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!

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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.  🙁

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!

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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”

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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.)

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

Avatar Flight of Passage - Disney's Animal Kingdom

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!

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