Ridemax info needed

[tracer]

Would it be worth my investment to buy it? We are going in March and in late Nov/early Dec. The reason I ask is because my boys will be 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 and we can't really stick to a set time plan...obviously! Can you say you need more time in between rides? Is there a way to work the system so you can do the ridemax and not feel rushed or overwhelmed with 2 little ones? We also go back to our hotel (BWPPI) every afternoon for naps and lunch and then return to the park. Can you tell the program that you need that time blacked out? Any info will be great.

Also does DL have anything like TourGuideMike?

 

[tracer]

I read HydoGuys post about Ridemax (which is great by the way) but i need more info. Thanks

 

[shellyof4]

You sound like me! I asked the same questions. The answer to TourGuide Mike is, No. Ridemax does have some ride tips and parade/show tips, but not as comprehensive as Mike's.

As far as Ridemax, I'd say the busier the time you go, the better help it will be. It does allow you to "program" in 2 breaks a day and it also slots in Free time. Another thing to note is, if you got behind on the rides because of the kiddos, just skip ahead and do the next ride on your list. I found it worked well. The have a list for Early Entry recommendations that I think is very good. Also their customer service is great! You might want to play around with one break and then two breaks...because sometimes the results work better with just one. You'll see what I mean. Anyway, for the money I found it valuable, but don't expect Tourguide Mike who I'd probably pay twice what he charges and still think it was worth it!

 

[HydroGuy]

Would it be worth my investment to buy it? We are going in March and in late Nov/early Dec. The reason I ask is because my boys will be 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 and we can't really stick to a set time plan...obviously! Can you say you need more time in between rides? Is there a way to work the system so you can do the ridemax and not feel rushed or overwhelmed with 2 little ones? We also go back to our hotel (BWPPI) every afternoon for naps and lunch and then return to the park. Can you tell the program that you need that time blacked out? Any info will be great.

Also does DL have anything like TourGuideMike?

1. It has a "slow" option if you feel you need more time.

2. Yes, as Shelly said you can specify your break time, when you want it and how long

3. If you choose to use it, you may feel less pressured if you know that you do not have to follow it.

4. The most important times to get "right" at DLR (as well as WDW) is early morning. Use it for early morning and then skip it the rest of the day, or continue to use it as it suits you.

5. I cannot say for sure it will help you. It depends on the type of person you are, when you go, etc. It does work, and for some people knowing that they have a plan makes them more relaxed, not less relaxed.

6. It has a money back guarantee.

 

[victorandbellasmom]

We purchased ride max last year and have used it for 2 trips thus far and were very happy with it. We used it in April and again in August. We didn't use the plan each day of our trip and someday when we were using it, we'd change our minds about which rides we'd wanted to do and do something different. We liked it in that it gave a good idea of what wait times were during the day and evening. The kids enjoyed it in that they had a gameplan for the day instead of wandering around trying to figure out who gets to chiose the next ride. We'll probably using it again at the end of the month for our next trip.

 

[shellyof4]

Yes, and I thought the parade tip was worth the money just for that...we had a great view.

 

[tracer]

4. The most important times to get "right" at DLR (as well as WDW) is early morning. Use it for early morning and then skip it the rest of the day, or continue to use it as it suits you.

That is what I think we will do. Get everything done in the AM and then hit or miss in the afternoon. How is this so good? Do they use statistics from the past years?

 

[JennyW]

It is harder to stick with a plan with small kids (we have two of them!), but minimizing wait time is very important as well with little ones. Keeping them entertained while in line is very difficult, and RideMax will help keep that time to a minimum.

 

[tracer]

It is harder to stick with a plan with small kids (we have two of them!), but minimizing wait time is very important as well with little ones. Keeping them entertained while in line is very difficult, and RideMax will help keep that time to a minimum.

That is exactly why DH was sold. He says we have to get Ridemax just so we don't have to wait in line. He told me last night he would pay $1k to DL just so he wouldn't have to wait in any line!! So for about $25 we can get it and do just about the same. Thanks!!!

 

[3for Me]

This may sound like a really stupid question, but I am a newbie to DL/Ridemax, so bear with me.... Does it factor in FastPasss? In other words does it sort of do what Touringplans does in that it says go to this ride, get a FP for this then go to this?

I am currently reading through HydroGuy's FP thread, but thought this might be a good resource as well...thoughts???

 

[HydroGuy]

This may sound like a really stupid question, but I am a newbie to DL/Ridemax, so bear with me.... Does it factor in FastPasss? In other words does it sort of do what Touringplans does in that it says go to this ride, get a FP for this then go to this?

