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Next Reader Grab Bag Will Be….OPTIMIZED TOURING PLANS

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We’ve coded and tested and tested and coded. And you’ve tried out more than a few optimized touring plans yourselves (68,314 as of this moment). You have questions. And we need to revise our FAQ. So bring on your questions. Send them to advice@touringplans.com.

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Laurel Stewart

Laurel is a former software engineer and current student. She likes pina coladas, getting caught in the rain, and Big Thunder Mountain.

16 thoughts on “Next Reader Grab Bag Will Be….OPTIMIZED TOURING PLANS

  • I just optimized my plan via lines and it has LUNCH as the first thing we do after the park opens and our dinner reservation at the very end with a note that we may not have enough time for it. Lunch and dinner are rather time dependent. Will that be fixed?

    Reply
  • First, thank you for adding the arrival times. That helps a lot.

    Would it be possible to port over the “copy plan” code from the standard plans to the personalized ones? That way we could easily create slight variations to experiment.

    Also, I wanted to report a few issues:
    – The optimized plans want me to do World Showcase stuff before that part of Epcot has opened (though the lines WOULD be low at 9:30am!)
    – 10 minutes per Epcot pavillion? Could there be a way for us to manually extend this if we want to explore a bit? We need time to get those passports stamped!
    – The plans may be trying too hard to minimize the waits for shows. How feasible is getting to a show like Finding Nemo with 2 minutes to spare on a day with 10.0 crowds? You might need to build in a “find seats” time cushion that is a function of crowd size.

    Thanks!

    Reply
  • Hi,

    Could you please update personalized plans to reflect MK’s correct 3/6/12 closing time (9PM)?

    Reply
    • p.s.- the crowd calendar and crowd tracker are also still showing incorrect closing time for MK on 3/6/12

      Reply
  • I think it would be handy with the custom to allow a time & how long it will take you, like the dining reservations. That way when we optimize a plan the custom dosen’t get stuck at the bottom. I have ran into this with our reservations at some of the hotels & BBB.

    Reply
  • I think it might be nice if there were an option to tell the software that you need to use the Rider Swap for an attraction. My experience with some attractions is that the Rider Swap can double the time it takes to get your group through the attraction, and the optimizer could use that information to more accurately predict your schedule.

    Reply
  • When optimizing a personal touring plan on your site the steps got rearranged in such a manner that I’ve been instructed to obtain fastpasses for two different rides within the same 60 minute period; and prior to actually using the first fastpass. My understanding is that the fastpass system disallows this situation.
    Can you either clarify this for me, or look into correcting the glitch in the optimization process?

    Reply
    • Rich, it’s possible. The minimum time between obtaining a FP and getting a next one, can be as low as 35 minutes. (In fact, on NYE in the MK, it was 0 at BTMRR, but that’s an exception.) Also, you don’t need to use the first FP before obtaining a second. The software knows these things.

      Reply
  • The system will not recognize my 8:05am reservation for MK. I know it’s before park opening, but the computer keeps changing the time on me to 9 when the park opens.

    Reply
    • It doesn’t really matter – the touring plan has to begin at park opening – that you’ll already be in the park is a bonus! BTW: Arrive really early for the 8:05 if you can – Disney will seat you ASAP and you won’t have to wait until 8:05.

      This will assure you are all finished up and can get on Dumbo at exactly 9:00AM and ride it on its first spin of the day!

      Reply
      • We plan on getting there around 7:45. Too bad Dumbo won’t be ridden on our trip 🙁 We are going while it’s being moved. Dumbo AND BTMR.

  • Any chance of working out the glitch regarding the international gateway not being recognized as an exit/entrace at Epcot? It keeps removing it from the beginning/end of my plans and I would like the plan to reflect that I am not coming in/leaving by the main entrace regarding walking times and where I start/stop.

    Reply
  • Can you customize a plan so your group can split and 2 different things at the same time? We are about to go on a trip to Disney World and the adults want to ride roller coasters while our 2 and 4 year olds want to ride little kid rides. There are some things we want to do together, but I can’t figure out how to make a plan to include both of these things.

    Reply
    • Create another plan called Kids Day at the Park and add the attractions they want to ride.

      That would be pretty complex for the optimizer to have two sets of touring plans created based on specific guest preferences.

      Reply
  • FAQ needs to explain the difference between picking an attraction and the same attraction with FastPass option. I’m still not sure if I should pick both Toy Story Mania and Toy Story Mania FP, or just one.

    Reply
    • I suspect they include every possible in-park destination in the list of attractions you can add. Since Fast-Passes are basically something you can walk up to and use it is included.

      However, you don’t need to select it – the optimizer will select it automatically for you when it creates a touring plan and it will be added to your plan.

      I haven’t tried it, but I guess if you select Test Track FP and don’t select Test Track it will send you to the FP distribution at the best possible time to go there, but won’t ever tell you when to ride the attraction! 🙂

      Reply

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