Ridemax Question

[VandVsmama]

This itinerary for dl was for Friday, June 5.
I scheduled 15 things but since my kids are younger, there were very few "big" rides (ex. no, space, no thunder, no indy) so I know I was over the normal amount but still don't understand why it didn't have me using fastpass
I started at 9:30 (opening is at 9 but we have breakfast reservations that morning) and went to close.
It scheduled a 4 hr break (without me requesting it) from 4-8.
We are going to try to make it until close that night or close to it since the next day we just have to get to the airport and get on a plane.

The DCA itinerary was for June 4 and we are planning on being there from open until we decide to leave. I think I put it at 7 in the ridemax. I wanted that as a shorter day since we are going to push the kids on Friday

Ok, so assuming arrival time at DL of 9:30 am and leaving at park close (which is midnight for Fri 6/5), I got these results:
9:30am Autopia
9:55am Send Runner to Get Splash Mountain FASTPASS
10:06am Runner Get Splash Mountain FASTPASS
10:17am Star Tours
11:03am Tiki Room
11:41am Splash Mountain (use FASTPASS) Critter Country
12:08pm Free Time

9:23pm Haunted Mansion (see tip #4)
9:39pm Pirates of the Caribbean
10:04pm Jungle Cruise
10:29pm Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
10:54pm it's a small world
11:14pm Matterhorn Bobsleds
11:28pm Mad Tea Party
11:38pm Dumbo, the Flying Elephant
11:50pm Alice in Wonderland

If you change it so your end time is 10:00 pm, then it changes to this:
9:30am Dumbo, the Flying Elephant
9:53am Send Runner to Get Splash Mountain FASTPASS
9:54am Main Group Visit Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
10:02am Runner Get Splash Mountain FASTPASS Critter Country
10:17am Alice in Wonderland
11:09am Haunted Mansion
11:39am Splash Mountain (use FASTPASS)
12:03pm Send Runner to Get Star Tours FASTPASS
12:13pm Runner Get Star Tours FASTPASS
12:29pm Free Time

6:42pm Star Tours (use FASTPASS)
7:08pm Tiki Room
7:37pm Jungle Cruise
7:58pm Pirates of the Caribbean
8:36pm Mad Tea Party
8:56pm it's a small world
9:28pm Matterhorn Bobsleds
10:00pm Autopia

I'm totally guessing at which rides your family would want to go on, of course.

 

[elaine amj]

Could it be it is trying to minimize walking? i like Fastpass, but sometimes it is not worth walking across the park to get a fastpass. With a good touring plan, FPs are less necessary. But I still wouldn't be waiting in a 105 min standby line for RSR if FPs are available!

 

[Creaking Crypt Door]

I'm still struggling to decide between RideMax and Touring Plans/Lines.

For those who have used Ridemax and Touring Plans (or just Ridemax)-would you say RideMax is the less "flexible" of the two? Hearing about going so far as to enter start/stop times for each day makes me think it's more for those who like a regimented plan.

I think for us, we'd like some help determining the best order to do things, but given that we'll be there for 4 days and will get to see everything we want, we'd really like a touch of flexibility as well.

Can anyone speak to that?

Thanks-this time next week we'll be at the airport waiting to fly to SNA!

 

[jeffg4]

I'm still struggling to decide between RideMax and Touring Plans/Lines.

For those who have used Ridemax and Touring Plans (or just Ridemax)-would you say RideMax is the less "flexible" of the two? Hearing about going so far as to enter start/stop times for each day makes me think it's more for those who like a regimented plan.

I think for us, we'd like some help determining the best order to do things, but given that we'll be there for 4 days and will get to see everything we want, we'd really like a touch of flexibility as well.

Can anyone speak to that?

Thanks-this time next week we'll be at the airport waiting to fly to SNA!

It depends - Touring Plans offers an "evaluate" option, which lets you select the order of attractions, then computes wait times based on anticipated crowd levels. I don't use this option much because I really don't care about the order of attractions - I care about minimizing waiting. Ridemax does not offer this option - your plan is whatever order the software calculates for you. The important thing is to have a good plan that starts at RD and stick to it for the AM period. You will invariably need to adjust your plan as the day goes on when waits and FP return times become harder to predict. I personally have had better success with the Ridemax plans because they tend to overestimate waits - leaving me with free time to fill, but the Touring Plans Lines App is a great way to keep track of the waits and FP returns throughout the day, so I've used both of them in combination. I have had the best luck selecting "minimize waiting." You may spend more time tracking back and forth, but for a person that hates to wait in lines, it is well worth it if you don't mind the extra walking. Another thing to keep in mind is that you always want to be holding a FP whenever you can. If the plan has a large break in between FP pulls and we are eligible to obtain another, we will often pull an additional FP and try and work it into the plan. You need to be constantly aware when you are eligible to obtain another FP which is basically, no later than 2 hours after you've obtained the previous one.

