RideMax Users Thread (FAQs Linked in First Post!)

[michelle06]

Well, you've convinced me to get RideMax. I just purchased it and started playing around with it. I have a question already!

I figure we will try to do Dumbo first thing as that seems to be a consensus of all books and here. However, I put it in a start time for MK of 9:15 because I figure we will want to take a picture or just take it all in and might need a few minutes to get to Dumbo. Well, by doing that it has us at Dumbo near lunch time with a 45 minute wait. It has us doing Small World and Mickey's Philharmagic (a FP ride!) before Dumbo. I don't understand this. Seems like anytime before 10am would still be better than noon and we could just get a FP for the Philharmagic and fit it in later.

What do you all think?

Also, it seems like since the showtimes are not published until Sat for the next week, it will be impossible for me to get an accurate plan before I leave. We leave on a Saturday and don't have a laptop to take with me.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[tiggspring]

Well, you've convinced me to get RideMax. I just purchased it and started playing around with it. I have a question already!

I figure we will try to do Dumbo first thing as that seems to be a consensus of all books and here. However, I put it in a start time for MK of 9:15 because I figure we will want to take a picture or just take it all in and might need a few minutes to get to Dumbo. Well, by doing that it has us at Dumbo near lunch time with a 45 minute wait. It has us doing Small World and Mickey's Philharmagic (a FP ride!) before Dumbo. I don't understand this. Seems like anytime before 10am would still be better than noon and we could just get a FP for the Philharmagic and fit it in later.

What do you all think?

Also, it seems like since the showtimes are not published until Sat for the next week, it will be impossible for me to get an accurate plan before I leave. We leave on a Saturday and don't have a laptop to take with me.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

We were the first family on dubmbo last year. Once we got to the castle we had to wait a few minutes for them to let us out the other side of the castle. What you need to understand is Dumbo is a slow load ride. Once a line forms it jsut keeps getting longer. If you are not there in the first 5 min you will have along wait. At least 2O min.

 

[tpettie]

Well, you've convinced me to get RideMax. I just purchased it and started playing around with it. I have a question already!

I figure we will try to do Dumbo first thing as that seems to be a consensus of all books and here. However, I put it in a start time for MK of 9:15 because I figure we will want to take a picture or just take it all in and might need a few minutes to get to Dumbo. Well, by doing that it has us at Dumbo near lunch time with a 45 minute wait. It has us doing Small World and Mickey's Philharmagic (a FP ride!) before Dumbo. I don't understand this. Seems like anytime before 10am would still be better than noon and we could just get a FP for the Philharmagic and fit it in later.

What do you all think?

Also, it seems like since the showtimes are not published until Sat for the next week, it will be impossible for me to get an accurate plan before I leave. We leave on a Saturday and don't have a laptop to take with me.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

I think Ridemax has some defaults set in one of the being if you can't get to Dumbo at RD then it get placed later in the plan.

What I like to do if I think there is a small glitch in the plan ridemax is giving me it to created my own plan based on the time ridemax gives me. For example if you want to ride dumbo fist and say your expecting to get there at 9:20 with walking time then put in that start time and add in about 6-8 dumbos in a row with nothing eles. This is going to give you an example of how the time for the ride is going to get longer as the day goes on.

Then I will do that with say the first 3-4 rides I want first to see what order it gives me. I keep track of the times and the order in a spread sheet that I can print and take to the park with me.

Don't know if I helped or confused you more.

 

[michelle06]

I think Ridemax has some defaults set in one of the being if you can't get to Dumbo at RD then it get placed later in the plan.

What I like to do if I think there is a small glitch in the plan ridemax is giving me it to created my own plan based on the time ridemax gives me. For example if you want to ride dumbo fist and say your expecting to get there at 9:20 with walking time then put in that start time and add in about 6-8 dumbos in a row with nothing eles. This is going to give you an example of how the time for the ride is going to get longer as the day goes on.

Then I will do that with say the first 3-4 rides I want first to see what order it gives me. I keep track of the times and the order in a spread sheet that I can print and take to the park with me.

Don't know if I helped or confused you more.

While this seems time consuming, I find it BRILLANT. I may just play with it to get times for everything. I love to do logic puzzles and the like, so this might be fun!

 

[tpettie]

While this seems time consuming, I find it BRILLANT. I may just play with it to get times for everything. I love to do logic puzzles and the like, so this might be fun!

