Disney Spring Break 2013 – Avoiding the Crowds!

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Mark Winters

Wald Disney World Magic Kingdom Castle - Spring Break

Early morning at the Magic Kingdom. Arriving early during spring break is one key to beating the crowds!

Spring break is here!

Whether your trip includes Disneyland and the new Cars Land on the west coast, or Walt Disney World on the east, there are a couple of keys to beating the crowds:

1. Have a game plan (OK, you knew I’d say this, and yes, it’s a shameless plug — RideMax can help.)

2. Arrive early

If you’re an “old hand” at Disney and are already convinced of these two points , go ahead and quit reading now. If not, then this post is for you! I’ll even share some pictures to help illustrate this for you.

The thing is, you really need to consider BOTH of these tips for a successful day at your favorite Disney theme park. One without the other just doesn’t cut it.

For example, if you arrive early but don’t have a plan, you could waste your early-morning time visiting attractions that you could see later in the day without much wait (maybe with FastPass), but then you find that some attractions have huge waits by the time you get to them.

And, if you have a plan but don’t arrive early, well, there are some attractions that are just plain hard to see without a wait unless you’re in the park right when it opens. FastPasses for some attractions can also run out early in the day (Radiator Springs Racers, anyone?). No plan — not even RideMax — can save you here if you’re not in the park early when the lines are short and FastPasses plentiful.

Consider some pictures that I took yesterday at the Magic Kingdom to help illustrate the importance of arriving early.

The park opens at 8:00am today, and here I am at 7:51am in line to board the monorail. You can see that the crowds are already starting to build, but this is nothing compared to the masses you’ll see here in a few hours (more on this below).

I don’t actually recommend arriving this late, but I got lucky and was able to board the monorail quickly. I arrived at the front turnstiles just as Disney had opened the park for the day.

Here I am making my way through the entrance tunnel into the park, at 8:02am. As you can see, there are large crowds ahead of me. It would have been better had I arrived earlier!

Fortunately, I’m a fast walker, and was able to make it to the end of Main Street quickly. (I was also by myself today, so I’m sure I walked faster than most families with children would.)

A largely-deserted Fantasyland right after the park opened. Folks, this is why you arrive early! (Below I’ll show you a striking comparison photo taken later in the morning.)

I was mostly focused on Fantasyland today. And even though I was slightly delayed getting into the park, I still had time to get a FastPass for Peter Pan, and then make my way over to the current big bottleneck in the Magic Kingdom.

Enchanted Tales with Belle, posted at a 15-minute wait. My actual wait would be shorter.

This is where the importance of PLANNING comes in, and my RideMax plug. If I didn’t have a RideMax plan with me telling me to go here early, I might have visited one of the “big” rides instead, even though the lines for the big attractions don’t build nearly as quickly as the line for Belle does. This would have resulted in a crazy wait here later, or maybe even caused me to miss this altogether.

The line for Belle’s Cottage isn’t bad at all. Yet.

We go through the Magic Mirror…

And of course, Belle is charming as always.

By the time I exit the show, the lines here are already huge. I’d estimate about a 45-minute wait, and it’s not quite 8:45am!

Next stop for me was the new Little Mermaid attraction. It’s posted at a 20-minute wait, but it was still basically a walk-on.

This is where having RideMax helped. Had I visited Little Mermaid first, and then Belle next, my total wait for these two rides would have been close to 50 minutes, as opposed to the 10-minutes or so total I waited by following the plan.

The line for Ariel’s Undersea Adventure takes a while to build in the morning, thanks to it’s rather large capacity. No need to rush here first thing, and RideMax knows this.

It’s 9:07am, and the wait for Barnstormer is posted at just 10 minutes. The real wait is actually shorter. (Have I mentioned the importance of arriving early? It’s likely that some folks visiting today are still in bed!)

It’s around 9:15, and the Teacups are still very do-able!

Here is Fantasyland at around 9:20am, or one hour and twenty minutes after the park opened. The crowds are starting to build, but it’s still somewhat do-able here.

Still around 9:20, there is virtually no wait for “it’s a small world,” but as you can see here, you’d have to wait a while for Peter Pan now. (Thanks to RideMax, I’ve already got a FastPass for this one.)

OK, it’s later in the morning, but still not quite 10:00am, and it already starts getting crazy. The wait here for Belle is now posted at 60 minutes.

Aren’t you glad you got yourself out of bed early this morning, AND you followed that RideMax plan?

OK… Here’s that comparison photo I promised earlier, taken just before 10:00am. Please don’t do this to yourself, folks!