I am currently reading through HydroGuy's FP thread, but thought this might be a good resource as well...thoughts???

Yes, it factors in FP. In fact it goes further by factoring in the FP tricks at DL such as disconnected FPs and acceptance of expired FP.

 

[3for Me]

Yes, it factors in FP. In fact it goes further by factoring in the FP tricks at DL such as disconnected FPs and acceptance of expired FP.

Thanks so much! Didn't mean to hijack the thread!

 

[familyoffiveAZ]

We used it the last time we went. The boys were 5, 3, and 2, and the girl wasn't here yet.

What I did was go through the program and plug in various general scenerios. What would the schedule look like if we got to the park a half hour after opening and went to Tomorrowland first? What if we decided on Adventureland first? Which rides would be best if we started at 4pm (after naps)? And then we winged it from there.

One other thing we did is grab multiple fastpasses using the kids' tickets for rides they couldn't go on anyways (and/or things I didn't want to go on).

 

[tracer]

Can you print out mulitple scenarios for the same day? We are buying it in a week or two regardless, the yearly one, because we are going in March and Dec. I will have plenty of time to "play" with it, but just curious about that.

 

[squidmo]

I bought Ridemax for myself a few days ago. You can generate as many different scenarios for a day as you would like. Basically every report is a "one-off" report for a single day, looking for the minimum waiting & walking time for your selected attractions and times of day. Depending on the complexity of your trip, it may generate a slightly different "path", even if you re-run the report with the same parameters. Also, just tweaking the starting time by a few minutes can really change the whole day, which can be useful, because if you don't like the suggested ride lineup you can just try starting 5 or 10 minutes later and may get something that makes more sense to you. Overall, I think I like it- my only complaint is that they only load the waiting times into the database for the next two months (RideMax connects to the internet each time it runs to get the latest data from their database). So in my case I'm going at the very beginning of May, but they won't have data loaded in until the end of March. Dang... I wanted to get my compulsive planning fix now!

 

[HydroGuy]

Can you print out mulitple scenarios for the same day? We are buying it in a week or two regardless, the yearly one, because we are going in March and Dec. I will have plenty of time to "play" with it, but just curious about that.

Yes. There is no limit to how many scenarios you can evaluate either for the same day, different days, or different parks.

In fact, RideMax encourages you to do this. They strongly advise people to get to the gates early, and you can make a scenario based on that. But if you arrive 15 minutes late it will throw everything off. So they encourage you to make "late arrival scenarios". Then if that happens for some reason, you can just use the scenario that day based on what your actual arrival time happens to be.

Also, as familyoffiveAZ mentioned, it allows you to "test drive" different scenarios. I used the WDW version of RideMax to do just that, and discovered I was trying to pack too much into Epcot one day. With that info I was able to scale back what our goals were for the day. In the end we still did not follow the RideMax itinerary at all, instead relying on RideMax wait time estimates and advice from TGM. And that worked for us.

 

[JennyW]

We're heading out to Disneyland tomorrow for 2 1/2 days at the parks (Thursday afternoon/evening, Friday, Saturday). I had no problem fitting in every ride we wanted to do (into Ride Max) in both parks in that amount of time. Granted it's a bit off an off season, but will reality be the same as Ride Max?

Thanks.

 

[HydroGuy]

We're heading out to Disneyland tomorrow for 2 1/2 days at the parks (Thursday afternoon/evening, Friday, Saturday). I had no problem fitting in every ride we wanted to do (into Ride Max) in both parks in that amount of time. Granted it's a bit off an off season, but will reality be the same as Ride Max?

Thanks.

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. When it is not, then you will be ahead of the RideMax schedule. The result is just that you know you will accomplish everything on the itinerary, with time left to spare.

 

[cedarparkgirl]

Another RideMax Question....
This may sound stupid.. but is RIDEMAX just for rides? We have 3 young ones (5,4,4,) and plan on doing all the shows, parades, and fireworks.. does Ridemax factor the shows in too?

 

[HydroGuy]

Another RideMax Question....
This may sound stupid.. but is RIDEMAX just for rides? We have 3 young ones (5,4,4,) and plan on doing all the shows, parades, and fireworks.. does Ridemax factor the shows in too?

Yes, that is one of the knocks on RideMax is that it only handles rides and not shows. Since show times can change from week to week, one can see why RideMax does not include them in their schedules.

If you are creating a plan, you need to figure out which shows you want to do, and when, and then block out the time in RideMax.