I have worked out a few other tricks too. I put the arrival and exit time into an hour time block say 10-11 to see what rides I can get in with ride max you have to enter a min of three rides. sometimes I do three different sometimes I do two the same one different to see time placements and such. It is very much a logic puzzle but I find it fun.

 

[jaimeadk]

Anyone tried it? Feedback good or bad so appreciated!

 

[JLR]

Here is the main thread
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2118681

I've got it - it looks helpful for planning evenings - mornings are pretty similar to what I would schedule for myself. I'll post on my experiences after my return in 2 weeks.

 

[baler31]

I have used Ridemax exclusively for the last two years and for our upcoming May trip. We have found it to be invaluable and it has been right on for the wait times. That said some of the plans do not seem like what you are used to if you have used other plans.

Make sure you utilize it fully by putting in ANY breaks you want, even for shopping or character greets. I like it much better than all the other planning tools, it is fairly simple and straightforward. I used it, it worked and much like I interact with my employees I don't care for the why or reasoning behind the decisions that takes too much time. Just get the job done and for us Ridemax has worked wonderfully.

 

[baler31]

Only down side is no Sunday planning and no EMH evening. I just input another date with hours that are close and have not had any problems.

 

[E&K's Dad]

Loved it for our Adults Only trip. We were able to accomplish more in the first few hours in the parks then in previous full days. . . .We will try it on a family trip soon but I'm not sure how effective it is going to be for us with frequent unplanned potty breaks!

 

[bwilcox]

We used it in June with a 2 and 3 year old, and it worked great. The estimates are incredibly accurate! It let us plan our day so as to spend as little time waiting in line as possible, and we got to do everything we wanted to do. You have to be pretty structured, but it is also easy to put breaks in your plan, so we put in large chunks of time in the afternoons where we could be spontaneous or "stop and smell the roses." I plan on using it everytime we go!

 

[baler31]

Loved it for our Adults Only trip. We were able to accomplish more in the first few hours in the parks then in previous full days. . . .We will try it on a family trip soon but I'm not sure how effective it is going to be for us with frequent unplanned potty breaks!

We just tell our kids that there are no bathrooms at Disney, they had to make room for rides and you just have to hold it until we return to the resort

Seriously, we have done this with kids and I just select the slow option and schedule in several breaks for bathroom time. I think you can enter up to 5 total breaks and I usually use all of those. One for lunch, two bathroom, a return to the resort break , and another for dinner or if we eat during the resort time another bathroom break. Let me say it again I was just kidding about the no bathrooms.

 

[hookedonears]

The question I have; If Ride Max gets the new WDW Park operating hours at the same time everyone else does. Since many of us like to make our ADR's 180 days in advance and Disney doesn't release the official park hours until sometime after that, how can we use Ride Max and also incorporate their strategies into our ADR's made?

 

[bellebookworm9]

RideMax doesn't post hours for a certain month until about a month and a half prior (ie, June hours were put up today, July hours will be out around May 15th). So just make your ADRs ahead of time and then when the RideMax hours come out, put in your ADR times and RideMax will schedule around them. As for the "planning strategies", they are mostly common sense. Their recommended parks tend to be the ones that don't have EMH that day, or in the case of DHS, doesn't have Fantasmic! that night.

 

[magicalfoursome]

What is ridemax??

 

[michelle06]

Does Ride Max account for Star Wars at HS in calculations? Just wondering. Debating going to HS on a SW day.

 

[bellebookworm9]

Does Ride Max account for Star Wars at HS in calculations? Just wondering. Debating going to HS on a SW day.

Do you mean do they include SWW attractions in the plans? No. Do they figure that wait times will be longer on those days? Yes. They also say to avoid DHS on a SWW day.

 

[rie'smom]

What is ridemax??

It's a touring plan system that we love!

You input:
the park
the date
arrival time
any meal breaks ( we also use these to input downtime)
rides/attractions that interest you

Press the Make My Plan button and voila a touring plan. It costs $18.95 for 90 days and $29.95 for a year. It's some of the best money spent on a Disney vacation!!!

 

[bellebookworm9]

What is ridemax??

Check out the thread in my signature. That is the "official Ridemax thread" and there are FAQs, that I wrote.

 

[CanadianPaco]

I've used Ridemax twice for DL and once for WDW...and love it. I tweak our plans, make "in case" itineries... it is wonderful! I plan one using it again this August!