Even the line for the Haunted Mansion is getting a little ridiculous, and it’s still just 10:00am! (And if you were wondering, I’m not waiting in this one, just taking the picture. )

It’s about time for me to leave the park, but I couldn’t resist stopping for a picture of the Liberty Belle. What can I say? The light here is nice this early in the morning!

It’s just after 10:00am, and I’m on my way out of the park, while the crowds are pouring in!

Finally, here is the monorail entrance, at 10:30am. I know everyone has different tastes and opinions, but why would someone spend $1,000′s on a Disney vacation and then do this to themselves!

Spring break is survivable, but my advice remains:

Arrive EARLY, and have a PLAN!

OK, I’d be curious to see your thoughts on this. What are YOUR favorite strategies for surviving spring break at Disneyland or Walt Disney World? Tell us about it in the comments below.

And have a great spring break!

FastPass Enforcement Comes to Disneyland!

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Mark Winters

FastPass: After February 18th, you'd better show up on time!

If any customers have created RideMax plans for a park visit on February 18th or later, we strongly recommend creating new plans instead, at least if you made your plans prior to February 14th at 9:00am PDT.

The rumors have been circulating for a long time, but now that Disney has placed signs on the FastPass machines asking guests to return within the one-hour window printed on the FP ticket, it seems like it’s time to take this seriously.

As a result, RideMax for Disneyland has been updated so that any plans created for dates on or after President’s day, February 18th, will no longer have the option to use FastPass late. (For those who are new to Disneyland and RideMax, up to this point Disney allowed you to use your FP ticket after the time shown on the ticket, even if you arrived several hours “late.”)

The other effect of this change is that we’ve updated our FP estimates themselves to better take this change into account. It’s always been easy for us to err on the late side with those estimates, since this was allowed by Disney and gave us more “wiggle room” in the plans. Now that the wiggle room is gone, we thought it best to pull the estimates back.

What does this mean for you? We hope the change isn’t earth-shattering, but you will, of course, have the annoyance of re-creating your plans if you’ve already made them for the affected dates. Once in the park, you will also need to double-check the return time shown on your ticket to make sure it fits within the time indicated on your RideMax plan, and adjust your day on the fly if necessary. (This is especially the case for FP return windows in the afternoon and evening, when predicting FP return windows can be more difficult. Fortunately, the afternoon and evening is also the time of day when the timing of the plan is less critical, so we’re hoping this will still work OK for most cases.)

With this update we’re also releasing a new version of the Windows application. This new version includes the ability to schedule more breaks (up to five), and also allows you to specify the location of those breaks. It also allows you to specify which specific attractions your FastPass runner is willing to miss, if any.

Note that we’ve implemented this change quickly enough that the RideMax “Tips & Hints” pages haven’t yet reflected these changes. We expect to get this done over the next few days.

Please let us know how these changes work for you, and happy planning!

Magic Kingdom Update: Barnstormer and Dumbo FASTPASS — Disconnected or Not?

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Mark Winters

Dumbo was flying high today, but does the FastPass loophole still exist?!!

As many of you know, RideMax has been taking advantage of a loophole in the FASTPASS (FP) system at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom which had allowed someone to obtain a FP ticket for both Barnstormer and Dumbo, even if he or she had recently obtained another FP elsewhere. This would normally be against the FP rules, but the machines seemed to be operating somewhat independently of the rest of the FP network. This allowed someone, for example, to get a FP ticket for Peter Pan (or some other MK attraction), and then to immediately get FP tickets for both Dumbo and Barnstormer, even though two hours hadn’t elapsed since the Peter Pan ticket was obtained, nor had the “ride window” for that first FP ticket arrived yet.

We had received reports within the last few days from a couple of customers who had read online that the Dumbo and Barnstormer FASTPASS machines were “connected” to the rest of the FASTPASS (FP) network again, so I decided to drop in on the Magic Kingdom today to check it out. I decided to “test” the loophole by obtaining a FP ticket for Peter Pan, then I’d try to also get FP tickets for both Dumbo and Barnstormer, to see if the system would allow it.

To make a long story short, the picture below shows the result of my “test” (click for a larger image):

It may be hard to read the time stamps in fine print at the bottom of these tickets, but I obtained the Peter Pan ticket at 11:29am, and successfully obtained both the Dumbo and Barnstormer tickets five minutes later, at 11:34am.

Given the recent reports of this loophole going away, I decided earlier this week to remove this feature from RideMax, at least for now. Even though this test indicates the loophole still existed today, it seems safer to NOT depend on this, especially since the parks aren’t crazy-busy right now, and this really isn’t absolutely necessary for efficient touring.

Having said this, I do expect to check this again as Mardi Gras week and President’s Day weekend approaches. If the loophole still exists then, I’ll likely put the feature back in RideMax so that folks using the planner can take advantage of this during those busier days in February.

