Ridemax questions

[cemeb4dk]

Thanks for looking and offering any advice you can.

I am 27 days from our first family vacation to Disneyland, we are wdw vets and complete newbs to DL. We will have 4 full days and 2 half days at the parks. So I hope that gives us enough time to see and do everything. I just read a bunch of threads on Ridemax ( I have never heard of it) So I read those threads and then went to there website. But it left me with a question that I couldn't find an answer for.

Does it make you rush thru the parks commando style and not take in the park itself. I don't want to be feeling like we are rushing to the minute to be some place at a precise minute. I understand you put your times of arrival and departure in and possibly select rides you want to ride and it will formulate a plan of attack. But I dont want to feel like we are rushing from point a to point b all day long just to save a few minutes in a line.

Its not the money aspect of the $15 or so for it, its just I dont want the feeling of being rushed or telling my 6 year old daughter she can't look at something because Ridemax wont allow us.

Also do they offer up times for character pics and autographs.


Thanks for any help, as I see the appeal if your a commando style and have a day to do it in. But does it work well for first time families.

 

[kayleigh83]

Hey there!

I got RideMax for my trip and was using it to make my trip plans just the other day, so I can definitely answer your questions!

Does it make you rush thru the parks commando style and not take in the park itself. I don't want to be feeling like we are rushing to the minute to be some place at a precise minute. I understand you put your times of arrival and departure in and possibly select rides you want to ride and it will formulate a plan of attack. But I dont want to feel like we are rushing from point a to point b all day long just to save a few minutes in a line.

RideMax (RM) will let you input your groups walking speed, as either normal or slow, so in your case slow may be best! It seems to have a minimum and maximum number of rides based on the time frame you input, and probably also on whether you selected all E-tickets or mostly smaller rides... I've had it tell me I haven't put in enough attractions, or that I've put in too many for my time frame.

I find it gives quite a few free time periods, and what looks like a realistic amount of time to get from one attraction to the other. I suppose though that if you really wanted to make sure you had time to sort of "meander" between rides, you could make a plan where every second or third ride was a "filler" ride you didn't actually intend to go on, fiddle with it until RideMax seems to have dispersed those rides fairly evenly in your plan, then print it out and cross them off your plan! Then you have a little more time to play with. This would probably only work if you input attractions that were fairly slow and didn't get lineups that were very long. It would take some playing but I bet it could be done!

With that said, my experience with RM thus far is only planning, not use... hopefully someone else can weigh in on the other side of it!

EDIT: Another note I wanted to add... since you're getting to be there for so many days, it may be worth it to go a *little* more commando-ish the first 2-3 days to make sure you do get to ride everything you want to, and then the rest of the trip be much more relaxed. In my plans, the first few days are planned very carefully, but by the last half of the last day there's literally no plan except "Be in Disneyland - ride what you like". I want to make sure I don't miss anything but once I've ticked everything off my list, then it's just kind of free time to re-do whatever I'd like!

 

[NiceOneSimba]

We used the "slow" speed and felt like there was plenty of time to take things in, and even squeeze in extra rides here and there. There's also built in downtime, when you can do whatever you want.

I found it to be really fun to play around with the different ride combinations. If you want more downtime, just pick fewer rides each day!

We loved it--we rode everything we want with minimal waiting, and no stress about what we should be doing next.

 

[HydroGuy]

Thanks for looking and offering any advice you can.

I am 27 days from our first family vacation to Disneyland, we are wdw vets and complete newbs to DL. We will have 4 full days and 2 half days at the parks. So I hope that gives us enough time to see and do everything. I just read a bunch of threads on Ridemax ( I have never heard of it) So I read those threads and then went to there website. But it left me with a question that I couldn't find an answer for.

Does it make you rush thru the parks commando style and not take in the park itself. I don't want to be feeling like we are rushing to the minute to be some place at a precise minute. I understand you put your times of arrival and departure in and possibly select rides you want to ride and it will formulate a plan of attack. But I dont want to feel like we are rushing from point a to point b all day long just to save a few minutes in a line.

