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.
Every time I try we get so far ahead of the plan I question its value. Don’t get me wrong I love Ridemax and pay for both coasts but I find Touring Plans DLR Line app + MaxPass works better. I have tried to make RideMax plans a few times with MaxPass and it seems we outpace it within a couple of hours. What are we missing?
As I’m sure you know, if you’re using a touring plan at Disneyland (RideMax or otherwise), whether with MaxPass or with the regular FastPass system, whoever is putting that plan together is *estimating* when those FastPass return windows will occur.
The trick is that the time at which those return windows occur can vary from one day to the next. So even if we’ve nailed the estimate one day, we can be off the next — even under what you’d assume would be similar crowd levels.
So our estimates for the return windows ARE just that — estimates. (They’re based on actual historical data, but are still estimates.)
What it comes down to is if we’re going to make estimates, will customers be happier if we’ve underestimated the crowds (and the actual return times end up being farther out than the plan indicates), or will they be better off if we’ve overestimated the crowds (and they get ahead of the plan, and are able to fit in more than what the plan indicated)?
As you know we offer a money-back guarantee if folks aren’t happy with the plans, and after doing this for many years now, it seems that we get more refund requests on occasions where our estimates are too low than the other way around. So I think it’s safe to say that over time we’ve taken a “when in doubt, aim high” approach to the FastPass estimates. It just seems to work better for folks to be able to do more than what they had planned on than the other way around.
Of course, having said all of that, we *do* stand behind that guarantee, so if you feel that for your visits we aimed *so high* that you haven’t received sufficient value from RideMax to justify the cost, please drop us an email and we’ll refund your purchase.
We want you to be happy you chose us!