Oh, by the way, while I was in the Magic Kingdom today I took a picture over the construction wall of the new Rapunzel’s tower and village, which I’ve posted below. It seems to be coming along nicely!

Happy planning!

Christmas Week at Disneyland & Walt Disney World – RideMax Customer Reports

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Mark Winters

Cinderella Castle lights up with magic during the Christmas season!

Just a quick update today to share some very nice customer reports from Christmas week, one from a customer visiting Disneyland/DCA, and another one from Walt Disney World.

First, from a Disneyland RideMax customer (I’ve bolded some text for emphasis):

Hello. My family was at Disneyland and California Adventure 12/26-12/28 and thanks in part to your computer program and tips, we had an incredible trip. We got to do everything that we wanted to do and some things two or three times. We had time for shopping, watching shows, and doing other things (like riding the train and monorail) not listed on RideMax, too. We looked at people standing in stand-by lines that had up to 3 1/2 hour long waits and felt sorry for them. We were often ahead of schedule (wait times were shorter). We will tell everyone that we know about your service.

Here’s an example of our success. We arrived at the gate for California Adventure on Friday, 12/28 at about 7:20 a.m., knowing that hotel guest were being let in early. We stood near a Magic Morning entrance so that as soon as it changed to a regular entrance we could get in that line. We knew (from our past day’s experience and from reading your tips) that we would be let into the park to the end of Buena Vista Street to wait until the official 8 a.m. opening. We were right against the rope. We were led to Cars Town and to Radiator Springs by cast members behind a gas hose. We were ordered into a single file line as we approached Radiotor Springs. We ended up being about the 8th-10th people in that line. We walked right into the lane for single riders. We walked right onto the platform for the ride. My husband and son ended up being able to ride in the same car, and I was in the car behind them. INCREDIBLE!!

On Thursday, 12/27, we checked both single rider and regular rider lines for Radiator Springs at least half a dozen times. The single rider line was always about an hour long, and the other line was anywhere from 2 to 3 1/2 hours long. We also kept checking the lines for the other two rides. We were able to ride both of them during our free time on Thursday when the lines were the shortest we had seen them all day (probably waited no more then 35 minutes in each one). We started this trip knowing that we would probably not ride anything in Cars Land but would enjoy seeing all of the sights. We are not die-hard ride fans. Imagine our delight when we were able to ride all three rides!

We were able to ride every ride in Paradise Pier that we wanted to ride on Thursday with little to no wait. Our first ride was Toy Story Mania, and we walked right onto it.

On Wednesday, 12/26, we were able to enter Disneyland early (before 8 a.m.) because of Magic Morning and because it was drizzling, many people did not show up. We were able to ride everything that we wanted to in Tomorrowland by 9 a.m. before crowds appeared and started the day ahead of our schedule.

THANK YOU!!

And from a Walt Disney World customer:

We just came back from a 6 day trip to Disney World over Christmas.

This is a very, very busy time and the crowds were overwhelming at times. With this in mind, we purchased RideMax and set our schedule around the online recommendations.

I was skeptical when my friend told me about RideMax, I doubted it would work at Christmas time but it was only $16 so I thought it was worth a try.

I am a believer! It was truly amazing but we never waited more than 10 minutes and we rode all the best rides. The total cost for our Disney trip was nearly $10,000 and the $16 dollars I spent on RideMax doubled our fun! What a great product!

Thanks again RideMax Team!

To which I say, “You’re welcome!” :-)

I should also add that in addition to using RideMax, arriving EARLY at the parks is key to success if you’re visiting during the holidays or other busy season, such as spring break. We received a note from another customer who wasn’t nearly as successful as those shown above, but after reading their report, it seemed pretty clear to me that they were late getting to the first attraction on their RideMax plan, and things sort of cascaded downhill fast from there: the line was longer than expected at the first attraction on the plan, causing them to be “late” getting that first FastPass, and the late FastPass messed up the time at which they could get the next FastPass, etc.

I know I say this a lot, but if you’re going to be brave enough to visit during the holidays, you almost need to be hyper-focused on making sure you arrive early. There’s simply no substitute for this, RideMax plan or not!

What are YOUR thoughts about visiting during the holiday season? Do you find the extra “magic” worth braving the crowds?

Disney World: “Disconnected” FASTPASSes at the Magic Kingdom

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Mark Winters

Take a quick look at these first few entries from a recent RideMax plan and see if you notice anything strange:

RideMax Plan Disconnected FastPass Notice how the plan has our FastPass runner grabbing one set of FastPasses at Dumbo, then immediately getting another set at Peter Pan’s Flight?

