RideMax Users Thread (FAQs Linked in First Post!)

[JReneeW]

Okay - here's a question:

How close to your vacation to you run your "final" Ridemax plans?

I'm thinking of re-doing all of my on Sunday and we leave that Friday. Should I wait until closer to our departure day or do you think that will be fine?

 

[rie'smom]

JReneeW, I think checking your plan on Sunday is fine.

 

[tpettie]

JReneeW, I think checking your plan on Sunday is fine.

I agree, It's my understanding ridemax does an update on Saturday so if you run them sunday that should be just fine.

 

[TandLMommy28]

My frustration with Ridemax right now is on my Epcot day. I put in for a 3 hour slot to tour the WS and the way it set it up, it gave us a 3 hour "free time" block before beginning the tour. Why would it do that? Obviously I'm not going to go have breakfast (late, at 10:30) at Akershus and then wait 3 hours before beginning to actually walk the WS. That's just silly.

 

[bellebookworm9]

My frustration with Ridemax right now is on my Epcot day. I put in for a 3 hour slot to tour the WS and the way it set it up, it gave us a 3 hour "free time" block before beginning the tour. Why would it do that? Obviously I'm not going to go have breakfast (late, at 10:30) at Akershus and then wait 3 hours before beginning to actually walk the WS. That's just silly.

Are you doing anything else that day besides breakfast and WS? You may not have enough things planned to fill up that extra time. Honestly, you could probably just spend 6 hours walking the showcase and still not see everything.

 

[TandLMommy28]

There's no way two kids will last 6 hours in the WS, though. 3 hours is pushing it... We still had other stuff--the Seas and all the stuff over there (the ride and Turtle Talk), the major rides (Test Track, Soarin, Mission Space) and a few other things... I've just rearranged things the way I want them a litte bit, but sticking with anything RideMax says is time sensitive.

Now my next issue is that RideMax is telling me that on DHS day, go to Toy Story Mania and get a FP but DON'T RIDE IT. Do nothing for 45 minutes and then go see Playhouse Disney Live. Why on earth wouldn't we just ride TSM while there is no line instead of getting FP and then waiting until much later to walk back and ride it hours later??? I think we will get FP, get in line and ride it, and then have the FP to go back later. I get why it says to get the FP right away... but why not just ride it if it's 1st thing in the AM and you have an open 45 minutes of "free time". We'll be taking that free time to ride it, dang it!!!

I decided that I like RideMax for getting a better sense of what we can realistically do in a day but I'm not married to it. I also have been plugging in the RideMax stuff on Touring Plans custome plan page. I like the format better and it puts everything on the map for you!

 

[bellebookworm9]

There's no way two kids will last 6 hours in the WS, though. 3 hours is pushing it... We still had other stuff--the Seas and all the stuff over there (the ride and Turtle Talk), the major rides (Test Track, Soarin, Mission Space) and a few other things... I've just rearranged things the way I want them a litte bit, but sticking with anything RideMax says is time sensitive.

Now my next issue is that RideMax is telling me that on DHS day, go to Toy Story Mania and get a FP but DON'T RIDE IT. Do nothing for 45 minutes and then go see Playhouse Disney Live. Why on earth wouldn't we just ride TSM while there is no line instead of getting FP and then waiting until much later to walk back and ride it hours later??? I think we will get FP, get in line and ride it, and then have the FP to go back later. I get why it says to get the FP right away... but why not just ride it if it's 1st thing in the AM and you have an open 45 minutes of "free time". We'll be taking that free time to ride it, dang it!!!

I decided that I like RideMax for getting a better sense of what we can realistically do in a day but I'm not married to it. I also have been plugging in the RideMax stuff on Touring Plans custome plan page. I like the format better and it puts everything on the map for you!

For Epcot, the other thing you could do is to make your starting time later and/or your ending time earlier.

