the ride DS18 and GF were just getting back from Toontown.

RM's predictions allowed me to tell DS18 how long his wait would be, allowed them to judge if that was worth it to them in order to see Mickey (it was), allowed them to know how long Mickey's line was without having to walk all the way back to Toontown, allowed me to have enough time to get Soarin FPs because I knew how long ST would take for other kids, and finally allowed us to get in an extra ride on Buzz LY. All because we had a pretty good idea of how long the wait times were according to RM.

Here is a dummy copy of what my RM spreadsheet looks like for DL (Note data below is not real RM data).

 

[gethane]

You people have warped me. I spent hours and hours happily doing this the other day. It was like a video game. In fact, trying to figure out the 'perfect' schedule reminded me of an old nintendo game where the player scheduled flights for an airline in and out of an airport.

 

[Mouse13]

You people have warped me. I spent hours and hours happily doing this the other day. It was like a video game. In fact, trying to figure out the 'perfect' schedule reminded me of an old nintendo game where the player scheduled flights for an airline in and out of an airport.

Same here. I'm in the middle of building my Ridemax hour by hour grid right now. It's crazy but fun at the same time! Wasting my life away.......but only for Disney.........

 

[Karenann*]

I am just waiting for RM to get up July data. First time we've gone in peak and need all the tools we can to make sure we stay one step ahead of those crowds! Thanks for the pic and tutorial!

 

[Aust]

I love planning like this...my sister and I both work as production planners and are going to DL together in Jan, so we are already getting down to the fine detail! Others think we are crazy...but we think it's fun, and coming all the way from Australia we want to maximise our time.

 

[Hound 109]

Originally posted by HydroGuy:

RM's predictions allowed me to tell DS18 how long his wait would be, allowed them to judge if that was worth it to them in order to see Mickey (it was), allowed them to know how long Mickey's line was without having to walk all the way back to Toontown, allowed me to have enough time to get Soarin FPs because I knew how long ST would take for other kids, and finally allowed us to get in an extra ride on Buzz LY. All because we had a pretty good idea of how long the wait times were according to RM.

All of this is very informative HG......but you failed to provide the most important piece of information.....

.......so who scored the highest on Buzz??

 

[donmil723]

OK. I'm building my Ridemax Spreadsheet because I couldn't figure out how to decide which day to do what rides. We will be there Sunday, June 6 through Wednesday, June 9 leaving Thursday, June 10 in the morning. Our flight arrives at LAX at 9:35 a.m. and we have reserved an Execucar through Super Shuttle. There will be 4 of us (all adults) and the car just seats 5 so I'm thinking (hoping) it will be just us. Hopefully, we will be at VGC by noon and into the parks by 2 p.m. I want to do the Aladdin show on Sunday since that is the only day it is showing while we are there.

Three questions from a Ridemax and DL newbie:

1. When building the spreadsheet, I don't worry about FPs, right? I would just use Hydroguy's FP tips later when I'm putting my own itinerary together.

2. Do I need to build another spreadsheet for Tuesday since it has MM hours or will the Monday one I'm doing be pretty much the same?

3. Are the weekend wait times a lot different from the weekday times? Should I do another spreadsheet for Sunday using Saturday's wait times?

I really appreciate all the help you DL veterans give to us DL newbies. Thanks!

 

[tara30us]

I was wondering if it was possible to to go on all the rides at disneyland in 1 day. We are going to do a 2 day hopper for both parks and I would love to be able to plan our time to be able to do the maximum while we are there. Though this looks/sounds a bit complicated