If you’re familiar at all with the way the FastPass system works and saw this on your RideMax plan, you might be raising an eyebrow about now or even writing us demanding a refund. “How can this be?” you want to know… “There’s no way I can get two FastPasses so close together, is there?!!”

Actually, right now at least, there is!

The “trick” here is that the new FastPass machines for both Dumbo and The Barnstormer are “disconnected” from the rest of the FastPass network, and from each other. This means that if you get a FastPass from either of these two machines, the other FastPass machines in the park won’t know about it, and vice-versa.

Theoretically, this means you could actually grab three FastPasses in a row: one for The Barnstormer, another one for Dumbo, and yet a third one for any other attraction in the park.

Because RideMax is set up to take advantage of this loophole for the time being, if you see this in one of your plans you’ll know what’s going on. (We’ve also included a brief tip at the bottom of the plan making this clear.)

Of course, Disney could change this policy at any time — and we’ll adjust RideMax accordingly if they do — but in the meantime this is fun to know, and to take advantage of!

Fantasyland Expansion at the Magic Kingdom – Soft Opening!

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Mark Winters

I stopped by Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom today, hoping to catch a glimpse of the new Fantasyland improvements. I wasn’t disappointed!

(Note that due to technical difficulties, some of the pictures below may be resized incorrectly. Until this is fixed, you can see an undistorted view of any image by clicking on it. Sorry for the hassle!)

The entrance to Enchanted Tales with Belle. 35 minute wait around noon.

Courtyard area in front of the new Gaston’s Tavern quick service eating location. I love the architecture and attention to detail back here!

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Gaston himself, signing autographs!

Close-up of the entrance. “I use antlers in all of my decorating…”

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Menu highlights posted outside…

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Here’s the full menu for Gaston’s Tavern.

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LeFou’s Brew. Anyone else think this looks EXACTLY like Red’s Apple Freeze at DCA? Sorry to say, this isn’t quite as good as the DCA version. Although the basic taste and texture is quite similar (including the foam!), Red’s Apple Freeze is carbonated, giving it a little extra kick!

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Not to digress to much, but here’s a picture of Red’s Apple Freeze from DCA. A better beverage, in my opinion. Both of these seem to be something of an imitation of the Butterbeer concoction at Universal, but I prefer Disney’s take on this.

The building housing the new Little Mermaid ride. Very nice detail here!

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Here’s the standby entrance for the Little Mermaid attraction. 20 minutes doesn’t seem too bad for as crowded as this area was.

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Yes, the ride does offer FastPass. Unlike the recent Dumbo and Barnstormer FastPass additions, these machines ARE connected to the rest of the FastPass network. So when the ticket says another FastPass will be available after the time shown, they really do mean it. You can ignore this blurb on the Dumbo and Barnstormer FastPasses, at least right now. Meaning, you can get FastPasses for Dumbo, Barnstormer, AND another attraction all within minutes of each other, or as quickly as you can walk between the FastPass machines.

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The Little Mermaid FastPass machines are located back over at the entrance to PhilharMagic, alongside the Winnie the Pooh FastPass machines.

Be Our Guest Restaurant at Disney's Magic Kingdom

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The walkway leading up to the new Be Our Guest restaurant.

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Nice architectural detail here too!

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Be Our Guest Restaurant menu, page 1. (Sorry about the glare!)

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Menu page 2.

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Looking back toward Fantasyland from the entrance to the Be Our Guest restaurant.

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Beauty and the Beast stained glass, just inside the restaurant entrance in the left alcove.

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To the right, a hallway containing menus, I think. This area wasn’t open to the public today, as they weren’t serving food today.

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The seating area for the new Be Our Guest restaurant. This is a really beautiful area, full of rich detail. I’m looking forward to eating here!

All in all, I had a nice tour of this new area today. It’s very nicely themed, and the extra space in Fantasyland is a huge improvement.

Note that by the time we returned to use our FastPasses for the Little Mermaid attraction, they had closed the ride, so I’ll have to save that for later. I guess it goes to show that if you do happen across this area and find the ride running, it may be best to simply hop in line, rather than bothering with the FastPass. The attraction has such a HUGE guest capacity that the line should move quickly, and you never know how long they’ll keep things open during this “dress rehearsal” period.

I’m looking forward to these attractions officially opening in early December, but until then, these soft openings are a great way to see this new area!

Disney’s Hollywood Studios Opens Early! (Sort of…)

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Mark Winters

Rock 'n' Roller Coaster - Disney's Hollywood Studios

Arriving early just to ride Rock 'n' Roller Coaster? Don't Bother. (Click for larger image)

Just a quick post today.

