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View Full Version : 2 complaints about ridemax



Doug
07-08-2005, 07:10 PM
1) it does not let you schedule rides in both DL and DCA in one shot, why not?
2) You can not choose any Sundays! My next time at DLR will be 7/17 ... why no Sunday info?

jennia
07-08-2005, 07:17 PM
I'm not sure why no Sundays for RideMax. I always just ran the Saturday before our Sunday visit and it worked for us! Obviously July 17 will be **different** though. I'm not sure anyone could predict the wait times for that day! :eek:

SCUBAbe
07-08-2005, 07:45 PM
The directions say to run a saturday for sunday and it's not that difficult to schedule 8am to 12pn in dl and 12:30pm to whenever in DCA...I really don't understand the compliants??:confused:

and it's been a while since I read the instructions, but I think they explain why there is no sunday info...and you can easily e-mail them with yoru concerns. they respond quickly.:)

Crazy4DL
07-08-2005, 08:08 PM
..and you can easily e-mail them with yoru concerns. they respond quickly.:)

I will second that - I had a question and emailed them and had an answer within 24 hours. They were great.

Also RideMaxMark is on MP so hopefully he will see this and give you an answer - or you can PM him.

GrumpyUTboi
07-09-2005, 06:52 AM
My only complaint is that my personality is a "P" which does not like structure and ridemax would take the fun and spontinaity out of DL. Ride this ride at this time then go to this ride at this time and so forth. Who wants that type of structure when you are at the greatest place on earth? I guess all of you "J" type personality people do and that is why ridemax is so popular with you,

Crazy4DL
07-09-2005, 07:02 AM
My only complaint is that my personality is a "P" which does not like structure and ridemax would take the fun and spontaneity out of DL. Ride this ride at this time then go to this ride at this time and so forth. Who wants that type of structure when you are at the greatest place on earth? I guess all of you "J" type personality people do and that is why ridemax is so popular with you,

We are trying in out for the first time this summer. I don't know what you mean by P or J type of personality? We have a very large family group coming (which is the norm with us) and we find ourselves spending time trying to figure out who is going to decide what we do next and then having that person decide and everyone else agree to it :rolleyes: ;) so we are thinking RideMax will give us something to follow but I don't see it completely taking the spontaneity out of DL for us at all. If it doesn't work for us I don't think we HAVE to follow it ;) :D

GrumpyUTboi
07-09-2005, 07:12 AM
Briggs-Meyer has different personality types. A "P" personality is one that does not like structure. We do not follow a set schedule. We do not have a planner that says we are going to to A-B-C in a certain order. If we want to accomplish E then go to B so be it.

A "J" type personality is one that needs structure and when they do not have structure they struggle with it. They must do A-B-C-D-E in sequence. It drives them crazy if things come up and they can't do what they have scheduled in order.

To me being a "P" personality and with my large family that goes to DL we would rather go on a ride when we feel like it, not what ridemax says we need to do. Plus doesn't it cost money to get ridemax?

What are you going to do when Ridemax says at 11:30 the Indy ride is the best time and you have just gotten off of Splash Mountain but the kids want to ride POTC? A "J" personality would say "NO! Ridemax states this and this is what we are doing". A "P" person would rip up ridemax and go on POTC and catch Indy at a later time.

Shortiemetoo
07-09-2005, 07:19 AM
I keep saying I am going to get ridemax and try it...and then never follow through...I was finally going to get it for this trip but I thought about it and I think it is going to be so crowded from the 14th until the 19th that even ridemax would blow a fuse...lol
I think I will just do it the old fashioned way...and try to use the fast pass infor that Darkbeer posted!!! Next trip...if i go in early december I am not sure if I will need ridemax or not...I've never been there that time of the year!

Crazy4DL
07-09-2005, 07:24 AM
GrumpyUTboi, how many adults are in your "herd" :D Our herd is 9 adults and 7 kids so like it or not we have to have a bit of structure - else we will be that annoying bunch that everyone talks about on here, who is standing in the middle of the walkways trying to decide what we all want to do next.

We have lots of days so we will be able to do everything more than once, so even if someone has to wait to go on the POTC they will have plenty of ops to do it.

I do know what you are saying though - but we are just going to give this a try. Knowing our bunch it seems like it will make the trip more relaxing.