 

[elaine amj]

Planning to subscribe to ridemax...really interested to see how it works! I am used to creating my own touring plan (in WDW) so it will be fun to have a software create it for me. Of course, DH thinks I am nuts and says I should just create it myself like I do at WDW. Of course, at WDW, there is easyWDW. And after soooo much research, I know how lines develop there. Not as comfortable at DLR and HATE wasting precious time.

 

[Creaking Crypt Door]

I just subscribed to Touring Plans...and found out there's no real "park hopping" option. Bummer! You can say "I wanna go to DL from 8 AM to 3 PM, and then DCA from 3 PM to 9:30 PM" but you can't really go between and build an itinerary that way.

It will still be useful, but I was a bummed to find that out.

 

[NiceOneSimba]

Dopey1980--

I've used Ridemax several times, and with an unscheduled 4-hour break in the middle of the day, I am pretty sure you don't have enough attractions selected to fill the whole day. Try adding attractions one or two at a time, and see what happens.

I can't remember if it lets you schedule shows or not. Try adding in a break for Mickey and the Magical Map or the parade. That might shuffle things around enough to eliminate some of the big old waits.

If you're used to WDW, you must remember that there are far fewer FP attractions in DL. It's pretty much just Indy, Splash, Space, Star Tours, Big Thunder and Roger Rabbit. They've JUST added Buzz, and HM. There's also the FP for the Royal Theater and for Fantasmic, but those last two aren't connected to the system. If you're not riding many of the rides that offer FP, it doesn't seem that strange to not be pulling them until the afternoon.

We've been totally pleased with Ridemax every time we've used it! You do have to play around with it, and my recommendation is to add more rides!

Hope this helps!

 

[momof4fans]

I haven't used Touring Plans but this is how I use Ridemax. I schedule every ride that my family wants to do from 8am to 12 or 1pm. We arrive about 7:30-7:45am Summer hours apply here. We typically take an afternoon break to swim and nap. When we return in the evening we wing it. It worked out great on our last trip. Also, I found that we were always ahead of schedule with Ridemax. It's definitely worth the $15!

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

Dopey1980--

I've used Ridemax several times, and with an unscheduled 4-hour break in the middle of the day, I am pretty sure you don't have enough attractions selected to fill the whole day. Try adding attractions one or two at a time, and see what happens.

I can't remember if it lets you schedule shows or not. Try adding in a break for Mickey and the Magical Map or the parade. That might shuffle things around enough to eliminate some of the big old waits.

If you're used to WDW, you must remember that there are far fewer FP attractions in DL. It's pretty much just Indy, Splash, Space, Star Tours, Big Thunder and Roger Rabbit. They've JUST added Buzz, and HM. There's also the FP for the Royal Theater and for Fantasmic, but those last two aren't connected to the system. If you're not riding many of the rides that offer FP, it doesn't seem that strange to not be pulling them until the afternoon.

We've been totally pleased with Ridemax every time we've used it! You do have to play around with it, and my recommendation is to add more rides!

Hope this helps!

As I have been "studying" and "tinkering" with Ridemax, it is my understanding that most plans are designed with a large break time in the afternoon - and it's during this time they tell you to see shows or relax back at your hotel. I feel like I read that on their website somewhere. I could be wrong, though.

 

[lizabu]

As I have been "studying" and "tinkering" with Ridemax, it is my understanding that most plans are designed with a large break time in the afternoon - and it's during this time they tell you to see shows or relax back at your hotel. I feel like I read that on their website somewhere. I could be wrong, though.

I think you're right. I'm a noob myself and my idea was to tour until 1pm have lunch, go take a break and come back for fireworks. It had me tour till 10am and then a break and then tour then lunch then it managed to squeeze some attractions in just before fireworks. I kept tweaking it until I had what I wanted. I added a break that went from the end of lunch up to the start of fireworks and the program had no choice but to put the attractions in the morning where I wanted them. I like having the morning scheduled and leave the rest of the day open just to do what I want. Another option would have been to make my end time the same as the end of lunch and not schedule the nighttime entertainment in ridemax at all.

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

I think you're right. I'm a noob myself and my idea was to tour until 1pm have lunch, go take a break and come back for fireworks. It had me tour till 10am and then a break and then tour then lunch then it managed to squeeze some attractions in just before fireworks. I kept tweaking it until I had what I wanted. I added a break that went from the end of lunch up to the start of fireworks and the program had no choice but to put the attractions in the morning where I wanted them. I like having the morning scheduled and leave the rest of the day open just to do what I want. Another option would have been to make my end time the same as the end of lunch and not schedule the nighttime entertainment in ridemax at all.

That is a good idea - adding the large afternoon break yourself to force the software to put all of your attractions in the morning!

 

[KCarr2000]

I have been using Touring Plans for my last few trips. I subscribed to RideMax before our Christmas visit to DW, but cancelled my subscription. There were three things I didn't like about it - you could not manually change the order as you can in Touring Plans, they did not have information for Sundays, and lastly you could not get data for the EMH. It was easy to cancel my subscription though. It is interesting to see the differences in the two plans.