If you’re a RideMax subscriber, or if you read some of the great Disney-related blogs, you know that Disney’s Hollywood Studios normally allows guests through the turnstiles about 15 minutes before the “official” opening time.

When I visited the Studios yesterday, however, I noticed that the only attraction that was actually open for guests before 9:00am was Toy Story Midway Mania.

While you could get a FastPass for both Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller coaster right away, the standby lines for both of these were held back until the “official” 9:00am opening time.

Toy Story Mania FastPass - Disney's Hollywood Studios

An early return time for Toy Story Midway Mania. The nicest benefit for arriving early!

So, if you’re arriving early thinking you’ll actually be able to visit Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster right away, you’re better advised to visit Toy Story Mania instead. By doing this, you can also get a VERY early return time for the Toy Story FastPass, as shown in the image above.

Still a question in my mind is how best to handle this early opening in RideMax. Would you like to see us actually move the “opening time” in the software to 8:45am? Any other suggestions?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

RideMax Roulette at the Magic Kingdom: Twelve Random Attractions, Four Hours, One Plan!

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Mark Winters

As I’ve been working on RideMax, I’ve noticed that regardless of how many wait time statistics we gather, or how many Times Guides we collect, if I’m trying to learn how to improve RideMax, there is simply no substitute for simply taking a RideMax plan to the park and trying it to see how well it works.

So in that spirit, I thought it might be fun to choose a group of random attractions, plug them into RideMax, then take the resulting plan to the park. Liesle and I did just that yesterday at the Magic Kingdom, and I thought it would be fun to share our experience here.

The Magic Kingdom Plan: Four Hours, Twelve Attractions

I started this process by using a random number generator to select 12 Magic Kingdom attractions. I should say up front that the list wasn’t *completely* random (and I’ll share more about this in the comments if anyone is interested), but here is the list I used, in alphabetical order:

Barnstormer
it’s a small world
Jungle Cruise
PeopleMover
Peter Pan’s Flight (twice)
Pirates of the Caribbean (twice)
Snow White’s Scary Adventures
Splash Mountain
Tomorrowland Speedway (twice)

The options I chose in RideMax for this experiment were as follows:

Start time: 9:00am (park opening)
End time: 12:50pm
FastPass Runner mode “ON” (with the runner willing to skip any attraction)
“Water Rides” setting to warmer part of the day (10am-4pm)

Without further suspense, here is the plan RideMax came up with for our April 23rd visit:

With a total estimated wait of just 61 minutes (or roughly five minutes per attraction, on average), I thought this looked pretty decent. There is even a nice gap of “free time” that we could use for a lunch break!

Before I give the play-by-play (with pictures!) of our day at the Magic Kingdom, I’ll go ahead and share the overall actual results of our test:

Total Wait: 48 minutes
Average Wait: Four minutes per attraction.
Shortest Wait: 0 minutes (Tomorrowland Speedway, both visits)
Longest Wait: 9 minutes (Jungle Cruise)

The play-by-play account of our visit follows, and I’ll conclude with some thoughts I had on improvements to RideMax as a result of this trip to the park.

Ready… Set… GO!

We begin our day at the monorail gate, waiting to board. It’s 8:33am. I know this is an exciting picture, the kind of thing most folks dream of when planning that Disney vacation. Save this one for the scrapbook!

Magic Kingdom Entrance Once through the turnstiles, we wait near the left entrance for the park to open, while watching the opening ceremony. “Good Morning… Good Morning… to YOU (and you, and you and you)!”

Magic Kingdom Main Street USA We’re walking down Main Street USA, just before 9:00am. Liesle volunteered to be the FastPass “runner” for the first FastPass on the plan, so she’s going to get our Peter Pan FastPasses, while I make my way to the first attraction on the list, the Tomorrowland Speedway.

Magic Kingdom Tomorrowland The early-morning crowds are headed toward Space Mountain…

Magic Kingdom - Empty Tomorrowland …while I turn left after passing Stitch and move toward the Tomorrowland Speedway. I’m all by myself as I walk over here.

Tomorrowland Speedway - Magic Kingdom I’m the very first rider for the day.

It’s 9:02am. Actual wait is 0 minutes, versus the 3 minutes on the RideMax plan. It’s a nice start — I’m slightly ahead of schedule.

Meanwhile, Liesle acts as our “runner” and grabs that Peter Pan FastPass (she didn’t care for *two* rides on the Speedway anyway ). The FastPass has a “ride window” of 9:40am-10:40am, which works well for our planned visit time of 9:56am.

Tomorrowland Speedway - Yellow Car I’m in the first car on the Speedway, taking in the fresh morning air!

Tomorrowland Speedway - Red Car Liesle joins me for the second ride on the Speedway. Red car this time!

