I want to love Ridemax, truly I do ...

[jenjersnap]

...but it has me so frustrated right now because I have to carefully plot when to put in breaks for shows and other scheduled events not listed on their site. It's nearly as much trouble as just planning the itinerary from scratch myself ... or I am tempted to just use the UG touring plans (Anyone use those? Work well?) Plus, not being able to account for EE - I don't know how many rides we will be able to get to during EE so I don't know where to start the Ridemax itinerary at 9 a.m.

There are some other issues I have but those are the biggies. Does anyone have any tips or pointers for using Ridemax effectively? I am in crunch time now and I have to get our days in order.

I think I am one of those people who just want to be told what to do, lol. Honestly, Hydroguy's threads have helped me much more than Ridemax!

 

[NWPrincess]

I am too considering using Ridemax. I will probably do it, but I'm just going to have to figure out when to take breaks and maybe have a few Ridemax contingency plans. LOL You can tell I am a planner (I live on this board afterall).

Anyway, to answer your previous question, I did use UG's plans and they worked out beautifully. In fact, since we went in mid-September, we got through the CA ones in about two hours (and these were one day plans). The only critique I have for UG and why I'm going to use Ridemax is that UG only offers the 1 day or 2 day option (we are going for 4 days) and the previously mentioned problem that CA took us only a few hours and UG factored in all day.

 

[Dobie]

It's not working perfectly for me, either.

One thing I am trying is just inputting a two or three hour block and then inputting one ride, multiple times. This gives me the sense of how the waits build for that ride. Then I do it for another ride, etc.

At any rate, its fun.

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

Kudos to you guys! That's just a bit too much planning for me. We are so the type to just ride Buzz 3-4 times in a row because the line happened to be short, and because we felt like it! LOL Then decide to fly over to POTC because it sounds good! Breaks are put in when we feel like it too, so I don't think ridemax would work well for us.

I mean we follow the rules of FL first, and take full advantage of all the FP rules. But that's about it!

 

[davidsprincess]

Really dumb question, what is UG?

 

[davidsprincess]

Kudos to you guys! That's just a bit too much planning for me. We are so the type to just ride Buzz 3-4 times in a row because the line happened to be short, and because we felt like it! LOL Then decide to fly over to POTC because it sounds good! Breaks are put in when we feel like it too, so I don't think ridemax would work well for us.

I mean we follow the rules of FL first, and take full advantage of all the FP rules. But that's about it!

I think that this will be our "style" as well, I don't know. Hubby told me NOT to plan out everything. "We are on holidays, relax" Yeah, okay, NOT!

 

[avalon451]

You know, I hate when I write a whole long post and then accidentally click some mouse button that backspaces and then lose it all.


As I was saying before I deleted my post:

I pored over UG, Ridemax and Hydroguy's tips compilation before we went. I found it useful to research all that knowlege, and I had fun playing with Ridemax. I ended up making our own itinerary based on all three, with our shows, breaks etc. scheduled in. Ridemax and UG don't maximize the use of Fastpass. Going by Hydroguy's tips, you can collect several more FPs than they have you doing, especially with a designated runner.

When you're playing with Ridemax, you might find it better to uncheck all the break schedules. They'll naturally put in a large break time in the middle of your day, which is when we planned our shows, lunch and break back at the hotel.

That said, I would recommend that you just familiarize yourself with the general priciples of Hydroguy's tips, because no matter how many itineraries you print out for yourselves, you never know how things will play out. All my hours of careful research, planning and itinerary making were pretty much scuttled by one thing: Tuesday morning, waking up for our first day, and my oldest daughter got out of bed, rushed for the bathroom and threw up. Ta Daaaaa! there went my plans all out the window. HOWEVER, I knew the general principles, still. So DH stayed with her, we switched plans from "Nemo Day" to "FL Day" because I could take the younger 2, who would enjoy FL more, and get in all the kiddie rides (in order according to Hydroguy, of course!) Throughout the rest of our trip, I was able to use my FP knowledge and other line building knowledge to steer us toward the best adjusted schedule for us. We still got to see most of what we wanted to, even though DD12 continued to wake up sick in the mornings the rest of the week, and would recover somewhat later in the day.

Maybe you could print out a Ridemax that's close to your needs but write in your own additions and plans. I was glad I got Ridemax because they have some great tips and tricks.

 

[avalon451]

Really dumb question, what is UG?

There are no dumb questions.

it's Unofficial Guide to Disneyland.

 

[davidsprincess]

There are no dumb questions.

it's Unofficial Guide to Disneyland.

