All RideMax Subscriptions Automatically Extended

Walt Disney World - Expedition Everest

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last 24 hours, you know that both Walt Disney World and Disneyland are closing through the end of March as an effort to help combat the Coronavirus.

Knowing that this will cause many of you to postpone vacations you may have already planned, we’ve issued an automatic three-month extension to current RideMax subscribers.

In addition, anyone purchasing a RideMax subscription by the end of March will also be given the three-month extension automatically, regardless of subscription type.

We look forward to Disney returning to “normal” operations in the (hopefully) near future, and hope these changes to our subscription terms will help you with your planning.

Stay safe out there!

Facebooktwittergoogle_pluspinterestlinkedintumblrmailFacebooktwittergoogle_pluspinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Major Update to RideMax Wait Estimates for Disney’s Hollywood Studios

DIsney's Hollywood Studios Crowds

The scene above basically sums up what a normal weekday looks like these days first thing in the morning at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This represents just a portion of the line for Slinky Dog Dash just before the park is set to open for the day.

With the new Rise of the Resistance attraction only accessible via virtual boarding groups, and due to the fact that these boarding groups can fill up within just a few minutes of park opening time, Disney is left with a HUGE crush of crowds at opening time, with the major attractions swamped very early in the day.

While we’re hoping Disney will do something to ameliorate this madness, in the meantime we’ve been forced to update our wait estimates for Hollywood Studios — and not in a good direction.Ā  šŸ™

If any of you have created RideMax plans for Hollywood Studios prior to the publishing of this post, I’d strongly encourage you to re-run those plans before your visit!

Facebooktwittergoogle_pluspinterestlinkedintumblrmailFacebooktwittergoogle_pluspinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Epcot International Festival of the Arts 2020 – Quick Overview

Wecome to Epcot! - Epcot Walt Disney World

The Epcot International Festival of the Arts kicks off this month, running through February 24th. I wanted to give just a brief overview of the festival here, should you be on the fence as to whether to take time out of your busy vacation time to make this a priority.

Epcot International Festival of the arts 2020 - Epcot Walt Disney World

You’ll be greeted at Epcot with artwork welcoming you to this event, both here at the entrance to the park…

Figment welcome - Epcot Walt Disney World

…and at the entrance to World Showcase.

Continue reading “Epcot International Festival of the Arts 2020 – Quick Overview”

Facebooktwittergoogle_pluspinterestlinkedintumblrmailFacebooktwittergoogle_pluspinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Tivoli Gardens Photo Tour: Inspiration for Disneyland

Tivloli Gardens - Welcome!

Liesle and I recently spent time in Copenhagen exploring both the city AND one of its most famous landmarks, Tivoli Gardens.

Tivoli Gardens - View from outside

For those of you familiar with Disneyland’s history, you know that Tivoli Gardens, which first opened in 1843, served as one of Walt’s inspirations for Disneyland. He is reported to have spent time wandering the park, taking detailed notes in preparation for the design and construction of Disneyland.

Tivoli Gardens - View from outside

One of the most interesting features of the theme park is its location in the middle of the city, right across the street from Copenhagen’s central train station on one end, and City Hall on the other.

Above is the view from outside the park in front of the train station. If you look closely you can see the mountain peak for theĀ Rutschebanen wooden roller coaster — one of the oldest of its kind in the world, built in 1914.

Anyone else wonder if this might have served as inspiration for Disneyland’s Matterhorn Bobsleds?

Continue reading “Tivoli Gardens Photo Tour: Inspiration for Disneyland”

Facebooktwittergoogle_pluspinterestlinkedintumblrmailFacebooktwittergoogle_pluspinterestlinkedintumblrmail

Disneyland RideMax Customers: Time to Re-Run Your RideMax Plans!

Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge - Millennium Falcon Ride View

This is just a quick post to let our Disneyland customers know that we recommend re-running your Disneyland RideMax plans, due to much lower crowds in the park than we had originally estimated. This applies to ALL dates on the Disneyland RideMax calendar except the 4th of July, for plans created prior to today, June 28th.

Just for some background here, prior to the opening of Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland, we had expected that the draw of the new land would bring in greater crowds than normal, and so we put together our initial RideMax wait time estimates under that assumption. Somewhat surprisingly, those crowds have either not materialized, or the attractiveness of the new land is serving to dilute the crowds in the rest of the park (or both). Either way, this summer is shaping up to be a GREAT time to visit Disneyland, and we’ve just made some pretty substantial cuts to our wait estimates for the resort as a result, for all dates on the current RideMax Disneyland calendar.

Also worth noting is that if you’re a RideMax subscriber and plan to visit Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge during your trip, be sure to check out the Disneyland Tips & Hints page, available from the link on the main page after you login to RideMax. We give some important “strategy advice” here for using RideMax to map out a plan which includes Galaxy’s Edge.

Enjoy!

Facebooktwittergoogle_pluspinterestlinkedintumblrmailFacebooktwittergoogle_pluspinterestlinkedintumblrmail