RideMax Users Thread (FAQs Linked in First Post!)

[KidaniMom]

WOW - that is so cool. How did I not know that? So if you are there at the entrance around 8:15 or so - they will let you down main street before it opens and let you wait at the castle - I am so psyched to know that - THANKS !

 

[vicki_c]

WOW - that is so cool. How did I not know that? So if you are there at the entrance around 8:15 or so - they will let you down main street before it opens and let you wait at the castle - I am so psyched to know that - THANKS !

Just to clarify - that's not really how it works. Often they let you in at RD #1 (train station) early enough to walk to RD #2 (one at the castle, one at Tomorrowland - at least when Space was open - now it might be at Adventureland, I don't know, maybe both) before the rope drops. It's not 8:15. It's closer to 8:50 ish most of the times we've been there. You don't get let on to Main Street ahead of the rope drop at the train station unless you have a breakfast reservation.

 

[dansamy]

Just to clarify - that's not really how it works. Often they let you in at RD #1 (train station) early enough to walk to RD #2 (one at the castle, one at Tomorrowland - at least when Space was open - now it might be at Adventureland, I don't know, maybe both) before the rope drops. It's not 8:15. It's closer to 8:50 ish most of the times we've been there. You don't get let on to Main Street ahead of the rope drop at the train station unless you have a breakfast reservation.

Right. You line up at the turnstiles 30-45mins before opening time. They start letting people through to the first rope under the train station. Then, they do the little show, which you can't see because you are under the train station. Then, they let you through to the one under the castle.

 

[Danauk]

So if you have been to an early breakfast before the park opens and have finished before rope drop where do they hold you? Are you allowed to walk to the entrance to a land and wait there until the park opens?

 

[Tiggerific04]

I just downloaded RideMax today and am having some trouble getting an AK itinerary that seems to make any sense.

June 21 (using June 20 since the 21st is a Sunday)
There are 4 of us: me, DH, and my parents
DH and my mom don't do rollercoasters
My mom probably won't do Kali

I'm trying to find a way to do EE, the safari, Kali, and ITTBAB with lunch at Pizzafari at 11am. RM either had us waiting in the standby line for EE for 52 minutes while the FP runner gets FPs for the safari, or it has us waiting 45 minutes for the safari while the FP runner gets FPs for EE.

Isn't there a way to do both without having to wait so long for either?
I've only been to WDW 5 times, so am not an expert by any means, but DH and I have never had to wait that long (in August). Help?

 

[vicki_c]

I just downloaded RideMax today and am having some trouble getting an AK itinerary that seems to make any sense.

June 21 (using June 20 since the 21st is a Sunday)
There are 4 of us: me, DH, and my parents
DH and my mom don't do rollercoasters
My mom probably won't do Kali

I'm trying to find a way to do EE, the safari, Kali, and ITTBAB with lunch at Pizzafari at 11am. RM either had us waiting in the standby line for EE for 52 minutes while the FP runner gets FPs for the safari, or it has us waiting 45 minutes for the safari while the FP runner gets FPs for EE.

Isn't there a way to do both without having to wait so long for either?
I've only been to WDW 5 times, so am not an expert by any means, but DH and I have never had to wait that long (in August). Help?

I'm guessing it has something to do with what time you put in for leaving the park? Try adjusting that a bit and see what happens. It's created some quirky plans for me too - one of our MK plans had things in the wrong time order - like it said 11:05 do this and the next line said 10:30 - do that (and I think there wasn't even enough time in there anyway)! But when I ran it again a few weeks later that seemed to be corrected.

You might also try removing your lunch break and seeing where a break might naturally fall and see how it looks. Or move lunch to 11:30.

 

[CAbryan]

Okay I am going to give out my top secret tip thumbsup2, you know the same types of tips like that "secret" fishing hole.

The way I like to use RM (note have only tested it for DL/DCA so jury is out if this will work well for our DW trip)...

Anyway to the goods, I use RM to give me a break down of waits per hour on each ride. Now its not exact cause sometimes like lets say TSM the wait is 30m at park open but 15minutes after opening 90minutes. In that case I either make note of the massive wait time jump between hours or just round up. Works pretty good though if one doesn't want to use RM in the strictest sense of being at a certain ride exactly at 9:15am...

PHEW that was longer then I thought.

 

[Tiggerific04]

I'm guessing it has something to do with what time you put in for leaving the park? Try adjusting that a bit and see what happens. It's created some quirky plans for me too - one of our MK plans had things in the wrong time order - like it said 11:05 do this and the next line said 10:30 - do that (and I think there wasn't even enough time in there anyway)! But when I ran it again a few weeks later that seemed to be corrected.

You might also try removing your lunch break and seeing where a break might naturally fall and see how it looks. Or move lunch to 11:30.

I figured it out last night when I took some time to read the RM "tips" -- I chose Saturday as an alternate for Sunday, but that was an "avoid" day for AK. I switched to the next closest "recommended" day and it makes MUCH more sense now!

CAbryan -- That's kind of how I'm using RM. I know we're not going to be able to follow the plans to the minute, but it's nice to have an idea of what wait times will be like at certain times of the day.

 

[CUthere]

We are going to DHS on Sunday 6/7. What day would be the best to use to make a plan? I am using Saturday 6/6, but it is not allowing much probably because of SWW.