We entered the line for this second ride at 9:09am, and again we walked right on, for a wait of 0 minutes. This time the plan had an estimated wait of 5 minutes, so we’re even a bit more ahead of schedule now.

Dumbo Construction - Magic Kingdom After exiting the Speedway, we’re still ahead of schedule, so on the way to the Barnstormer, I stop to take a picture of the construction on the second Dumbo.

Dumbo - Magic Kingdom The line for Dumbo is already starting to build. It’s 9:19am.

Barnstormer - Magic Kingdom The Barnstormer is next up on the plan. We arrive at 9:20 — 10 minutes early. We wait for 3 minutes, versus the 1 minute shown on the plan. This is the first time we’ve been on this attraction since the recent re-theming. I like the view from up here!

A view of the Dumbo queue from up high on the Barnstormer track.

Storybook Circus - Construction A view over the wall of the construction going on at Storybook Circus.

Dumbo II Dumbo as seen from the Barnstormer. Note the Fantasyland construction in the distance. It’s coming along!

Barnstormer - Empty No line here as we exit the ride. They’re sending this one out with empty seats.

Dumbo Queue It’s 9:25am, and the line for Dumbo is already getting a little ridiculous!

Storybook Circus Restrooms We’re still ahead of schedule, and now seems like a good time for a restroom break. The new restrooms here at Storybook Circus are nice.

Fantasyland Construction - Magic Kingdom I stop to take a picture over the construction wall. Progress continues on the new Fantasyland!

It’s 9:34am, and next up, Liesle visits Snow White while I take my turn as “runner” and get the FastPasses for Splash Mountain. Liesle waits for a total wait of 8 minutes versus the 2 minute estimate on the RideMax plan. (I had the iPhone — with the camera — so we didn’t get a picture of Snow White. Sorry! )

Empty Splash Mountain

On my way over to get the Splash Mountain FastPasses, I notice there are empty seats on Splash. It’s pretty cool this morning — in the 60′s — so that may be contributing to the lack of crowds. I’m glad we used the RideMax option to visit this later in the morning when it should be warmer!

Empty Splash Mountain Not much going on here at the Splash Mountain entrance. It’s 9:40am.

I pick up our Splash Mountain FastPasses a few minutes earlier than shown on the plan.

Notice these “expire” at 11:20am, but our RideMax plan doesn’t have us scheduled to ride this until 11:26am, or AFTER the official window is over. That “GP 11:35″ in the lower right corner indicates our “grace period” for these should allow us to ride until 11:35am, but we may still be cutting it close. I’m mentally prepared to adjust on the fly if necessary, but we’ll see…

it's a small world - Magic Kingdom Even though our plan had me skipping both Snow White and “it’s a small world” while I ran for FastPasses, I was able to make it back before Liesle finished Snow White.

We entered the line for “small world” at 9:47am, and wait for 6 minutes versus the 0 minutes shown on the schedule. This puts us slightly behind schedule for Peter Pan, which is up next.

Peter Pan - Magic Kingdom (Sorry for the crummy picture. It’s just a phone, folks! :-) )

We arrive with our FastPasses for Peter Pan at 10:08am, which is a bit later than the 9:56am time shown on the plan. We’re still well within the FastPass “ride window” though, so this goes smoothly. We wait for just 2 minutes, versus the 5 minute estimate.

Since we’re still running a bit behind schedule, I’m starting to worry just a little that we’ll end up waiting longer for the Jungle Cruise, which is next on the list…

Fantasyland Restrooms That doesn’t prevent us from taking a quick break, though. :-)

Magic Kingdom Snack On our way over to the Jungle Cruise, we also stop and grab our favorite trail mix at the fruit stand in Liberty Square. This is really good stuff, and helps tide us over until lunch!

Jungle Cruise Entrance We arrive at the Jungle Cruise 8 minutes later than the time shown on our plan, but the estimated wait is still just 15 minutes, which matches the RideMax plan’s estimate exactly.

We only end up waiting 9 minutes, though. This would be our longest wait of the day!

Jungle Cruise Skipper Skipper John did a nice job…

Jungle …and I think these guys will get the point… in the end.

Jungle Cruise Line Here is a picture of the Jungle Cruise queue at 10:43am, just after we exited the ride.

I’m sure glad our RideMax plan had us avoid this mess! (Shameless plug, I know…)

Next up, Liesle will go and get another set of FastPasses at Peter Pan, while I go do the first of two rides on Pirates of the Caribbean.

Pirates of the Caribbean - Magic Kingdom At 10:44am, I wait 5 minutes for this, versus the 7 minute estimate shown on the plan. I’m glad I’m shaving some time here, even if it’s just a bit, as it makes me feel more comfortable about making that Splash Mountain FastPass return time.

