I dreaded reviewing Disneyland because I hate standing in those long lines. I was researching what our California for Visitors Guide, Betsy Malloy, had written about the subject, and found her article about RideMax, which she said reduced the amount of time spent waiting in line. I tried it out for myself on a two-day visit to Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure with my friends Karen and Don and their two kids, Maya, 9 and Miles, 7. After the first hour we were all converts.
What is RideMax?
RideMax is a software program, created by Disneyland fan Mark Winters, that calculates the best time to ride each ride at Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure for the least amount of waiting and walking time and then creates an itinerary to fit your schedule. Mark and his family of park experts have gathered data on rides and visitor trends to create a program that can predict when the lines will be the shortest and what the FASTPASS time windows will be at any given time for each ride. As my friend Karen, an anthropologist, remarked, "It's great to see observation of human behavior applied in such a practical context."How Do You Use RideMax?
After launching the software, you choose which park and what date. Data is usually available up to eight weeks ahead, but it's best to do your final schedule close to your visit to have the most current data.Then you select the rides you want. It helps if you prepare this in advance, but a description of each ride appears at the bottom of the page when you click on it.
In the Plan Options, you choose what time you will start and end your day. You can also schedule two breaks.
Additionally, you can select whether your group will be walking at a normal or slow pace and whether you have someone in your group willing to act as a "runner" to go get FASTPASSES for the group.
Another variable is whether you are willing to allow late FASTPASS scheduling. This means you could be scheduled to use a FASTPASS after the hour-long window printed on the PASS has expired. This is safe to do. We were informed by a Disneyland cast member that all FASTPASSES are good from the beginning of the start hour until the end of the day.
You can also schedule water rides during the warmer hours between 10 am and 4 pm.
Checking "Display tips on plan" will provide additional tips related to the rides you choose.
What Do You Get?
Running the program may take anywhere from a couple minutes on a fast computer and connection to a half hour or more on a slow computer with dial-up. It also depends on how complicated your schedule is.br]When the program has finished its calculations, a web page will appear with a timed itinerary telling you when to show up for each ride, how long the wait should be, how many minutes the ride will take and the time you need to walk to the next attraction. If you checked "Display Tips," the tips relating to your rides will be listed at the bottom of the page.
Go ahead and check “Display Tips.” Some are helpful hints on navigating the park and others provide interesting tidbits about specific rides.
Does it Work?
It works like magic. We used RideMax in August on a Thursday for Disneyland and Friday for California Adventure and felt smarter than everyone else in the park. Some lines were actually shorter than projected and we sometimes walked faster than the "slow" that I predicted, so we got ahead of schedule and were able to fit in a couple extra rides.It was incredible to see how just a few minutes before or after our scheduled time, the line was significantly longer than in that brief window when we breezed through it.
Doesn't It Take All the Fun and Spontaneity out of Disneyland?
On the contrary, it's a great stress reducer. My friends were concerned that trying to stick to a strict itinerary might be stressful for the kids. I assured them we could go off schedule any time. However, once they saw how we walked onto the first three rides without waiting at all, they were hooked.In fact, once the kids saw that all the attractions they wanted to go on were already on the schedule, and they experienced how quickly we got on the rides, that eliminated any complaints about passing up a ride they wanted to go on. We also didn’t need to waste time discussing what to do next. We stepped off each ride and headed straight for the next one.
Continue to Making the Most of RideMax.
