Is Ridemax NUTS??

[HydroGuy]

has anyone ever put in rides on ridemax based on a few lands at a time that are close to each other? Or does everyone just put in the rides they are lookin for?

FWIW, we never visited DLR with children so small that we needed a stroller. So without a stroller I have never had a problem navigating DLR from land to land because the park is relatively small. For example, if we are in New Orleans Square and need a Space Mtn Fastpass, I just power walk over there and get one even though it is the other side of the park. In general I do try to do rides and Fastpasses that are close to where we are, but have no problem going across the park when necessary. So in answer to your question I have not tried to use RideMax in the way you suggested as I have never found it necessary.

 

[Dizzidizz]

Once something is published and becomes popular does it not become self defeating?
My last Disney trip was WDW in '92. Back then about the only (insider) type of advice available was the "Un-official Guide".
While its suggestions were helpful in the geography (ride to ride) it did not seem to me that it changed the crowd factor or line times much .

After a while I noticed that I was seeing the same people everywhere I went.

By the end of day one we were in Epcot searching out this little walkway that looked like it serviced a pub but actually ended in a nice little patio right out on the lake. This looked GREAT! Just like the book said.

Once this well camoflaged hideaway was reached it was 'bottom to bellybutton' crowded. I reached in to my tote bag and retrieved my Unofficial guide and held it in the air. Everyone followed my example and......
Well you get the point.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Once something is published and becomes popular does it not become self defeating?

For the vast majority of things no. The vast majority of people are either unwilling or unable to get to the parks early. The vast majority of people are either unwilling or unable to take naps mid day and then come back late to close the parks. And the vast majority of people do their first tour planning when they walk down main street, stop short in front of someone else and open their map. The vast majority of people do not read a single guide either in print form or on-line. The vast majority of people have absolutely no clue how to use fast pass. The vast majority can be heard Mooing and Baaahing as they herd into another hour and a half long line.

And until that changes, and for the first 50 years of DLR it hasn't yet, these techniques will work.

 

[Leggyb]

The vast majority can be heard Mooing and Baaahing as they herd into another hour and a half long line.

That just made me laugh!

But you really think the vast majority doesn't plan and prep? I think you're wrong there. I'm only 21 and going with my girlfriends in August.. and I never thought I'd get the disney bug and be planning like crazy.. but yet here we are. I now know tons of little tricks and I've only been researching for like a week. I think the vast majority of people DO plan and research their trip.. but it all comes down to the execution of the planning. That's where you here the mooing.

 

[sandgrace]

I've been going to DL my whole life, and never really planned out a strategy until now. We went to DL over spring break with our 2 year old and a 15 year old the crowds were sooooo bad that we didn't get to ride half of what we wanted to.

We're going again July 1-4, and I know there will be HUGE crowds so I ordered ridemax the other day knowing we'll need all of the help that we can get.

I have a question for Mark from ridemax, or anyone else that's used it. Since we'll be there for 4 days how should we do our planning? Should we split up the rides according to lands, parks, etc.? We'll probably end up going back and forth from DL and DCA. Also, we'll probably want to schedule a character dinner and maybe Fantasmic priority seating.

All advice we be welcomed and appreciated!

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

has anyone ever put in rides on ridemax based on a few lands at a time that are close to each other? Or does everyone just put in the rides they are lookin for?

Keep in mind, ridemax minimizes your time for what is input and that alone.
So doing as you suggest will pretty much defeat the purpose.

Example. Suppose on a day where there is no early entry at all, you plan to do Fantasyland, Frontierland, NO Square, Critter Country, and Adventureland in that order. So you do as you suggest.

When you input the fantasyland rides, none of them have fast pass. So Ridemax won't send you for one. So you then input frontierland starting at the time ridemax said you'd finish fantasyland. Big Thunder uses fast pass. Ridemax will likely have you getting one, then riding the other Frintierland stuff, then use your fast pass. I don't think there will be much time lost here yet. So now you do the same for NO Square. None there use fast pass. And really Ridemax doesn't have much to do. Then you input Critter Country. Well Splash went through it's fast passes rather fast. You could get one, but it's for the evening. Well then Ridemax is going to optimize your time and put you in an hour and a half line rather than wait until 10pm because it's not going to know you're going to be there at 10pm. So then you move on to Adventureland. Well Indy's out of Fast passes so you've got another long line to wait in. If you'd thrown em into the mix and told Ridemax you had a runner, it would have sent you for the right fast passes early to complete your itinerary probably 2-4 hours faster given the example.