By the way, since we didn’t really recognize this guy shown above on the water mist screen in the Pirates attraction, it makes me wonder if we’re the only ones who just never got around to seeing the fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies?

WHO IS THIS GUY?!!

Peter Pan FastPass Ticket - Magic Kingdom Meanwhile, Liesle picks up our next set of FastPasses for Peter Pan. These should work well for our scheduled return time of 12:36pm, right after our lunch break.

Pirates of the Caribbean Auction After grabbing the Peter Pan FastPasses, Liesle meets me for round two on Pirates. We enter the queue at 11:00am, for a total wait of 6 minutes, compared to the 8 minute estimate on the RideMax plan.

We exit the ride at 11:16am, which gives us just barely enough time to get over to Splash Mountain before the FastPass “expires” at 11:20am, without having to cut into our 15-minute grace period.

Splash Mountain FastPass Entrance - Magic Kingdom

Even though we could have entered the FastPass line on time, I decide to test the “grace period,” and wait until exactly the time shown on the RideMax plan before entering the queue, at 11:26am. (Liesle lets me brave Splash alone, since she didn’t feel like getting wet.)

As I presented my “newly-expired” FastPass to the Cast Member at the entrance, our conversation went something like this:

Me: <Hand cast member my FastPass ticket, and proceed to enter the queue.>

CM: “You know you’re late for this, right? I’ll let you in, but you should try to be on time next time.”

Me: “I thought I had a grace period.”

CM: “You do. Do you know how long it is?”

Me: “15 minutes.”

CM: “You’re smart!”

Me: < Proceeded to continue into the queue, thinking that the CM’s must not see too many guests who actually know about this grace period. >

I ended up waiting just 4 minutes in the FastPass line, versus the 9 minutes shown on the plan. And honestly, I think the FastPass may have only saved me a minute or two over the regular queue, if that, due to the cool weather today.

In retrospect, it probably wasn’t worth the walk over here this morning to get the FastPass. Better taking into account “cool weather” and its effect on the wait at Splash Mountain is probably something we could improve in RideMax.

Tom Sawyer's Island - Magic Kingdom I exit Splash Mountain at 11:46am, and meet back up with Liesle, who has been enjoying the big rocking chair in the nearby Briar Patch store.

We decide to head over to Columbia Harbor House for lunch, since it’s near Peter Pan, our first scheduled attraction after lunch. On the way over, I take this picture of the raft returning from Tom Sawyer’s Island.

Lunch at Columbia Harbor House - Magic Kingdom We both decide on the salmon. It was a bit dry and overcooked, but still seemed like a better choice than some of the other “breaded” items on the menu.

(Merchandise coupon. Click image for a larger view.)

I also noticed this merchandise discount coupon on the back of our food receipt. Good for 20% off several of the merchandise locations around Walt Disney World, as long as it’s used before noon.

Magic Kingdom Construction A view from the top floor of the restaurant of the construction going on outside.

"it's a small world" Queue - Magic Kingdom As we leave the restaurant and head over to Peter Pan, we notice the queue here for “it’s a small world.” I’m glad we visited this one earlier!

Peter Pan Magic Kingdom - FastPass Queue We decide to head over to Peter Pan a bit early, but either way we would have still been in the official FastPass return window, which was good from 12:05pm to 1:05pm.

We enter the FastPass line at 12:26pm, for a 3 minute wait versus the RideMax estimate of 5 minutes. This is a NOT the time of day for the standby queue!

Magic Kingdom Fantasyland Crowds As we exit Peter Pan and head over to Tomorrowland for our final attraction, I take this picture of the crowds in Fantasyland. Why do people do this to themselves?!! :-)

Magic Kingdom Castle I also paused for a quick picture of the castle, taken from Fantasyland.

Tomorrowland Speedway Crowds - Magic Kingdom On our way to the PeopleMover, I notice the crowds now for the Speedway. I’m glad we visited this early in the day!

PeopleMover - Magic Kingdom We arrive for our last attraction of the day: The PeopleMover!

At 12:42pm, our actual wait is about two minutes, versus the one minute shown on the RideMax plan.

Castle - Magic Kingdom The view of the castle from the PeopleMover.

Tomorrowland Speedway - Red and Yellow Card “PeopleMoving” over the Speedway!

What Did We Learn?