I only cost abut $10 for a 3 month subscription and $20 for a yr (if I remember correctly) We are such geeks we subcribed (and paid for a yr) early just so we could play with the schedule :rolleyes: :geek: :D

Shortiemetoo
07-09-2005, 07:39 AM
Ruthie YOU are NOT a geek!!! you are smart :D and want your family to have a wonderful vacation ;) !!! I think its a great idea to have a structure of some sort with that many people in your party...man alive...trying to get them all to agree on the same ride would be very difficult :eek: I would think.
Especially with all age groups. If it were all teenagers...or all adults...that would be easier...I say smart move...and playing with ridemax is what would make it fun I would think!!!
Does it tell you when to get your fastpasses also?

Crazy4DL
07-09-2005, 07:47 AM
!!!
Does it tell you when to get your fastpasses also?

Thank you! and yes it does :)

We are all excited Shortie, RideMax only has the next about 2 months worth of days available to actually schedule so we have just been "playing" with misc days BUT now our REAL days are showing up on RideMax !!! woooo whoooo means our trip is getting close :D

SCUBAbe
07-09-2005, 07:47 AM
Does it tell you when to get your fastpasses also?
yes, it tells you when to get the FP when to use it...ect. We use the schedule more as guidelines. If it tell us to get a FP for splash, but the wait is only 10 min we don't get the FP we just wait. then we don't have to walk down to that conjested area of the park again later. :) it is a wonderful program. The first time we used it my parenst threw a fit. my mother," I have NEVER donr DL on a schedule!! I can't believe YOU brougth a schedule!!!"....my mother after suing the schedule and heading for the 4th ride on it. "Thsi si great. I have never been on so many rides so early. Whats next?" my mother after we finished the schedule 3 hours ahead of schedule, "We did everyhting already?" i have never been on that many rides in one day at DL. Do you have a schedule for tomorrow?"

we don't use it everytime we go. We won't use it this weekend, because we are planning on doing the in park quest, the tour for it, space, splash and indy....we don't care if we get on any other rides at DL. Sunday we will be in DCA and to be honest you don't need a schedule for that park. It's never that busy over there..:)

I need to egt going or I'm going to hit traffic on my way to DL. :)

rentayenta
07-09-2005, 09:26 AM
My only complaint is that my personality is a "P" which does not like structure and ridemax would take the fun and spontinaity out of DL. Ride this ride at this time then go to this ride at this time and so forth. Who wants that type of structure when you are at the greatest place on earth? I guess all of you "J" type personality people do and that is why ridemax is so popular with you,


I am a ENFJ! :D And I dig structure- not ridigity, but structure.

HydroGuy
07-09-2005, 09:34 AM
I bought RideMax for our upcoming trip in August. I have used it quite a bit to test how it works, but have not used it in the sense that I have implemented an itinerary. With that caveat, here is some feedback.

1. RideMax does give you an itinerary to follow based on your desired rides. Some people think this ruins spontaneity, and it might. Others see it as a stress reducer in that it minimizes time waiting in line. It also reduces potential arguments on "what to do next", since all in the group know when their favorite ride is scheduled. Finally, it reduces wasted time looking at maps and trying to decide what to do next.

2. RideMax documentation itself encourages people to get buy-in from their group ahead of time, rather trying to force an itinerary on people.

3. RideMax documentation itself says that it provides the most value during busy days.

4. RideMax is very FastPass savvy. It knows about all of the tricks, and can also create itineraries for those lucky few with Enhanced FastPass.

5. RideMax will provide more value to the less savvy DL guests. For example, a first timer may have no idea how the lines build up on which attractions, or on how to use Fastpass. These people will get the most. I am more DL savvy, and in many cases I think my seat-of-the-pants decision making can get me on more rides than RideMax if I am shooting for say 20-30 rides during mid-summer. Why would I think that? Well, for a couple reasons. One, because RideMax has to use some conservatism to make sure there is enough time to follow the itinerary. So it tends to overestimate wait times. If you know what you are doing at DL, and your group is not so big that people will argue a lot about what to do next, you can follow your own spontaneous schedule and do better than RideMax. Second, RideMax cannot account for FP "runners". This is when the family jumps in line for say Matterhorn while superdad (yours truly) is the runner and takes all the entrance tix to say Indy and gets FastPasses for everyone, and then joins the family back in line. This type of parallel time efficiency can't be handled by RideMax.