For DHS, to be able to ride TSM in the span of 45 minutes you need to be AT THE ROPE. For me, this involved getting to DHS no later than 8 on a day when the park opened at 9. I don't know how old your kids are, but if that isn't feasible then I would just go the FP route. The other thing is, even if you make it to the rope, then you need to HUSTLE to beat the crowd to the ride. Also possibly a difficulty with two kids in tow. If you stop for FPs first, you're wasting precious ride time. Get the FPs after you ride. They'll still be there.

 

[Sydnerella]

For Epcot, the other thing you could do is to make your starting time later and/or your ending time earlier.

For DHS, to be able to ride TSM in the span of 45 minutes you need to be AT THE ROPE. For me, this involved getting to DHS no later than 8 on a day when the park opened at 9. I don't know how old your kids are, but if that isn't feasible then I would just go the FP route. The other thing is, even if you make it to the rope, then you need to HUSTLE to beat the crowd to the ride. Also possibly a difficulty with two kids in tow. If you stop for FPs first, you're wasting precious ride time. Get the FPs after you ride. They'll still be there.

Belle is absolutely right. Getting thru TSM within 45 minutes in time to get into the Playhouse Disney show is difficult. And DHS has so many shows that are long that it is hard to get many things in at this park. We arrived for a 9am RD at 8:30 - went to the far left gates where UG told us they would open turnstiles closer to 9 - they were right! We were first thru these turnstiles and walked quickly to the opening show with our kids and total group of 6. DD3 and I went to TSM to get the FPs for the group while others went to Jedi Academy. We were right behind the front row of people during the opening show and walked as quickly as we could - I carried her. When we got to the FP lines they were about 4 people deep at each one. It takes time to get FPs for a party of 6. We got our FPs at 9:04. By then the ride line was quite long - the queue to get inside the building was about 40 deep but moving fast (i.e. queue was not there cuz the line was this long already, just that people can only get thru the long queuing area so fast.) But we would have had at least a 20+ minute wait in this line if we chose to ride right after getting FPs.

Get your FPs AFTER riding if you are at the front of the opening show line OR just grab FPs first thing and have a relaxed walk to PHDisney browsing in stores or maybe getting a character pic at the hat.

Sydnerella's Mama

 

[tpettie]

Waiting Waiting for December dates to come out.... I want to get planning

 

[lynn_s]

I just checked - looks like Decembers in Ridemax now...off to play !

 

[tpettie]

I just checked - looks like Decembers in Ridemax now...off to play !

Yeah! My family is going to have to fend for themselfs tonight I'm other wise ocuppied

 

[boltfan]

what bothers me about it is that the EMH hours are only included for MK. Why is that? Makes realistic planning more difficult.

 

[Laurin612]

what bothers me about it is that the EMH hours are only included for MK. Why is that? Makes realistic planning more difficult.

The reason for that is that the folks at RideMax think that with the exception of MK early EMH, EMH is more of a hindrance than a benefit so they don't support it in their software. Their help site offers a pretty clear explanation of this.

 

[ekatiel]

So, on our Epcot day, I'm trying to figure out if we can eat breakfast at 'Ohana at 9:15am and still be able to get fast passes for both Soarin' and Test Track. When I input our arrival time at Epcot as 10:45am, it only has me getting a Soaring Fastpass (first thing) and then waiting stand by for Test Track. But, if I just put Test Track in and arrive at 1pm, it lets me get a FP for Test Track-- any time after 1pm, it doesn't let me, so I assume that RideMax thinks the Fps will be out by just after 1pm. So, by my calculations, I SHOULD be able to get a FP for Soarin' at 10:45, and then get a FP for Testrack at 12:45pm, right (using the 2 hour rule for FPs)?? If so, then why is the program not letting me do that? Any ideas? --Katie

 

[sandym718]

