Originally Posted By mickeynewe Okay, I made several priority seating reservations for food. The problem is: Ridemax. No matter what I do, my plan keeps having me be about 10-20 minutes late for my ressies. If we are late, will we still be seated? Thanks all!
Originally Posted By wonderingalice I've never used Ridemax, but my instincts tell me a couple of things... 1. There's no guarantees since there's room for error due to ALL kinds of things. 2. Dropping/delaying an attraction visit or two should fix it - it pretty much HAS to.
Originally Posted By Lisann22 I'm gonna be in big trouble for this... Tell me you are not scheduled this tight. Where is the room for the character greeting because you ran into him when they came around the corner and surprised you? Where is the time allowed for the band that suddenly pops up as your walking through New Orleans Square? What happens when one of the kids had so much fun they want to ride Casey Jr. again? Aye yi yi - most of the time priority seatings wants you there 15 minutes BEFORE you're actual seating, so I doubt they are going to save it for you if you're 10 to 20 minutes late.
Originally Posted By SuzieQ I can't stand RideMax. Be on time or a few minutes early for your PS. They'll give your table away to keep everyone else on schedule. The hostess may still put you at the head of the list, but then you're going to be behind on your Ride Max schedule by the time you get out of the restaurant.
Originally Posted By SuzieQ Lisa, you just posted why I hate RideMax. Disneyland is to be explored and enjoyed. You will miss the best parts of the experience if you are commando, tight-scheduled. Not to mention totally stressed out on what is supposed to be a vacation!
Originally Posted By Lisann22 I'm gonna be unpopular for this too but what gives anyone the right to be late after taking the time to make a priority seating? That is unfair to other guests as you are holding up a tables and it's plain rude. I know I'm coming on strong but sometimes we get so caught up in our good time and scheduling everything in we forget about our families enjoyment and those around us.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Another thing -- preferred Seating at Disneyland isn't the same as having reservations at a restaurant. Just because you have reservations at 11:30 doesn't mean you can expect to be seated immediately at that time. It's sort of a place holder time more than anything. To each his own, but I would be a wreck with RideMax. I prefer to meander around the park, start at one side and work my way around. RideMax/overscheduling would drive me to drink, but I'd have no time to go get one. LOL
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>I can't stand RideMax.<< How can it really work? All it takes is for attendance to be slightly higher than estimated and all those time projections go down the tubes.
Originally Posted By mickeynewe LOL...okay, okay...I give! First off, we use Ridemax as a "guideline" and we never follow any itinerary at Disneyland. You'll see that I state that in any post regarding Ridemax. I do think its a good tool, but it is only a tool. I support Ridemax if it isn't taken verbatim. I was just curious about the ressies thing. I like the idea of an itinerary. Sometimes its used...sometimes its not. We are a family that very much enjoys exploring on our own and I have large blocks of time scheduled out for that. Or, just sitting on a bench people watching. Unfortunately, if when you schedule blocks out at certain times, Ridemax bumps it by a few minutes. The thing I DO like about Ridemax is when you are going at PEAK times, like Thanksgiving week, it does limit your wait times. Sometimes, just by studying the different plans you create, you can also see how to work the system to your own advantage the way YOU want it to work. Since we are going with a group, chances are we won't even use it, but I'll still carry it just as a backup. We used it one year when it was summer crowds and our group thought it was awesome because you can "drop" and "pick up" the itinerary at any point of time that suits you and it saved us a lot of wait time.
Originally Posted By nemopoppins Regarding being late for Priority Seatings: I (and my family, a party of 7) was a half hour late for PS at Goofy's Kitchen. I explained that I forgot to bring my little note from home but I had remembered the time as 9:40 AM. It was actually 9:10 AM and even though it was very noticeably crowded, they honored my PS anyway. I guess it's left to the host's discretion?
Originally Posted By SuzieQ Yes, it is. However, there's a difference between an honest mistake and being off purposely.
