Getting the Most Out of RideMax for Disneyland
RideMax recommends creating several different itineraries with different start times. I created an 8 am itinerary and an 8:30 itinerary, but we didn’t get into the park until 8:39. We were fortunate that the wait at the Indiana Jones Adventure was shorter than expected, so we were right back on schedule.
A weakness of the program is that it doesn’t include shows and parades, so they don’t get on your schedule. Another problem is that you can only schedule two breaks. That’s not enough if you plan to get there by 8 am and stay for the fireworks. We wanted to take a lunch break around 11:30, go back to the hotel to rest for a couple hours around 1:30, have dinner at 6:30 and watch the fireworks at 9:25. There was no way to factor four breaks into the program.
A weakness of the program is that it doesn’t include shows and parades, so they don’t get on your schedule. Another problem is that you can only schedule two breaks. That’s not enough if you plan to get there by 8 am and stay for the fireworks. We wanted to take a lunch break around 11:30, go back to the hotel to rest for a couple hours around 1:30, have dinner at 6:30 and watch the fireworks at 9:25. There was no way to factor four breaks into the program.
Trial and Error: Working Around the Two Break Limit
After running a series of itineraries to see what they looked like, I noticed that the program leaves free time several times a day. I used this fact to let the program determine when we would have lunch instead of specifying it myself. I scheduled the hotel break and a break for our dinner reservation. Instead of ending the day at 11 and having a break for the fireworks, I ended the day before the fireworks. This left the time after the fireworks open. The program gave us a natural break around noon long enough to grab our sandwiches from our locker and have lunch.
The disadvantage of this, is that since we were staying in the park after the fireworks, it didn't take advantage of the program’s ability to calculate the shorter lines later in the evening. We may have spent longer in a line earlier in the day, because we didn’t know we could have had a much shorter line after 10 pm.
The disadvantage of this, is that since we were staying in the park after the fireworks, it didn't take advantage of the program’s ability to calculate the shorter lines later in the evening. We may have spent longer in a line earlier in the day, because we didn’t know we could have had a much shorter line after 10 pm.
To get around this, you could run a separate itinerary for the last couple hours from 9 to 11 or 12 pm, plugging in the rides that have the longest waits on the earlier schedule to see if you can improve the wait time.
If you're totally flexible, you can start by running an itinerary with all the rides you want to do with your earliest start and latest end time and no breaks. This will give you an idea of the short wait times you can have for popular rides with no FASTPASSES at the beginning and end of the day. Since those periods have the shortest waits, the program will automatically schedule most activities at those times, leaving a break of several hours in the afternoon or evening where you can see a show, sit down for dinner or go back to your hotel to rest. If the program schedules over something specific you want to do, like watch the fireworks, you can go back and program a break at that specific time.
If you're totally flexible, you can start by running an itinerary with all the rides you want to do with your earliest start and latest end time and no breaks. This will give you an idea of the short wait times you can have for popular rides with no FASTPASSES at the beginning and end of the day. Since those periods have the shortest waits, the program will automatically schedule most activities at those times, leaving a break of several hours in the afternoon or evening where you can see a show, sit down for dinner or go back to your hotel to rest. If the program schedules over something specific you want to do, like watch the fireworks, you can go back and program a break at that specific time.
Every Change You Make Produces a Completely Different Itinerary.
If you switch from a "normal pace" to walking "slow," your whole itinerary will change. Entering "runner" versus "no runner" for FASTPASSES will do the same thing. It helped to print out several schedules, so that if there was a break in our main plan, we could look and see if something on an alternative program showed a short line at that time. However, if you get behind on your itinerary, you should skip something to get back on schedule. If you stick to the lineup, but the timing is off, you'll end up waiting and being unhappy.
We began our second RideMax day at California Adventure. Our itinerary advised us to grab FASTPASSES at Grizzly River Run and keep going to the California Screamin’ roller coaster. At Grizzly River Run, the Stand-By wait was only five minutes. I heard a chorus of "Let's just go on now!"
"RideMax says we should resist the temptation…" I mumbled, ready to give in myself.
"OK, we trust RideMax," Karen said without argument, and we went on to have another wait-free day.
RideMax is $14.95 for a 9 month subscription or $24.95 for a year. This investment will drastically increase the value of your Disneyland vacation. I won't visit Disneyland again without it.
Return to RideMax Basics
We began our second RideMax day at California Adventure. Our itinerary advised us to grab FASTPASSES at Grizzly River Run and keep going to the California Screamin’ roller coaster. At Grizzly River Run, the Stand-By wait was only five minutes. I heard a chorus of "Let's just go on now!"
"RideMax says we should resist the temptation…" I mumbled, ready to give in myself.
"OK, we trust RideMax," Karen said without argument, and we went on to have another wait-free day.
RideMax is $14.95 for a 9 month subscription or $24.95 for a year. This investment will drastically increase the value of your Disneyland vacation. I won't visit Disneyland again without it.
Return to RideMax Basics
