Eric Grey

Anyway - we went to Disneyland (rented a Zipcar, drove through SoCal traffic, no problems) because I'm a huge sucker for themed amusement parks. Especially that one - long history, lots of good memories. Because we only had one day, and knew we probably wouldn't be back for a while, I wanted to maximize our use of time. The worst part of these huge parks is the huge lines, long waits, etc... I found this software online called Ridemax (http://www.ridemax.com/index.php). It's Windows only right now, but runs famously in Parallels if you're on a Mac. It took me a while to find it and I couldn't find many user reviews online, so I thought I'd put a quick one up here. Why not?

We got there on a day that was quite cloudy (blissfully - nothing worse than Disneyland lines in the blazing LA sun) and thusly a little less packed than usual. We were able to park in the LOT, not the parking garage, which is a first in my adult life. Anyway - got in line and followed our ambitious Ridemax itinerary. See - you enter in all the rides you want to ride, and it develops a plan using Fastpass (a "get through the line more quickly" card you can get periodically in the park) and avoiding the busiest times of day for the busiest rides. You then spend maximal time either ON RIDES or just hanging out people watching/eating/resting and minimal time walking around and waiting in line.

It worked. Like a charm. We had such an amazing time. I was really floored by how well it worked. It was as if we were on some kind of alternate flow from everyone else in the park and could just do what we wanted to do. It was totally awesome.

Proof positive:

Me in line for Space Mountain for the third time. Stoked. Amanda has a similar picture, but I'll spare her the public embarrassment.

Thanks for listening. :D