Its not the money aspect of the $15 or so for it, its just I dont want the feeling of being rushed or telling my 6 year old daughter she can't look at something because Ridemax wont allow us.

Also do they offer up times for character pics and autographs.


Thanks for any help, as I see the appeal if your a commando style and have a day to do it in. But does it work well for first time families.

No times in the itinerary for characters or autographs.

And no, RideMax does not "make" you do anything. It is a tool. Like a car. Does your car "make" you drive it fast when you are in a hurry?

RM will help you organize your ride order to minimize wasted time. You can schedule "breaks". And if you try and follow an itinerary and you feel too rushed, then either stop following the itinerary or skip some things.

 

[CateinPhoenix]

We recently spent 5 days in the park and used Ridemax. The first day was a half day, we walked slowly and took in all the ambience, took pictures and got our bearings, rode JC, POTC, HM, had dinner, Pooh ride and then F! and FW. This was all very leisurely. The next 4 days we kept a much tighter schedule, utilizing EE and rope drops. I have a 6 year old also and he never once complained about wanting to see something that wasn't on that day's schedule. It was all so perfectly choreographed that him and my husband were amazed that we never had to wait more than 5-10 minutes for anything. (one exception- the 2nd time we rode TSMM because it was broken down in the morning at rope drop).
YMMV but I think Ridemax is well worth it!

 

[ArchOwl]

Thanks for looking and offering any advice you can.

I am 27 days from our first family vacation to Disneyland, we are wdw vets and complete newbs to DL. We will have 4 full days and 2 half days at the parks. So I hope that gives us enough time to see and do everything. I just read a bunch of threads on Ridemax ( I have never heard of it) So I read those threads and then went to there website. But it left me with a question that I couldn't find an answer for.

Does it make you rush thru the parks commando style and not take in the park itself. I don't want to be feeling like we are rushing to the minute to be some place at a precise minute. I understand you put your times of arrival and departure in and possibly select rides you want to ride and it will formulate a plan of attack. But I dont want to feel like we are rushing from point a to point b all day long just to save a few minutes in a line.

Its not the money aspect of the $15 or so for it, its just I dont want the feeling of being rushed or telling my 6 year old daughter she can't look at something because Ridemax wont allow us.

Also do they offer up times for character pics and autographs.


Thanks for any help, as I see the appeal if your a commando style and have a day to do it in. But does it work well for first time families.

I've used Ridemax quite a bit and found it to be very helpful. Basically, it will tell you what time to collect FPs and what time to ride. One helpful tip is to pay attention to the itinerary. It bolds what rides and FPs are time sensitive and should be done. What is less time sensitive and can be moved around is in regular text. You can make decisions based on that and if you feel like skipping something or lingering, you can do so.

I will echo what others have said that you can adjust the time to "slow" and put in breaks, etc. Also, just put in fewer rides to begin with and the itinerary will already be fairly leisurely. I have almost always been ahead of schedule and never felt like I was too rushed.

Nowadays, I mainly use Ridemax in the morning. It gives me the schedule for rides better done in the morning hours and what order to collect my FPs. I don't really use it as much in the evening, which is mainly FP redemption and watching shows, etc.

I don't consider long lines magical, so I am willing to be a little busy in the morning and leisurely in the afternoon/evenings. It is not unusual for DH and I to have 6 or 7 sets of FPs by the early evening. It makes the evenings very nice.

I would recommend it and see how your family likes it. If you don't find it helpful, Ridemax will give you a full refund.

 

[quantumottle]

If you're not the FP runner, I find Ridemax to actually be too slow, even in regular mode. If you ARE the FP runner, it's about right. This may be inaccurate for small children however, my daughter was 6 when we used RM last and it was perfect for us.

Having said that, i tweak it like crazy and end up with my own revised itinerary. Following RM ver batim is probably good for a first timer, but after your first day I'd mix it up a bit to go with your families style.

