DCA: California Screamin’ FastPass “Disconnected!”

California Screamin' at Disney California Adventure

Today we’ve updated RideMax with an important change for California Adventure customers!

As the FastPass machines for the California Screamin’ roller coaster are now “disconnected” from the rest of the system, RideMax will now take this into consideration when it creates plans for DCA. As a result, don’t be surprised if RideMax has you obtaining a FastPass for this attraction even if you recently obtained another one elsewhere.

Happy Planning!

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Disneyland Customers: Our Apologies!

We messed up this past week!

Disneyland decided to hold Magic Morning (early entry) every day of the week, but we didn’t catch (and adjust for) this until later in the day Wednesday. That means that plans for Disneyland on Monday, April 2nd, and Wednesday, April 4th, would have missed the “EE factor.” (Friday plans created BEFORE the afternoon of April 4th would have had the same problem.)

For those who visited on Monday and Wednesday especially and felt that you didn’t receive sufficient value from RideMax, please contact us at “support at ridemax dot com” and let us know!

(And obviously, our goal is to avoid missing this next time! 🙂

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Magic Kingdom Touring – Dumbo NOT First?!!

I know that even contemplating such a thought is considered heresy in the “expert” world of touring the Magic Kingdom, but is there ever a time when you might want to NOT visit Dumbo first thing in the morning?

I ask because in experimenting with a few RideMax plans for this very busy week before the Easter holiday, I noticed that some of the Magic Kingdom RideMax plans were coming up with Dumbo LATER than first thing in the morning. Assuming that some of you may be seeing the same thing and thinking RideMax must have gone nuts to *not* recommend Dumbo first during such a crazy-busy week, I thought I’d take you on a photo tour from Monday morning’s EMH at the Magic Kingdom.

Keep in mind that later today, Disney itself would report the line for Dumbo at 130 minutes!

Magic Kingdom - Dumbo

The above is a picture of the line for Dumbo at 7:36am. More than half of the EMH hour is gone, but Dumbo is easily still just a one-cycle wait.

Magic Kingdom - No crowds here eitherThe above shows the line for Barnstormer at the same time in the morning. The ride is down right now, but there are just a handful of folks milling around.

Magic Kingdom - Empty Fantasyland!Fantasyland at 7:46am. Nice wide-open spaces!

Winnie the Pooh - Still Empty at 7:48am!Winnie the Pooh at 7:46am. The 10-minute posted wait is high.  🙂

Dumbo at 7:50am. STILL a one-cycle wait!

The above picture shows the line for Dumbo at 7:50am. STILL just a one-cycle wait!

BarnstormerThe Barnstormer queue at 7:52am. The ride is open now, but still no line here.

Tomorrowland SpeedwayRandom picture of the Tomorrowland Speedway just before the park opened for regular guests at 8:00am.

Dumbo - Finally a line!Dumbo at 8:04am. Finally a line here! I’m estimating it’s still just between 10-15 minutes though.

Just to recap at this point, we could have arrived a full HOUR after the EMH began, and still visited Dumbo without much of a wait. (See my summary at the end for the HUGE caveat though!)

Aladdin

A quick hop over to Adventureland shows no line for Aladdin at 8:15am.

Pirates of the CaribbeanPirates is looking pretty deserted too. Disney would report the wait here at 50 minutes later this afternoon!

Magic Kingdom - Deserted WalkwayAnother deserted walkway at 8:15am!

Still no crowds8:20am. What’s not to like?

BarnstormerBack to the Barnstormer at 8:31am. A 10-minute posted wait, but…

No line BarnstormerStill no line to speak of!

Now, let’s take a break and come back for more pictures later in the morning, shall we?

Space Mountain FastPass line!Here is the area around Space Mountain at 10:16am. The line on the left is for the FastPass machines!

Barnstormer crowded!Back over to the Barnstormer area at 10:23am. The posted wait still shows 10 minutes, but I’m guessing it’s more like 30 now…

TeacupsThe line for the Teacups at 10:29am. Yikes!

Fantasyland constructionRandom shot over the construction wall.

More Fantasyland constructionAnd another one. Being tall does have a few advantages, I suppose… 🙂

Fantasyland crowdsFantasyland at 10:37am. Why would anyone do this to themselves??!

Small World

“it’s a small world” at 10:41am. Wow.

Peter PanPeter Pan’s not looking too great either.

More crowdsMore crowds over here…

Magic Kingdom EntranceMagic Kingdom main gate around 11:00am. I’m leaving now.  🙂

So, back to my comment previously about Dumbo. As you can see, the crowds didn’t really start building until around an hour after the EMH began, when the park opened for regular guests. I have to stress, however, that I wouldn’t expect to see this pattern on a day when the park opens later. This week is unique, because the EMH begins at 7:00am, and further, morning EMH is being held every day of the week, further diluting the crowds taking advantage of the EMH on any given day.

There also seems to be something about a 7:00am start that simply makes it hard for people to get there in time for the really low crowds.

So, if you’re visiting the Magic Kingdom this week and next, be sure to arrive early and enjoy the lack of crowds while you can.

And if you are visiting during the EMH at this time of year, don’t be surprised if RideMax has you NOT visiting Dumbo first. With crowds this low first thing in the morning, it might save you some walking time to hit another area of the park first, and circle around to Dumbo a half-hour later or so. I wouldn’t necessarily suggest this at another season of the year, but 7:00am openings are amazing and unique, and worth taking advantage of if you can!

Have a great time at the parks!

 

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Disney FastPass Changes!

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?
Disney FastPass: Changes Coming?

Enjoy!

 

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