ridemax blog

RideMax Assumptions for Animal Kingdom Plans After May 27th

In the “thanks for your patience” department, I have some good news for Walt Disney World RideMax subscribers: As of today, our Animal Kingdom park hours now reflect the 11:00pm closing time for RideMax plans created for May 27th and later (or at least through July 2nd, which is the last date for which Disney has officially committed to staying open late).

It’s always a bit tricky putting together the behind-the-scenes wait time estimates RideMax will be using when we haven’t yet seen the scenario we’re trying to model, so I thought it might be helpful to go over some of the assumptions RideMax will be using. Note that I expect we’ll adjust the estimates and the assumptions once I’ve had the chance to experience the late evenings myself, beginning with an in-park visit on May 27th.

Highlights of our current assumptions include:

Kilimanjaro Safaris and the DinoLand attractions will remain open until park closing, regardless of the time the park closes. Same goes for It’s Tough To Be A Bug.
Several attractions will continue to close around dusk. RideMax is specifically assuming that Rafiki’s Planet Watch, Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, and Maharajah Jungle Trek will fall into this category.
Expedition Everest will close sometime *before* the park closes, and RideMax plans will avoid having you get in line for this attraction after 8:30pm. The theory here is that Disney won’t want all of the noise from Everest to carry over into the new show area on Discovery River (in the same way in which California Screamin’ is closed during World of Color at DCA).

Regarding this last assumption (no Everest after 8:30pm), we’ll have to see how this plays out in practice, but I’ve noticed that for all of the dates after May 27th for which I can see FP+ availability, the latest Everest time slot begins at 7:25pm, which means the FP+ window closes at 8:25pm. My guess (and I know it’s just a guess), is that Disney wants to have everyone off the ride by about 9:00pm, so that they can “get on with the show” playing on the river.

As I said, these seem like reasonable assumptions for now, and I expect we’ll be modifying them once we’ve seen everything in practice the evening of May 27th.

Disney hasn’t yet released actual show times for the new Jungle Book show, but you can expect to see this listed in RideMax soon after the announcement is made.

Stay tuned!

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Changes Reflected in RideMax… Soon!

As something of a personal note for Walt Disney World subscribers to RideMax, I’m sure you’ve noticed that we’re still listing the “old” park hours for Disney’s Animal Kingdom for dates beginning on May 27th, which marks the start of Disney’s new nighttime experiences available there, including the after-dark rides on Kilimanjaro Safaris.

I wanted to personally give some very focused attention to the behind-the-scenes-data that RideMax will be relying on for the new schedule, but came back to Orlando from a recent vacation more sick than I’ve been in a long time. Knowing that I’d want to be fully-coherent when putting the new wait time estimates together (or at least as coherent as I normally am), I decided to wait until I’m off the meds before I focus on these changes in earnest.

The good news (well, for me at least) is that I’m starting to feel better as we head into the weekend, and I do hope to get on the changes next week.

So, my apologies for the delay, and please stay tuned!

Note that I also plan to be in the park the evening of May 27th, both to look at the wait times up-close, as well as to personally experience Kilimanjaro Safaris (and hopefully the new Jungle Book show) after dark, so keep an eye on the blog here for pictures and updates on the new changes once everything has opened.

Even without Rivers of Light, these are still some exciting changes to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and I, for one, am glad to see them coming!

MyMagic+ App Enhancements in Action, Rivers of Light Construction Progress

One big hassle with FastPass+ at Walt Disney World is that until this month, guests were only allowed to make three FP+ reservations on their own — you had to visit an in-park kiosk once you used those first three if you wanted to schedule additional FP+ experiences.

Well, Disney has just enhanced their iPhone and Android apps to allow guests to make their own fourth (and more) FastPass+ selections using a mobile device, rather than visiting an in-park kiosk. You have to make the additional reservations one at a time — and only after using your first three — but for those who end up using this feature, it holds some hope of cutting down on the hassle we saw in my previous post with insane lines at the FastPass+ kiosks during spring break.

I downloaded the new version of the app to my iPhone and gave the feature a whirl last Monday, April 11th. Before I begin, I will note that the week of April 11th saw much lower crowds than the week before, as the “Easter rush” had sort of died down a bit by then.

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RideMax Updated for New Early Morning Magic Program at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom

Walt Disney World recently announced a new separately-ticketed event for the Magic Kingdom called Extra Morning Magic. It basically consists of early morning access to three attractions in Fantasyland, plus breakfast.

Those who purchase tickets for this event (at $69 for adults and $59 for kids) will be allowed into Fantasyland at 7:45am, when they can experience Winnie the Pooh, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and Peter Pan’s Flight before the park opens to regular guests at 9:00am. Breakfast will be served at the Village Haus Restaurant until 10:00am.

So far, announced dates for the event are the following Tuesdays and Saturdays:

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Updated Disneyland RideMax Estimates for April 5-7

I’m writing this just after 6:00am on Tuesday, and just wanted to let our Disneyland customers know that we’ve increased our crowd level estimates for both Disneyland and DCA from today through Thursday. We *strongly* encourage you to create new plans if possible.

Note that we normally don’t like to adjust estimates so late in the game, but often our own sales are a good indicator of crowd levels, and the sales have been strong enough over the last couple of days that we think an increase in the estimates is warranted.

For those in the parks this week, have a great spring break!