 

[BayGirl22]

Can you really tweak your schedule in RideMax? I just got a subscription last night to try it. I don't like that I can't schedule shows, meals, etc in with the details, I just have to add breaks in the schedule. And it just wants you to skip Magic Morning and schedule that off-line. I'd prefer to have one itinerary with all our activities mapped out, and I already have some preconceived plans for ride order. It seems to autogenerate a plan, but not offer much flexibility for personalization. But I may be using it wrong, so correct me if I'm off base. It also only works 30 days out and I'm going in Sept, so I have to wait to use it.

I had been playing with Touring Plans and I think I like the features for the Personalized Plans better. There are some glitchy things, like I can't always drag and drop things the way I want to. But overall I can either have them optimize my plan, or just put in the order I want and have it populate with timings. I thought Ridemax may be a better interface but so far I'm not impressed.

 

[kayleigh83]

Can you really tweak your schedule in RideMax? I just got a subscription last night to try it. I don't like that I can't schedule shows, meals, etc in with the details, I just have to add breaks in the schedule. And it just wants you to skip Magic Morning and schedule that off-line. I'd prefer to have one itinerary with all our activities mapped out, and I already have some preconceived plans for ride order. It seems to autogenerate a plan, but not offer much flexibility for personalization. But I may be using it wrong, so correct me if I'm off base. It also only works 30 days out and I'm going in Sept, so I have to wait to use it.

I had been playing with Touring Plans and I think I like the features for the Personalized Plans better. There are some glitchy things, like I can't always drag and drop things the way I want to. But overall I can either have them optimize my plan, or just put in the order I want and have it populate with timings. I thought Ridemax may be a better interface but so far I'm not impressed.

Although you can't actually plop in a section on your plan that's called "Breakfast" or anything, you can schedule in breaks and just remember that it's for a meal. In my case, I plan to head out of the parks midday for a break at the hotel... so I schedule a shorter break in the morning for breakfast (I just write "Breakfast" next to that slot on my printout) and have a break from say about 1-5 and plan to have lunch right around 1 and dinner right around 5.

Even if you were going to have no midday break, I know RM only lets you input two breaks, but it also gives you natural free time, so you can schedule say, breakfast and lunch, and see what sort of natural free-time crops up in the evening, and do dinner then. Or drop out a ride or two in the evening schedule and do dinner instead, if not enough free time appears. I scheduled breaks every day of my trip and tried to cram what I thought was plenty of rides in, but many of my days have 30 minute or even close to 1 hr "free time" breaks in them. Perfect for meals, snacks, whatever!

Just wanted to add as well... I also had some preconceived ideas about what order to ride things in, and for the most part RM was helpful in accomodating that, with a bit of fiddling. But the thing is, if you already know exactly what order you want to ride things in (more or less) why would you need a program? Just make your list! Then you would have to deal with whatever length of lines there were when you got there because you had chosen the order to ride in. The point of RM is that by saying what rides you want to ride, and letting it decide the order, you minimize the amount of time spent in line, and get to ride more rides by the end of the day. If it's more important to you to ride things in a certain order (which I can understand!) then you may just want to forgo any programs, and just write out your own list!

 

[squirrel]

Would Ride Max be good for a person that has been to DL/WDW before? I kind of know what rides will have lines at certain times and which ones have FP/Single rider.

I understand the FP system and I use Touring Plans for picking days (WDW).

Would it really help me? I'm going with my mom so we won't be too interested in the FL rides. Might do them all once.

We will have four days and are going in the off season to DL/DCA.

 

[BayGirl22]

Although you can't actually plop in a section on your plan that's called "Breakfast" or anything, you can schedule in breaks and just remember that it's for a meal. In my case, I plan to head out of the parks midday for a break at the hotel... so I schedule a shorter break in the morning for breakfast (I just write "Breakfast" next to that slot on my printout) and have a break from say about 1-5 and plan to have lunch right around 1 and dinner right around 5.

Even if you were going to have no midday break, I know RM only lets you input two breaks, but it also gives you natural free time, so you can schedule say, breakfast and lunch, and see what sort of natural free-time crops up in the evening, and do dinner then. Or drop out a ride or two in the evening schedule and do dinner instead, if not enough free time appears. I scheduled breaks every day of my trip and tried to cram what I thought was plenty of rides in, but many of my days have 30 minute or even close to 1 hr "free time" breaks in them. Perfect for meals, snacks, whatever!

