Mark Winters

IMPORTANT REMINDER: Reservations for Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge Open TOMORROW, May 2nd!

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will open May 31, 2019 at Disneyland, and Aug. 29, 2019 at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World. (Photos courtesy of Disney.)

This post is a quick reminder that if you plan to visit Disneyland between May 31st and June 23rd, YOU WILL NEED A RESERVATION if you plan to visit the new Star Wars land, aka, Galaxy’s Edge.

Just as important, RESERVATIONS OPEN TOMORROW, MAY 2nd!

Given the anticipation for this new addition to Disneyland, our guess is that these reservations will sell out within minutes of becoming available. So be sure to act quickly if you’re visiting during this date range. The registration site will open on May 2nd at 8:00am PDT, and the site will start accepting reservations at 10:00am. You can read all about it on Disney’s site here.

If you plan to try and take advantage of this, be sure to set up your Disney account in advance. It also isn’t clear from their FAQ, but if you don’t yet have park tickets for your visit, we’d suggest buying them in advance via the Disney website or app, just in case you need an actual ticket number to secure your reservation.

Millennium Falcon is pictured under development for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Stars Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

For those of you using RideMax to plan your trip to Disneyland on these dates, given that your access to Star Wars Land (as it often seems to be called) will be restricted to a certain time slot, we recommend setting up a “break” in your RideMax plan to cover the time of your reservation. Just set the break location to “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge,” and make the duration long enough to cover the time you expect to spend there.

Of course, if you plan to visit Disneyland after June 23rd, you don’t need to worry about reservations — you’ll just need to plan to arrive REALLY early in the morning if you want to visit Galaxy’s Edge. (This is a topic for another post!)

I hope this helps… and when it comes time to actually get those reservations, may your fingers be quick, and may the force be with you!

(Sorry — I couldn’t resist.)

REMINDER: Yes, You CAN use Disneyland’s MaxPass System with RideMax!

In reviewing some recent customer support emails, it’s apparent that not everyone is aware that when you set up your RideMax plan for Disneyland and California Adventure, you can tell RideMax how you intend to make your FastPass reservations.

The FastPass options RideMax supports are:

You can use the traditional FastPass machines, located near each attraction which offers FastPass.
You can use the traditional FastPass machines, but rather than having your entire group walk to the machines, you will send a single “runner” from your group to pick them up for you (saving the extra walking for everyone else). And as an extra bonus, if you use this option, you can tell RideMax which (if any) attractions your runner is willing to skip while off gathering your FastPasses, possibly making an even more efficient plan for the rest of the group.
You can use the new MaxPass system.

I highlight this last option because, as I said, it appears that not everyone is aware of this.

These options are found under the “FASTPASS Options” tab at the top of the main planning screen in RideMax, as shown in the picture above.

If you check the MaxPass option, RideMax will assume that you’ll be making your FastPass reservations from your phone, eliminating the time it would normally set aside to walk to and from the FastPass machines. It will also assume that you’ll only need to wait a maximum of 90 minutes after getting a FastPass before you can get your next FastPass, rather than the two-hour max for everyone else.

If you’re using RideMax to plan your visit but aren’t sure if you will use MaxPass or not, my suggestion is to create two versions of your plans, one with this option set, and another without. That way, when you’re actually at the park and are ready to decide whether you’ll purchase MaxPass or not, you’ll be set either way.

A final bonus to creating two plans this way is that you can also see how much time RideMax estimates you’ll save in waiting and/or walking with the use of MaxPass. I delve more into this comparison in a previous post, aptly titled, Disneyland’s MaxPass: Is It Worth It? Be sure to check this out if you’re on the fence regarding the extra cost for MaxPass.

Riding Avatar Flight of Passage Without the Huge Line – 2019 Edition

Next month brings us the second anniversary of the opening of Avatar Flight of Passage at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and it still sees the highest wait times of any Walt Disney World attraction — even higher than the newer attractions in Toy Story Land at Hollywood Studios.

I thought it might be worth doing a short YouTube video describing my current best thoughts on how to visit Flight of Passage without a huge line if you aren’t able to get a FastPass — which is still likely to be the case in 2019. I also share a few “bonus tips” to help you navigate your way to the attraction if you’re visiting at rope drop, as well as on how to enjoy the ride a bit better once you’re actually there.

Enjoy!

Yes, It’s Another Happy RideMax Customer…

OK, so this is a little self-serving, but we received the following email from Jason, a RideMax customer from Texas, who had used RideMax to help navigate several days at Disneyland over the busy Thanksgiving break. It was their very first Disney trip as a family.

I’m sharing Jason’s email below in its entirety:

Dear RideMax Team,

My family of five (Dad, Mom, 6-year-old girl, 3-year-old girl and 7-month-old boy) recently went to Disneyland and DCA during the busy Thanksgiving break. We also had another family of six with us that included two teenagers. We attended the parks on the Saturday, Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We expected huge crowds and long waits. While we did see huge crowds, we were so happy that the RideMax software virtually eliminated long waits. Your product is amazing and works as-advertised!

Leading up to our trip, I was somewhat dubious of how the software would perform during such a busy time, but our entire group was so thrilled with our experience! With one or two exceptions, we hardly even noticed the crowds around us. We had to do some juggling of rides due to our smaller children, but it all worked out much better than I expected. We rode every ride we wanted to, in many cases twice and a few rides three times. We also saw all the shows we wanted, met the characters we wanted and watched the parade.

This was our first Disney trip of any kind as a family. The trip far exceeded our expectations, and a huge part of that was due to your software. We will remember the trip for years as a memorable, joyous and positive experience. We will definitely use RideMax again when we go to Disney World for the first time in the coming years.

Thanks again!

Jason

And thanks to YOU Jason for taking the time to report! I’m glad you had such a nice trip, and that RideMax could help!

Major Adjustments to RideMax Wait Estimates for New Toy Story Land Attractions

Just a quick note here to let everyone know that today we’ve made some major adjustments to the RideMax estimates for the two new Toy Story Land attractions at Disney’s Hollywood Studios — Slinky Dog Dash and Alien Swirling Saucers.

I mostly mention this to let any RideMax customers know that if you’ve created RideMax plans which include these attractions, I’d strongly encourage you to create new plans instead.

I know this is a bit of a hassle, but we’ve had the chance to look at the wait times for these attractions for a couple of weeks now, and the good news is that, on average, the actual waits are coming in well below our initial estimates.

So, re-run those Hollywood Studios RideMax plans — and have a great trip!