So you'll have to know enough to be able to make the adjustments yourself. But that begs the question. If you already know enough to make said adjustments and know you are going to tour in an orderly fashion, do you really have a need for ridemax?

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

That just made me laugh!

But you really think the vast majority doesn't plan and prep? I think you're wrong there. I'm only 21 and going with my girlfriends in August.. and I never thought I'd get the disney bug and be planning like crazy.. but yet here we are. I now know tons of little tricks and I've only been researching for like a week. I think the vast majority of people DO plan and research their trip.. but it all comes down to the execution of the planning. That's where you here the mooing.

A big chunk of people do no planning other than rent the car, book the hotel, and buy the tickets. The first touring planning they do is when they open the map between 10:30 and 12:00 when they walk in. They may have dabbled into a website or book, but they haven't truly read it. Another big chunk probably does that, plus makes a reservation or two (On suggestion of Disney.) and may or may not plan what land or ride to hit first. But this is usually based upon someone's favorite in the party rather than thinking about touring. Within each land, unless they picked out a favorite, people tend to herd to the first ride they come to.

Another chunk of people do some research, but either cannot or will not get there early and follow a touring plan.

The majority of people fall into one of these two groups.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

I've been going to DL my whole life, and never really planned out a strategy until now. We went to DL over spring break with our 2 year old and a 15 year old the crowds were sooooo bad that we didn't get to ride half of what we wanted to.

We're going again July 1-4, and I know there will be HUGE crowds so I ordered ridemax the other day knowing we'll need all of the help that we can get.

I have a question for Mark from ridemax, or anyone else that's used it. Since we'll be there for 4 days how should we do our planning? Should we split up the rides according to lands, parks, etc.? We'll probably end up going back and forth from DL and DCA. Also, we'll probably want to schedule a character dinner and maybe Fantasmic priority seating.

All advice we be welcomed and appreciated!

It is June 13 and you haven't made reservations for July 1-4 for fantasmic or your character dinner at Goofy's? Get on the horn as soon as you read this and make those reservations.
(714) 781-3463. If they have anything left, your day and time may be picked for you. A schedule can always be worked around them.

 

[steve_rob]

A big chunk of people do no planning other than rent the car, book the hotel, and buy the tickets. The first touring planning they do is when they open the map between 10:30 and 12:00 when they walk in. They may have dabbled into a website or book, but they haven't truly read it. Another big chunk probably does that, plus makes a reservation or two (On suggestion of Disney.) and may or may not plan what land or ride to hit first. But this is usually based upon someone's favorite in the party rather than thinking about touring. Within each land, unless they picked out a favorite, people tend to herd to the first ride they come to.

Another chunk of people do some research, but either cannot or will not get there early and follow a touring plan.

The majority of people fall into one of these two groups.

This is SO true.

Experiment - Take a total Disney newbie and give them access to these boards and a handful of Disney park related travel guides, and ask them to write down and good hints they find.

After about ten minutes, ask them, based on what they have read so far, what they think the number one rule of trip planning is.

They'll say "YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT TRIP PLANNING!"

No, wait, that was Fight Club.

Actually they'll say "Make sure you arrive at the park at, or preferably before opening time". Yes, within just ten minutes they will have (at the very least) learned that this is the most important thing you can do. After all, it is printed in pretty much EVERY tour guide book there is out there and listed on every Disney website / forum going.

And yet we all know that people still turn up at the parks a couple of hours after opening, thinking they are still going be able to walk on to every ride with no queue and get a nasty shock. Why? Because they didn't do any planning.

Of course, there will come a day when everyone learns this rule and all of us will turn up half an hour before opening and find the park already full! For that reason, I hope that people carry on not planning and leave people like us on here free to get all the big rides done before they arrive!

 

[sandgrace]

It is June 13 and you haven't made reservations for July 1-4 for fantasmic or your character dinner at Goofy's? Get on the horn as soon as you read this and make those reservations.
(714) 781-3463. If they have anything left, your day and time may be picked for you. A schedule can always be worked around them.

LOL! I'm more on the horn than you think, I made reservations for Fantasmic this morning. Luckily, I got the balcony seats for the 9:00 showing for July 2nd!

I haven't made dinner reservations yet, don't think that we'll do Goofy's Kitchen, we've done it before, but want to try either Ariel's Grotto or Blue Bayou....I need to get my family to tell me which one and when so I can call.