 

[WDW Princess 71]

Hi all! I just got back from another great trip, 5/24-5/31, and this was my first one using RM. I am now a happy, VERY satisfied customer and cannot say enough in words how surprised and thrilled that it worked like magic. We used it for each park and it was exactly right. I was a bit pessimistic at first because it seemed too good to be true, but with the money back guarantee, i figured what the heck, why not try it. Well, not only were the times accurate (time to walk to each attraction, wait time, ride time), but I also noticed that the order that it picks the rides in is dead on too, because we would do a ride at the specified time with no wait, then walk by it 15 minutes later and the line would be 30 minutes! It was shocking and pleasant to see at the same time! I am a super planner so I loved playing with the program ahead of time and I loved using it in the parks even more because it made me feel like I had the upper hand and allowed us to be as productive as possible with our time.

I can't wait to use RM again when I go for our short trip to WDW 12/30-1/2 before our Disney cruise. It will be extremely busy at that time so I'm counting on RM to once again help us make the most out of our days.

I will say this, my only mini-complaint is that I think the 'normal' mode should be called 'fast' mode...it was only my brother and I, age 18 and 22 and able to power walk and zig and zag through the crowds and rope drop, and we were really working hard to keep up with the plan in the first half our of each day. I'm not really confident that a family with younger kids could keep up with that pace...RM does have the 'slow' mode but they recommend that usually for larger groups...maybe a family could chime in and let me know how it worked for them in normal mode, but for us normal was pretty darn fast for just 2 able-bodied adults to keep up with.

Just wanted to give you all my two cents from my firsthand experience with RM this past week! I'm also going to Disneyland in CA this November so I'm planning to purchase RM for that too, can't wait to use it again!

 

[MamaCrush]

Thanks so much WDW Princess! It's so nice to hear that the plan works. And thanks especially for your thoughts on the normal mode. We will have two kids on our group so you've given me something to think about. Glad you had a great trip!

 

[Madzac]

We loved it too!!

About the slow v normal... we used slow at MK and at Epcot( we have 3 kids, two were in strollers and my mom who isnt the fastest walker). We got WAY ahead at Epcot, so I think I might use normal next time. At MK I was glad we were on slow because that was harder to navigate, especially with strollers and such. We used normal at DHS and AK and didnt have much trouble there. We found that Ridemax was often a bit conservative and we usually ended up ahead of our plans so that helped if we were a little slower getting to something else.

 

[MamaCrush]

We loved it too!!

About the slow v normal... we used slow at MK and at Epcot( we have 3 kids, two were in strollers and my mom who isnt the fastest walker). We got WAY ahead at Epcot, so I think I might use normal next time. At MK I was glad we were on slow because that was harder to navigate, especially with strollers and such. We used normal at DHS and AK and didnt have much trouble there. We found that Ridemax was often a bit conservative and we usually ended up ahead of our plans so that helped if we were a little slower getting to something else.

What a great idea! It never occurred to me to use different speeds for different parks. And it makes perfect sense to use slow at MK. Thanks!

 

[WDW Princess 71]

We loved it too!!

About the slow v normal... we used slow at MK and at Epcot( we have 3 kids, two were in strollers and my mom who isnt the fastest walker). We got WAY ahead at Epcot, so I think I might use normal next time. At MK I was glad we were on slow because that was harder to navigate, especially with strollers and such. We used normal at DHS and AK and didnt have much trouble there. We found that Ridemax was often a bit conservative and we usually ended up ahead of our plans so that helped if we were a little slower getting to something else.

I agree about RM being more towards the conservative side with estimated times...although we felt a little rushed from rope drop for the first half hour trying to stay on track with the times, after that we did find ourselves ahead of schedule at all of the parks by a few minutes for each successive attraction. so all in all, even though the opening half hour was a little crazy, after that we were more relaxed and followed the plan easily and stress free.

 

[i12go2wdw]

I am sure this has been answered but it is too early in the morning to read all the posts I have missed, is it possible to download Ridemax onto 2 computers in the same household? We have used it for Disneyland many times and my husband and I both want to try the DW format and we don't share well

 

[jana616]

I am sure this has been answered but it is too early in the morning to read all the posts I have missed, is it possible to download Ridemax onto 2 computers in the same household? We have used it for Disneyland many times and my husband and I both want to try the DW format and we don't share well

I had asked this on here a while back, and Mark e-mailed me personally to say that as long as you're in the same household it's fine. HTH!

 

[ScotnSteph]

I am sure this has been answered but it is too early in the morning to read all the posts I have missed, is it possible to download Ridemax onto 2 computers in the same household? We have used it for Disneyland many times and my husband and I both want to try the DW format and we don't share well

Yes. I installed RideMax on my desktop and then realized I wanted it on my DH's laptop so that I could take it with me on my trip. I contacted Mark and he said no problem as long as I was using it for the same household.

 

[HDJA]

Every time I do a Ridemax plan, it schedules at least a 2-4 hour break in our afternoon or even after having only 3 rides scheduled in the morning. Is there anyway to make a plan without such a long break, or even no breaks at all?

 

[vicki_c]

Every time I do a Ridemax plan, it schedules at least a 2-4 hour break in our afternoon or even after having only 3 rides scheduled in the morning. Is there anyway to make a plan without such a long break, or even no breaks at all?

I'd say you don't have enough attractions in your plan then - add more.

None of my plans look like that, or have us only riding 3 things in the morning. Are you arriving at rope drop time or later? That could have something to do with the morning part. Late arrival could potentially have a very large impact on how much you do in the morning - not just because you have an hour or two less in total time, but because of how the lines build and when you can get FPs.

 

[Mama to Three]

And for a Sunday plan, just enter in a random day of the week and follow it?