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

From what I've read, Touring Plans works best for WDW and RideMax works best for DLR. I've used Touring Plans at WDW and liked it (although we were always "behind" schedule - User error, I'm sure). I'm trying RideMax for my upcoming DL trip.

 

[MeeskaMooska13]

Here is my dumb question of the day (sorry in advance): For those of you who have used RideMax before, how do you access your plans while you are in the park? Do you print them off ahead of time? Or do you just access your plans on your phone via the internet while you go? Or is there an app, that I'm not seeing, that you have runnning? Seems like accessing your plans constantly through the website would waste the battery of your phone. On the other hand, RideMax encourages you to have multiple plans for one day in case you get held up somewhere. This would be a lot of unnecessary paper to handle. What's the best strategy? Thanks!

 

[lizabu]

It's my first time with ridemax but I've used touring plans before. I plan to just print it off and tuck it in my pocket. I don't plan to use multiple plans in one day. If I get held up I'll just skip things until I'm caught up.

 

[momof4fans]

Here is my dumb question of the day (sorry in advance): For those of you who have used RideMax before, how do you access your plans while you are in the park? Do you print them off ahead of time? Or do you just access your plans on your phone via the internet while you go? Or is there an app, that I'm not seeing, that you have runnning? Seems like accessing your plans constantly through the website would waste the battery of your phone. On the other hand, RideMax encourages you to have multiple plans for one day in case you get held up somewhere. This would be a lot of unnecessary paper to handle. What's the best strategy? Thanks!

I just printed them out and took each day's schedule with me. I'm not sure there is an app but I would rather not be on my phone all the time. I only had one plan for each day. It went very smooth. We were almost always ahead of schedule.

 

[momof4fans]

Planning to subscribe to ridemax...really interested to see how it works! I am used to creating my own touring plan (in WDW) so it will be fun to have a software create it for me. Of course, DH thinks I am nuts and says I should just create it myself like I do at WDW. Of course, at WDW, there is easyWDW. And after soooo much research, I know how lines develop there. Not as comfortable at DLR and HATE wasting precious time.

I think you'll like Ridemax. I hate wasting time in line as well. I debated on whether or not I should purchase it on our last trip. Finally, I thought it's $15! Big whoop! My vacation is costing thousands of dollars, why am worrying about $15? haha! And I have been so happy with it!

 

[VandVsmama]

Here is my dumb question of the day (sorry in advance): For those of you who have used RideMax before, how do you access your plans while you are in the park? Do you print them off ahead of time? Or do you just access your plans on your phone via the internet while you go? Or is there an app, that I'm not seeing, that you have runnning? Seems like accessing your plans constantly through the website would waste the battery of your phone. On the other hand, RideMax encourages you to have multiple plans for one day in case you get held up somewhere. This would be a lot of unnecessary paper to handle. What's the best strategy? Thanks!

I've used Ridemax a few times. I prefer to print out the itinerary ahead of time and bring it with me. Ridemax doesn't have an Android or iPhone app, but you can login through their regular website on your phone. But I don't want to hassle with looking up the next ride every couple of minutes and draining my phone battery down to nothing...especially since my phone doubles as our camera!

I usually print out 3 different itineraries...

1. the 1st one is my "everything goes as planned" itinerary - in other words, we all wake up on time and get to the main gate when we planned to.
2. the 2nd one is my "we woke up a little bit late" plan - For example, we slept in by 30 minutes or an hour.
3. the 3rd one is my "everything went to he** in a hand basket" plan - If we couldn't get to the main gate until a couple of hours after we originally wanted to.

Then when we get there, I just toss the other 2 that I don't need. It doesn't waste much paper if you print it double-sided, so you only have 3 pieces of paper instead of 6 or more.

I'm really anal retentive about this stuff, though. So what I'll do is on my #1 printed plan, I will also jot down the times of the shows that we are interested in seeing. Or times of parades & fireworks. Then when we ARE at the parks, I only use my phone for Mousewait, as a camera, and to find DH if he's wandered off into a store to shop.

 

[jeffg4]

You only need one plan unless you think you're going to arrive late to the park. Print it out and carry it with you. If your plan goes south at some point during the day (i.e. ride breakdowns, deviations, shows, etc.) you can access the Ridemax website via your smart phone and generate a new plan. Select a new starting time and the attractions you still want to do and voila - a new plan. It will take about 10-15 minutes to input and generate a new plan.

 

[elaine amj]

You only need one plan unless you think you're going to arrive late to the park. Print it out and carry it with you. If your plan goes south at some point during the day (i.e. ride breakdowns, deviations, shows, etc.) you can access the Ridemax website via your smart phone and generate a new plan. Select a new starting time and the attractions you still want to do and voila - a new plan. It will take about 10-15 minutes to input and generate a new plan.

So you can use your smartphone to generate a new plan? I'll have data on my iPhone and if I need to fiddle with things on the fly, I like to know there are options. I am hoping to avoid bringing my laptop on this trip.