 

[ter-moo]

That just made me laugh!

But you really think the vast majority doesn't plan and prep? I think you're wrong there. I'm only 21 and going with my girlfriends in August.. and I never thought I'd get the disney bug and be planning like crazy.. but yet here we are. I now know tons of little tricks and I've only been researching for like a week. I think the vast majority of people DO plan and research their trip.. but it all comes down to the execution of the planning. That's where you here the mooing.

From my experience with friends, the majority of them do NOT plan and they think I'm crazy when I do. I think people tend to say, "Let's go to Disneyland!" and then they make hotel reservations, buy plane tickets and worry about the rest once they get there. That's why you see so many groups standing around trying to decide what to do next when they're in the parks.

 

[HydroGuy]

Here is a story about planning. My sister lives near DLR and they go every year or so for a day trip. But she does not like to go that often because "the lines are so long and she cannot get on that many rides". She has a great planner like me for a brother (if I may say so myself ) and she still never follows any of my advice - which I usually give in small doses so as not to overwhelm her. She always arrives late, avoids using Fastpass because "they run out of them so early" and waits in 90-120 minute lines for Space Mtn and Splash Mtn in the middle of the day.

They are coming with us for a day later this month and hopefully will learn some tricks and have a better time. If they tag along with me I will get them on lots of rides with short lines.

 

[Hound 109]

Yeah...but Hydroguy....she better trade in her crocks for a pair of "purposefully power walking" shoes.

I know what you mean about handing out "small doses" of info. Mrs. Hound doesn't want to know the details until we get there....says her head starts hurting by the time i start talking about picking up a second FP.

But she has learned to love touring early, w/o crowds & she loves late morning breakfasts!

hound

 

[HydroGuy]

Yeah...but Hydroguy....she better trade in her crocks for a pair of "purposefully power walking" shoes.

I know what you mean about handing out "small doses" of info. Mrs. Hound doesn't want to know the details until we get there....says her head starts hurting by the time i start talking about picking up a second FP.

But she has learned to love touring early, w/o crowds & she loves late morning breakfasts!

hound

Yeah, and my point with regard to the previous posts is even when you spoon feed many people they still are not willing to come up with any kind of plan - and in the end do not have an enjoyable trip and in some cases draw conclusions about DLR not being a fun place to go.

 

[whizkidcat]

We want to know which would be best for our situation:

It will be just my wife and I. We will be on the dining plan (1 table 1 counter and snack). WE want to know how to budget our time from the time we get up until we pass out at night
We want to fill each day with as much as we can because we may not get back to WDW. We want to go to breakfast, go to early hours, go for a swim, go to lunch, check out other resorts, relax at our resort, go to dinner, back to the park for the evening, downtown Disney. We are rather active aren't we?
How can we fit all that in and consider bus schedules, monorail, ferryboat, watercraft, (waiting and travel time) get to our reservations on time with the least amount of mistakes (going the wrong way, leaving at the wrong time etc.)?

Which guide will help us plan (almost) minute by minute itineraries for each day?
Can anyone suggest some good itineraries for 2 adults? See/do the best rides/shows 1st then meander around the next day in the same park?

Do both guides tell you which rides to do and in what order to save time, or be able to ride the "most popular" as much as possible, or also to eliminate as much walking as possible (or both) and when to get fastpasses?

Do both help you choose restaurants according to your preferences?

Can you do a search for buffets for lunch and dinner that accept the Disney Dining Plan?

If either of these don't satisfy any of these questions, where can we go to get them answered?

 

[bumbershoot]

whizkidcat, hi! You probably searched to find this thread, and might not have noticed that it's the Disneyland forum. Totally easy to do, and I've posted things in the oddest places b/c I didn't notice.

I'm quite sure that some brilliant people will show up and give you good info b/c they have it, but in the meantime, you might check out the WDW-based forums here on the Dis, like this one. They will probably have excellent information for you, and there will be MORE excellent info!

 

[XTinabell]

I also wanted to share something about most people not planning their days until they arrive. Dh and I had such a super plan that we ended up with more fastpasses than we were able to use so we offered our extra soarin fast passes to a lady and her daughter (or granddaughter) and they had no clue what fastpasses were and they thought dh and I were trying to scam them. I was shocked because I thought surely by now EVERYONE knows what fastpasses are. But nope. After a very brief description of what they were to the younger girl she was happy to take our fastpasses.