Ridemax and MM

[cfrith5]

When entering our info into RM it doesn't allow for MM which we will have (if we can get ourselves there in time) on Thursday morning. Should I just plan on being able to ride X number of rides in Fantasyland and not even enter them into the RM plan? Any other tips?

 

[HydroGuy]

When entering our info into RM it doesn't allow for MM which we will have (if we can get ourselves there in time) on Thursday morning. Should I just plan on being able to ride X number of rides in Fantasyland and not even enter them into the RM plan? Any other tips?

Read the tips on the RM website. It tells you how to do MM. And they account for it by increasing wait times for when the normal park hours start.

 

[cfrith5]

Read the tips on the RM website. It tells you how to do MM. And they account for it by increasing wait times for when the normal park hours start.

Oh! Thank you! I'm getting overwhelmed with last minute planning and children that are sick only days before we leave. Realllllly hoping they get better ASAP.

 

[BayGirl22]

From my understanding though, their website advice is just to plan MM offline separate from your touring plan. I didn't like that solution. It may work if you have 1 MM and have memorized the Fantasyland order you want to follow. But with EE every day (and now for either park), I found that kind of defeats the purpose of having a touring plan if I start every day offline then start my day's schedule after an hour.

I was surprised to see that feature was missing after hearing everyone here rave about RideMax and also have pretty specific MM plans. Am I missing something? Or do people manually plan their first hour and then jump to a Ridemax plan after MM?

 

[NorthernCalMom]

I was surprised to see that feature was missing after hearing everyone here rave about RideMax and also have pretty specific MM plans. Am I missing something? Or do people manually plan their first hour and then jump to a Ridemax plan after MM?

Ridemax does give a very specific list as to which rides to go for (and in which order) for MM in its Ridemax Essentials "Tips and Hints" section.

 

[BayGirl22]

Ridemax does give a very specific list as to which rides to go for (and in which order) for MM in its Ridemax Essentials "Tips and Hints" section.

Right, but its sounded a lot like the list I got just by reading these threads. And IIRC it was for DL, not DCA. I still don't understand why that list can't be scheduled into my plan along with an extra hour.

 

[HydroGuy]

From my understanding though, their website advice is just to plan MM offline separate from your touring plan. I didn't like that solution. It may work if you have 1 MM and have memorized the Fantasyland order you want to follow. But with EE every day (and now for either park), I found that kind of defeats the purpose of having a touring plan if I start every day offline then start my day's schedule after an hour.

I was surprised to see that feature was missing after hearing everyone here rave about RideMax and also have pretty specific MM plans. Am I missing something? Or do people manually plan their first hour and then jump to a Ridemax plan after MM?

RM has always resisted offering touring plans for early entry because the available rides were never officially set - and did change from time to time.

 

[kayleigh83]

Right, but its sounded a lot like the list I got just by reading these threads. And IIRC it was for DL, not DCA. I still don't understand why that list can't be scheduled into my plan along with an extra hour.

There's no reason it can't be! You input what you want to ride during the day, it gives you a list that says basically "Ride in this order". It gives you a list of what order to ride EE rides in, and in this case you save a step by not having to input the rides - since there are so few open during EE, there's almost no point to including it in your actual RM plan. Just tack it on to the front!

 

[Eeee-va]

Another reason for not adding MM to RideMax is that I assume the creators don't visit the parks regularly for MM. Plans aren't available for Sundays because they don't visit on Sundays. To go through a MM even once a month would get very spendy for locals, since they basically have to stay on Disney property for a night to get a MM.

It's not that big of a deal, really...I'm not sure if the Matterhorn has changed anything (everyone seems to want to ride it because the cars are new), but pretty much if you ride Peter Pan Flight first, and then Dumbo if you want, you'll be OK.

 

[ArchOwl]

I don't have a current subscription to RM, just wondering if they have tips and hints for an early entry strategy for DCA yet?

 

[HydroGuy]

I don't have a current subscription to RM, just wondering if they have tips and hints for an early entry strategy for DCA yet?

They have tips but not a ride order like they have for DL.

 

[ArchOwl]

They have tips but not a ride order like they have for DL.

Ok, makes sense. Probably too early in the game to really have a solid ride order. Gotta see if RSR becomes more reliable, etc. Thanks!

 

[cgh]

I'm having buyer's regret because of that. last year, I inputted all the rides I wanted then advanced through it rationalizing that if you were able to move through the list you would just start at opening higher up on it, and lines are shorter then. That also helped if we weren't there right at MM opening. I also did memorize it as I didn't want to be walking around with a printout. We also hit some bumps-ie. DS really really wanted to ride the carousel first thing. But after he did that Dumbo was still a walk on.