As a test I wanted to see if RideMax could get me on every single DL ride in one day in busy early August (which is when we will be there). And it could. On an EE day it looks like we could actually do every ride and all the shows as well. We do not plan to actually do this, but I thought it was a good test. I related this in another recent thread (see post #8 in http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=44455). I did the same thing for DCA. I do not think I could do that using my savviness. In summary, as your schedule becomes more complicated than your knowledge of the park, RideMax becomes more valuable.

6. One thing I dislike about RideMax is that it does not handle multiple rides of the same attraction very well. For example, we like to ride Matterhorn twice in one day. But we like to do it once in the day and once at night. When I ask RideMax to create a complicated itinerary (with say 20-30 rides in a day) with two rides on Matterhorn, it will invariably tell me to ride Matterhorn twice in a row. I have e-mailed the RideMax author a wish list of new features, which would include the ability to better handle such a situation.

7. It is worth noting that you do not have to use RideMax every day, all day. You can use it for parts of a day (to make sure you hit everyone's favorite ride), and leave the rest of the day to spontaneity. I doubt we will use RideMax for any entire day, but instead will use it as a guide or for parts of days (probably the mornings).

8. Another useful thing you can do with RideMax is develop wait time data for rides. For instance, you can enter Matterhorn 30 times as the only ride you want to go on. If RideMax can get you on 30 times, it will create a schedule that essentially gives you wait time data throughout the whole day. I am going to do this for each day of our trip, and dump the data into an Excel spreadsheet I will keep in my pocket for reference. So even though we may not strictly follow the RideMax itinerary, we will still use its data to help us with spontaneous decisions.

9. As noted previously, RideMax does not offer Sunday itineraries. I respect their decision on this. I suspect it is a faith related decision.

10. RideMax tech support is excellent.

pisces
07-09-2005, 12:11 PM
My only complaint is that my personality is a "P" which does not like structure and ridemax would take the fun and spontinaity out of DL. Ride this ride at this time then go to this ride at this time and so forth. Who wants that type of structure when you are at the greatest place on earth? I guess all of you "J" type personality people do and that is why ridemax is so popular with you,


Exactly, And, I'm the kind of person who likes to challenge authority, so I'd probably do the opposite of what they told me to do :~D .

I don't want to be told where to go and which way to walk, and when to scream and how much to oooh and ahh etc...

For me the best is just to meander and wander. Just go where the spirit moves me, and let the crowd carry me along. If I see a long line, oh well, If I don't see a long line, great!

I think fastpasses are wonderful. And, if I HAPPEN to see a machine, I'll wander on over. If I HAPPEN to have a fastpass and encounter a line, so much the better.

But, my life isn't ruled by little pieces of paper, or schedules. Not on vacation.

Very whimsical wandering about wherever!

No pressure whatsover, for me.

But I also go by myself, for multi-days.

Families, out of necessity, who only have a limited amount of time, need more organization. I do understand that.

nsyncitnd1787
07-09-2005, 10:39 PM
i used RideMax when my best friend and my mom went in January of last year. i used it for like the first day, to at least get Toontown out of the way. i saved myself like an hour in lie at Mickey and Minnie's house. it was really great. if you're just going to use RideMax for this, make sure you change the time so it doesn't try to spread out the rides/houses through the day. it worked very well for us.

Emma
07-09-2005, 11:19 PM
I am a ENFJ! :D And I dig structure- not ridigity, but structure.

:geek:



:~D

sambo
07-09-2005, 11:47 PM
INTP here...

I'll be using RIDEMAX for our two week stay in October. Will we be sticking to it's schedule every hour for two weeks? I think not. We will use it in bits and pieces.

This "P" type doesn't object to structure - as long as I can play with it and use it on my terms... ;)

rentayenta
07-10-2005, 09:49 AM
:geek:



:~D


And I am totaly hot! ;)

ToursbabeC3po
07-10-2005, 11:45 AM
Ride max might be a good option for kids with autism too because it is structured and they like to know what is going on before they go anywhere :)
Toursbabe