Just wanted to add as well... I also had some preconceived ideas about what order to ride things in, and for the most part RM was helpful in accomodating that, with a bit of fiddling. But the thing is, if you already know exactly what order you want to ride things in (more or less) why would you need a program? Just make your list! Then you would have to deal with whatever length of lines there were when you got there because you had chosen the order to ride in. The point of RM is that by saying what rides you want to ride, and letting it decide the order, you minimize the amount of time spent in line, and get to ride more rides by the end of the day. If it's more important to you to ride things in a certain order (which I can understand!) then you may just want to forgo any programs, and just write out your own list!

I hear you. Some of what I'm trying to schedule around are things like meal reservations and events like parades and shows that I want to remember times for and not miss. The actual order of the rides is not that important to me, but I'm also trying to work in child swap rides during (stroller) naptime and stuff like that. So for our family it ends up being a lot of breaks and making sure we are near a kid-friendly area while mom or dad sneak off to do an adult ride. The times when I'm trying to really order the rides is for EE and snagging FP early on. It also helps to know the potential wait/walk times for the rides I have planned. I'll be there in very low season so optimization is less of an issue overall.

So I guess I'm not using RideMax for exactly what its intended to- to mimimize wait times and maximize ride time on e-ticket rides. But I am a bit OCD and love to have all of my decisions built into a pretty program that I can view on my phone. I also have a spreadsheet so maybe I'll end up using that more.

 

[kayleigh83]

I hear you. Some of what I'm trying to schedule around are things like meal reservations and events like parades and shows that I want to remember times for and not miss. The actual order of the rides is not that important to me, but I'm also trying to work in child swap rides during (stroller) naptime and stuff like that. So for our family it ends up being a lot of breaks and making sure we are near a kid-friendly area while mom or dad sneak off to do an adult ride. The times when I'm trying to really order the rides is for EE and snagging FP early on. It also helps to know the potential wait/walk times for the rides I have planned. I'll be there in very low season so optimization is less of an issue overall.

So I guess I'm not using RideMax for exactly what its intended to- to mimimize wait times and maximize ride time on e-ticket rides. But I am a bit OCD and love to have all of my decisions built into a pretty program that I can view on my phone. I also have a spreadsheet so maybe I'll end up using that more.

My situation too! I am going for 5 full days and I have at least one show or parade every day, so those are all scheduled in. You can do lots of trial and error in RM too.... make a plan, schedule in some breaks, see how much free time it gives you. If it doesn't seem like enough, take out a few rides, see how it looks. It's very customizable!

To give an example, here's a rough outline of one day (leaving out ride details to save space, I'll just put in the number of rides scheduled in that time frame):

8:15 - rides (1 and 1 FP grab)
8:51 - scheduled break (for breakfast)
9:31 - rides (4 rides, 1 FP grab)
12:30 - free time (spontaneously scheduled by RM, I'm going to use it to ride the Railroad around the park but you could do anything with it)
1:07 - FP grab
1:12 - scheduled break (for lunch, midday hotel break)
5:42 - free time (spontaneously scheduled by RM as soon as we get back to the parks after our break, works nicely because we can grab dinner, walk around doing whatever we feel like, and get to the fireworks show at 9:30. Our free time continues after the show too.)
10:30 - rides (5)

So there I've got a decent number of rides scheduled by RM (keep in mind this day is mostly E-tickets, if I was riding more small rides I could probably have even more) and in all the free time I have, I could cram in a LOT more rides, or a lot more hanging around enjoying the scenery. Whatever I feel like! I just added and subtracted rides until RM came up with an itinerary that had the kind of free time that suited me.

 

[cemeb4dk]

Thank you all for taking the time and answer and offer other ideas and thoughts. Once I get passed my return date I will order it so I'm passed the 30 day return window, if it doesn't work out. But it sounds worth it, just to even get thru the morning or even the first few days. I'm sure it's easier to understand once you have it on hand.

How is the mobile aspect of it, not keen on carrying a print out. Also has anyone added it to their google calendar for easier following.

Thanks again.