I also found that putting in generally what we wanted to do gave highlights of when the best times would be. I then consulted mouse waits in the park to see what the real time was.

This year with Carsland and EMH I'm definitely doing more figuring out on my own. Carsland stategy for example. I'm hoping that I'll be able to do the 3 rides in 2 hours.

 

[kjs1976]

Yea, I hope it works. No Sundays, no EE....not feeling that certain about the purchase now. Guess I'll have to make the plans and compare to plans people have made on here and touring plans. Kinda sucks to have to go through all that work when I bought it so I wouldn't have to. Missing tourguidemike right about now!

 

[HydroGuy]

Yea, I hope it works. No Sundays, no EE....not feeling that certain about the purchase now. Guess I'll have to make the plans and compare to plans people have made on here and touring plans. Kinda sucks to have to go through all that work when I bought it so I wouldn't have to. Missing tourguidemike right about now!

Slow down everyone. You are not thinking about RM in the right way. RM is not a precision tool you can use to craft an itinerary for any given day of the year. It is more of a big hammer approach which takes conservative guesses for line waits and then builds an itinerary that will will work 99+% of the time. If you can't run a Sunday itinerary just use Saturday. The idea with RM is not for it to say "July 17, 2012" at the top. It is to have an itinerary that is functional and works. If you have that then the rest does not matter.

I have corresponded with Mark Winters at RM over the years (the RM founder) and I can guess what is driving their decision to not offer Sunday plans. It is a gutsy and principaled choice on their part. Our society has gotten so used to 24/7 stores and services (Walmart, etc.) and long hours and everything open on Sundays. Many (in fact most) other countries are not so commercially minded and still remember that reduced operating hours and closures on certain days have value to society and laborers.

I think some here are making a mountain out of a mole hill. I understand your frustration but I really think it is misplaced and you can safely just use a different day of the week and get an equally valid itinerary.

Hope that helps!

 

[kayleigh83]

Slow down everyone. You are not thinking about RM in the right way. RM is not a precision tool you can use to craft an itinerary for any given day of the year. It is more of a big hammer approach which takes conservative guesses for line waits and then builds an itinerary that will will work 99+% of the time. If you can't run a Sunday itinerary just use Saturday. The idea with RM is not for it to say "July 17, 2012" at the top. It is to have an itinerary that is functional and works. If you have that then the rest does not matter.

I have corresponded with Mark Winters at RM over the years (the RM founder) and I can guess what is driving their decision to not offer Sunday plans. It is a gutsy and principaled choice on their part. Our society has gotten so used to 24/7 stores and services (Walmart, etc.) and long hours and everything open on Sundays. Many (in fact most) other countries are not so commercially minded and still remember that reduced operating hours and closures on certain days have value to society and laborers.

I think some here are making a mountain out of a mole hill. I understand your frustration but I really think it is misplaced and you can safely just use a different day of the week and get an equally valid itinerary.

Hope that helps!

Completely agree - gotta get out of the mindset of specific days! It's not that important! The value of the product doesn't decrease because of this - as many people who have used the program can attest, using a Saturday for the data works just fine. And is there really a huge difference between following a list of attractions open during EE and plugging them in and actually having an itinerary that says, "X time: Matterhorn, X time: Dumbo" etc etc? Not really! Getting upset over such a small percentage of time missing from the program capabilities is overreacting, especially when the solution to figuring them out is very easy!

 

[BriannaRuth]

It's kind of interesting to use Ridemax in different ways, as well. For instance, I plugged in a bunch of popular DL attractions on a Monday AM, then plugged the same ones in on a Tuesday AM just to see what the difference would be since Tuesday is a MM day. You can really see how MM affects the crowds that way. Another thing I've done is plugged in one ride only like 15 times on the same day to see how the wait times vary as the day goes on. It doesn't work perfectly as RideMax always factors in FP, but it does give an interesting perspective.

Hopefully they'll come up with an early entry plan for DCA like they have for DL soon, but if they don't, I just plan on trying whatever they would ordinarily recommend for the first hour while checking first to see what's actually open.

 

[BayGirl22]

Slow down everyone. You are not thinking about RM in the right way. RM is not a precision tool you can use to craft an itinerary for any given day of the year. It is more of a big hammer approach which takes conservative guesses for line waits and then builds an itinerary that will will work 99+% of the time. If you can't run a Sunday itinerary just use Saturday. The idea with RM is not for it to say "July 17, 2012" at the top. It is to have an itinerary that is functional and works. If you have that then the rest does not matter.