So, on our Epcot day, I'm trying to figure out if we can eat breakfast at 'Ohana at 9:15am and still be able to get fast passes for both Soarin' and Test Track. When I input our arrival time at Epcot as 10:45am, it only has me getting a Soaring Fastpass (first thing) and then waiting stand by for Test Track. But, if I just put Test Track in and arrive at 1pm, it lets me get a FP for Test Track-- any time after 1pm, it doesn't let me, so I assume that RideMax thinks the Fps will be out by just after 1pm. So, by my calculations, I SHOULD be able to get a FP for Soarin' at 10:45, and then get a FP for Testrack at 12:45pm, right (using the 2 hour rule for FPs)?? If so, then why is the program not letting me do that? Any ideas? --Katie

Do you have an end time on there? If so, it may be that RideMax thinks the FP return time would be after your departure time? Or are you on the "slow" speed- can't remember what it's called? In that case, it might not have you going over there to get the FP and then going back. If neither of those are the case, what wait time is it showing for TT? If it's not too long, maybe the "system" just thinks that's the better option?


Just realized that December 26th will be 90 days before our arrival date at Disney. Since I won't actually use Ridemax once we leave (no laptop), I think I'll plan on a day-after-Christmas treat for myself and buy the 90 day subscription. Then I can start playing a little bit!! (I know our dates won't be up yet, but I can play with "similar" dates crowd-wise, etc).

 

[sandym718]

Anyone else playing with RideMax?? I just subbed today again, for our March 26- April 2 trip. Using some February dates that are similar (on the Touring Plans crowd calendar) to my March dates.

 

[ekatiel]

Just got back on Christmas Eve. Our trip was GREAT! RideMax worked like a charm! Our longest wait times were about 15 minutes long-- and those were for park days that were 10's according to Touring Plans. I had to live without RideMax for one full park day, though . I didn't make a plan for our last full park day (12/23), b/c I wasn't sure which park we'd want to repeat. Well, I ended up being unable to access the internet all week, so I had to use touring plans Lines app to help arrange our schedule for the day. Boy, was I missing RideMax! My plan worked out OK, but I'm pretty sure RideMax would have done better! AND, the Lines App had some misinformation on it, that screwed up my plan a bit. Anyways, RideMax was once again a champ, and we had a magical time! --Katie

 

[Laurin612]

I can't believe I forgot to post back in here! I used Ridemax for my family's 11/22 to 11/29 trip (over Thanksgiving week). The crowds were huge, but we did not experience them thanks to getting to the parks before opening and using a combination of Ridemax and touringplans.com. My family was incredulous about using a plan that kept us on such a tight schedule, but they quickly became believers!

SandyM718, the dates you mentioned coincide with our school district's Spring Break, so the crowd levels may be closer to Thanksgiving or Christmas week than President's Day weekend (which I assume are the dates you are playing with).

 

[ccrosner]

We used Ridemax and TP for our 12/19 to 12/24 trip last week and found they were incredibly helpful and mostly dead on. I used Ridemax in advance to help ensure that we were picking the right parks on the right days (for example, did MK on 12/19 instead of DHS because RM made me realize that we wouldn't be able to pull FPs at DHS arriving at 2 p.m.).

After using RM to plan each day, we then used the Lines app while in the parks. I found it to be amazingly correct (the estimated times were almost always dead on including the FP return times which was particularly helpful). It was also helpful when we decided to park hop in the afternoon and could confirm which rides at another park were doable.

I will say, as others always do, that you have to be flexible even with these plans. Our first afternoon got a bit messed up from my original plan due to a late Disney bus. Had me stressing for about 30 minutes and then I remembered my DIS friends saying "Go with the flow or you won't enjoy yourself" and I was fine.

 

[sandym718]

SandyM718, the dates you mentioned coincide with our school district's Spring Break, so the crowd levels may be closer to Thanksgiving or Christmas week than President's Day weekend (which I assume are the dates you are playing with).

Thanks! Touring Plans has 2 of our park days as an 8 and a 9, but the rest are 6 or below. I know some districts have break that week, but I think they're all spread out around the country. This is a weird Spring with Easter being so late. Our break is still after Easter, so the kids only go back 1 month before summer break.