Thanks!

 

[jenjersnap]

Gail,

Thanks for the tip that will add a midday break - that might help me.

One of mine gets sick every time we go on vacation so I know all too well about schedule changes. In fact, DH and I consider any vacay that doesn't include a trip to the ER or urgent care a resounding success! We're about 50/50 with WDW, lol.

 

[Leofoenget]

...but it has me so frustrated right now because I have to carefully plot when to put in breaks for shows and other scheduled events not listed on their site. It's nearly as much trouble as just planning the itinerary from scratch myself ... or I am tempted to just use the UG touring plans (Anyone use those? Work well?) Plus, not being able to account for EE - I don't know how many rides we will be able to get to during EE so I don't know where to start the Ridemax itinerary at 9 a.m.

There are some other issues I have but those are the biggies. Does anyone have any tips or pointers for using Ridemax effectively? I am in crunch time now and I have to get our days in order.

I think I am one of those people who just want to be told what to do, lol. Honestly, Hydroguy's threads have helped me much more than Ridemax!

according to the tips and hints section, it says it's almost easier to let ridemax plan your breaks by just keeping the default breaks. Or you could make 2 plans. A morning plan and an afternoon plan. Plan until Lunch then make another plan for say after 5-close

 

[bonita_babe232]

Well, I'm the same way, I kinda rather go with the flow cause you never know whats gonna happen once you get there..... So i don't really understand paying for ride max i just don't think it would help in the long run... Maybe once the kids got older and i could hurry them along, and my grandma didn't come with us, or if i ever did a trip me and DH maybe but i don't know....And i agree with everyone on the kids getting sick!! The first night we got to DL my son puked all over DTD and was in the hotel room the all day next day... And my little son had the runs ALL trip.... We had to have 2-3 outfits each day!!! but hey its disneyland and your on vacation so its fun

 

[lg3]

I think that this will be our "style" as well, I don't know. Hubby told me NOT to plan out everything. "We are on holidays, relax" Yeah, okay, NOT!

Ha! I can TOTALLY relate!!!

 

[vbecky]

i found myself that if like states above if you plan out sections of your day instead of a whole day it works a lot better! I used ride max last year the last week of June and I swear by it, it worked perfectly!!!

 

[SeansMom]

I really liked ridemax, but I don't think I used it quite the way some people do. For EE, am I right in remembering it didn't account for that? I think I just punched in all the FL rides plus Buzz and let it give me an order (which worked out well, btw). For other days, I totally split the days in half. First half, for example, NOS and Critter Counrty, second half of the day TL and TT or some such thing. It actually worked well. And keep in mind Barbossa's words...the code is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules.

Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions. I tend to go on .

 

[tracer]

To answer your question about EE and accounting for the rides it recommends you ride during those hours...we didn't care to ride all of them (the boys are 4 and 2) so we went in the order it said and rode the ones we wanted. We would have had enough time to ride all of them had we wanted to though. The one thing I will point out is that if you get in line for Peter Pan on a busy EE day it can ruin the entire line up.

I made three or four scheduel's for each morning and each afternoon (we go back to our hotel everyday for a 3-4 hour nap/ break). If we got behind it was ok we just picked up on one of our lists. We used it to give us an idea of ride lines and sometimes didn't stick to the times exactly as it planned out. We loved ridemax and would use it again.

 

[OurDogCisco]

I just came home from a 4 day trip for Disneyland. I'll have to say everything I read about on Ridemax and Hydroguy's Tips are SO TRUE. I will have to admit that we didn't follow Ridemax in the order I had put them in the system. However, since we were there for 4 days we didn't really have any problems getting in all the rides.

I will have to say that there is a BIG difference between EE days and non-EE days. I was AMAZED!!! We got so much more done on EE days as we were ahead of the crowds the whole way. Whatever you do show up early for EE days as they are TOTALLY worth it.

I do think you have to be flexible too though and understand how the park works and what things will benefit you. I noticed today on Memorial Day that Finding Nemo Ride was down in the morning. They were not allowing anyone to lineup for the ride. So, then, we noticed the line on the Matterhorn side closest to the Finding Nemo Ride was long as it was stretching around the mountain. However, the other side was pretty empty.

We did notice that there were low crowds on Friday and Saturday. Friday night we had 5-10 minute waits for most rides. I thought, the weather was a big contributing factor. However, one worker told us on 3 day holiday weekends that Sunday is always busier than Saturday. They also said that Monday should be quiet. Boy there were wrong about Monday.