There has been a lot of plan sharing lately, so I thought that I would add to the fray.
First up is a TP for HS on arrival day, entering the park at 1:00: Disney and Universal Touring Plans
Note that there would be an ADR for HBD at 6:45, but I did not include it in the plan as the gap between it and the last planned attraction tends to confuse the Optimizer. This seems to be a frequent occurrance for me, so my solution is to not put fixed-time end-of-day activities (like ADRs or Wishes) into a TP that I am going to Optimize.
Next is an EP plan with the focus on WS: Disney and Universal Touring Plans
This plan focuses on doing WS to the fullest. The initial FW part was Optimized, and then WS was added in a counter-clockwise order and then Evaluated. In order to get more time at each pavilion they were added to the plan twice, and there is also 48 minute of free time before the dinner ADR to allow for more slack time.
Are you assuming illuminations FP after canceling a 3rd (booking after Soarin?). The only thing I will add is that I was in WS the week after this in 2014 and it took us 10 times longer than expected to walk anywhere. Honestly, it took 30 minutes to walk from one end of the Japan Store to the other.
Edited to add: although a Monday may not be as bad, I did not expect crowds that were crazier than Food and Wine.
Yes, that is what I’m hoping for, but this is primarily as a back-up in case the table at LaH does not have a good view. The alternate back-up is @niter’s Secret Illuminations Viewing Spot. Belt and braces…
I’m a good crowd walker, so I’m not too worried. Also, this plan is for a “virtual” vacation that I’m not actually taking, so the crowds are not a factor at all!
Using a mix of Optimizing and Evaluating. I find that this really works well at EP, where I prefer to do some FW activities and then do a progressive tour of WS. If I were to Optimize the above plan it would jump around a bit and not go in the desired counter-clockwise order so that I end up in Mexico where I have my ADR.
Tweaking Start and Stop times to get the desired result. When I initially started working on the HS plan, I had to put a Stop time of 7:00pm in order to prevent the Optimizer from putting long-wait attractions at the end of the day resulting in a big Wait Time block in the afternoon.
Working around the FPP Tiers by booking throw-away FPP reservations and then canceling them on the MDE website so that I can get additional FPPs at a park kiosk earlier.
Using otherwise unused FPP reservations on attractions that might not actually have a long line. Initially in the EP plan I was booking two throw-away FPP reservations and canceling them. However, I decided to use one to book SE at 9:00. Probably unnecessary, but what if that massive Brazillian tour group enters the park and goes straight to SE? I’m walking by them with an FPP reservation that would otherwise have gone to waste. The same holds for the FPP reservation for ST in the HS plan - probably unnecessary, but why not have it just in case?
Not entering fixed-time end-of-day attractions when Optimizing if I do not want to do anything after them. Sometimes when I have entered things like Wishes or a late ADR, the Optimizer will put things after them and leave large Wait Time gaps in the afternoon.
@len has mentioned that they are intending to make the times adjustable for WS pavilions, so that you can set how much time you want to spend in each one.
@sarah is working on user-selectable preferred show times right now. So if you really want to see the second Wishes, or a specific Jedi show, that’ll soon be possible.
FWIW, it’ll be a preference, not a guarantee. If you prefer a 6 pm show and also have a 5:45 PM ADR, you probably won’t make that 6 pm show.