As we finally wrapped up our day, there were a few things I want to observe:

We could better take into account “weather” factors as they relate to Splash Mountain. (This would also apply to Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom.) The standby line was so short that I really didn’t need that FastPass.
For this particular plan, the FastPasses worked out really well, despite Disney’s recent enforcement of the FastPass window. We obtained three FastPasses, and the RideMax plan had us using all of them within the allowed timeframes, though one of them crept into the “grace period.”
I’m guessing if we had a plan that extended LATER into the day, we may have run into more FastPass timing issues, which could have caused us to manually adjust our plans on the fly. Given that timing the standby lines isn’t nearly as critical later in the day, however, this may not have been a big deal — though it could cause problems if shows or parades were involved. This is a case where using the mobile version of RideMax to “recalculate” with those shows in mind might be helpful.
We received “surprise” FastPasses for PhilharMagic along with the Peter Pan FastPasses. We may need to add a “tip” to the RideMax plans advising customers to ignore these things, since they normally aren’t needed, and trying to fit this in during the time shown on the FastPass could really mess up a schedule!

Which brings us to…

Our Exit!

Twelve attractions in four hours, including a nice break for lunch, with an average wait of just four minutes per attraction. What a great way to spend a Monday morning!

What about YOU? As you read this report, did you have some ideas for improving RideMax? Are there suggestions you have?

Please post your ideas below!

Disney FastPass Changes!

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Mark Winters

OK, you’ve all probably heard by now the FastPass rumor that Disney plans to start “enforcing” the FastPass windows at Walt Disney World beginning March 7th, 2012.

Is the rumor true? I’m not sure just yet. But you can be sure I’ll be in Walt Disney World on March 7th to check this out, and I’ll report back here on my findings!

Since some of you have asked how this might affect RideMax, I’ve included this short video to help explain what this change means, and how you can use RideMax to help plan for it.

Disney FastPass: Changes Coming?

Enjoy!

UEA Break at Disneyland: RideMax Tips!

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Mark Winters

World of Color - Disneyland Resort's New Show!

For those wondering, “UEA” stands for the Utah Education Association, which typically holds its annual convention on a Thursday and Friday in October. Schools in Utah normally close for the convention, making a perfect excuse for many Utahns Escaping to Anaheim!

The UEA break this year is October 20-21. Though not as crowded as spring break or Christmas week, UEA does bring some extra crowds into the park, with some folks even leaving town early and arriving before the official break begins on Thursday.

So, what can you do to help cut down your wait and enjoy your Disneyland visit over UEA weekend? Here are three tips:

Tip #1: Arrive early in the morning. You’d be surprised at how much time you can save in line by simply arriving at Disneyland in time to be among the first guests entering the park for the day.

There are two reasons for this.

First (and most obvious), the lines for some of the popular attractions are at their shortest of the entire day first thing in the morning. Some folks mistakenly believe they can make up for this by staying late into the evening, and to some extent this is true, but don’t be surprised if you still see an hour-long posted wait for Splash Mountain at 10:00pm! Clearly, arriving early is still better than staying late if you’re trying to avoid the crowds.

The other reason for arriving early is that you can get much better use of Disney’s FastPass system early in the day. Consider that first thing in the morning, once you have obtained one FastPass, you are allowed to obtain another one in as little as 40 minutes or so after obtaining the first one. Contrast this with later in the day, when you may have to wait two hours before obtaining the next one, or worse, FastPass may even be gone for the day for some of the more popular attractions (Star Tours, anyone?)!

Tip #2: Maximize your use of FastPass! Even though FastPass has been in use at Disney’s parks for over 10 years now, it’s amazing that some guests still seem to think Disney charges for this service, or don’t know how to get the most from the FastPass system. So let me emphasize this point: FastPass is FREE, and it can save you a lot of time in line!

Once you obtain that first FastPass of the day, make a mental note of the time at which you can obtain your next one (this time will be indicated at the bottom of your first FastPass ticket). Then when that time draws near, send a “runner” from your group over to obtain your next FastPass ticket, and continue this process throughout the day.

The RideMax for Disneyland planner can help you prioritize which FastPasses to obtain first (and we’ve reserved at least one Disneyland FastPass “trick” for our subscribers), but even without the software you can save time in line by carefully noting the time at which you can obtain your next FastPass, and gathering them accordingly.

Tip #3: Take a midday break! If you’ve followed my advice above and arrived early, you’ll find it’s very difficult to “burn the candle at both ends,” and stay late into the night as well, especially if you’re traveling with young children. If you’ve followed tip #2 and racked up a stack of FastPasses by 2pm or so, feel free to leave the park for a much-needed break back at the hotel during the busy afternoon hours. (Many RideMax plans include a large block of afternoon “free time,” so this break can fit naturally into place if you’re using RideMax as well!)

If you follow this last bit of advice, who knows? You might be surprised to find that the kids enjoy the hotel pool almost as much as they enjoy the park itself!