I have corresponded with Mark Winters at RM over the years (the RM founder) and I can guess what is driving their decision to not offer Sunday plans. It is a gutsy and principaled choice on their part. Our society has gotten so used to 24/7 stores and services (Walmart, etc.) and long hours and everything open on Sundays. Many (in fact most) other countries are not so commercially minded and still remember that reduced operating hours and closures on certain days have value to society and laborers.

I think some here are making a mountain out of a mole hill. I understand your frustration but I really think it is misplaced and you can safely just use a different day of the week and get an equally valid itinerary.

Hope that helps!

I agree with the bolded part HydroGuy. And I think some of it comes down to understanding what RideMax is intended to do and what it isn't. The name says it all: RIDE MAX - its about maximizing the # of rides you can get on in a period of time. Right? And from what I hear, it does that quite well. It seems like a great fit for people looking to get on as many rides as possible with the shortest wait possible.

What Ridemax isn't is a scheduling tool that helps you figure out where you want to be in the park to hit all the shows, parades, events, rides, dining options, etc. that you want to make it to. And it doesn't really customize to personal needs - like I need my 3yo to ride Dumbo and other outside rides before the dark rides like PP. Or that I want to minimize walking and once he see's one land we'll have to do everything within eye sight. So I need to think though a EE strategy every day that works with those considerations. A lot of my family's scheduling will supersede line time, and since I'm traveling in low season crowd levels are less of an issue (although still may be a consideration this year). Personally I wanted a scheduling program that gives me the expected wait times, but that I can sort around using my own logic. Touring Plans kind of does that, even if their crowd levels are less than perfect and they seem a bit buggy. Or maybe I'll end up living in Excel, as usual.

So my issues with Ridemax are more than just that its missing MM, but they aren't necessarily issues with the software itself. It just isn't the kind of software I need. And I think people should understand what it is and what it isn't. That doesn't mean its not a great product, just not the product for some people. From all accounts its awesome at what it is, and their customer service is great and will give you a refund if you are dissatisfied.

Like so much at Disney its about managing expectations.

 

[kayleigh83]

I agree with the bolded part HydroGuy. And I think some of it comes down to understanding what RideMax is intended to do and what it isn't. The name says it all: RIDE MAX - its about maximizing the # of rides you can get on in a period of time. Right? And from what I hear, it does that quite well. It seems like a great fit for people looking to get on as many rides as possible with the shortest wait possible.

What Ridemax isn't is a scheduling tool that helps you figure out where you want to be in the park to hit all the shows, parades, events, rides, dining options, etc. that you want to make it to. And it doesn't really customize to personal needs - like I need my 3yo to ride Dumbo and other outside rides before the dark rides like PP. Or that I want to minimize walking and once he see's one land we'll have to do everything within eye sight. So I need to think though a EE strategy every day that works with those considerations. A lot of my family's scheduling will supersede line time, and since I'm traveling in low season crowd levels are less of an issue (although still may be a consideration this year). Personally I wanted a scheduling program that gives me the expected wait times, but that I can sort around using my own logic. Touring Plans kind of does that, even if their crowd levels are less than perfect and they seem a bit buggy. Or maybe I'll end up living in Excel, as usual.

So my issues with Ridemax are more than just that its missing MM, but they aren't necessarily issues with the software itself. It just isn't the kind of software I need. And I think people should understand what it is and what it isn't. That doesn't mean its not a great product, just not the product for some people. From all accounts its awesome at what it is, and their customer service is great and will give you a refund if you are dissatisfied.

Like so much at Disney its about managing expectations.

Great points! FWIW, I had many ideas in my head about certain times I wanted to go on rides. I knew which I wanted to ride first, for example, so I kept playing around with the plan until it gave me one that had that ride first. If you would like your 3 yr old to ride the outdoor rides first, you could make a plan for the first half of the day that only includes outdoor rides, and then a seperate plan for the second half with dark rides.

If you know you have to do a whole land before you move on, try putting in your walking speed as slow (indicates you'll stand in line a little longer in order to avoid walking, so it makes sense that it would tend to keep you going to attractions that are close to each other) and then input all the rides you want to do in a given land (or two, or more!) - by doing this you increase your chances of it giving you an itinerary that lets you do all the rides in an area before moving on to the next - and breaking your day up into two or more plans lets you have more control over when certain rides get scheduled in relation to each other. I plan to park-hop a lot, so for my 5 day trip, many of the days are several RM plans - ie: one for DL 8am-1pm, one for DCA 5pm-8pm, another for DL 8pm-12am.

 

[kjs1976]

Making sure I understand this...so our first full DL day is one we will use MM. So I copied the ride order suggested for MM. Now, do I plug in the rest of the rides we plan to ride for the day after MM and will that be accurate?