I am doing the same thing as you. Starting with the canned plans and then modifying and optimizing and planning on optimizing while in-park. I figure that I don’t know enough to start from scratch. Especially since we’ll be in that park for two days, I don’t know which to put in Day 1 and which in Day 2. I expect that Day 2 will be heavily modified when we get ‘home’ after Day 1. I also like the suggested Fast Passes in the canned plans. Seems like a good starting point.
One hint that I read on the forum here is to optimize and repeat until it is stable. That is something I didn’t know when using this for Universal. I’d optimize once, and then wonder why it didn’t seem optimal. Then I’d manually move a step and optimize and it would be better.
Be careful though. When you use Optimize, it may reshuffle all of your steps to save you a couple minutes. I find it best to Optimize first and then “Evaluate” going forward to keep my steps in order while giving updated queue waits. TP will have you criss-crossing the park just to save 3 minutes if you Optimize each time.
That is how we felt, that we did not have enough knowledge to just start making up a plan. Honestly, from the promotional lingo ‘Unofficial Guides’ uses in the fat book and online, I thought that the intent all along was to start with a template - at least for newbies. Good info about optimizing, I will watch for that. The little map at the bottom can help you visualize moving from place to place, and maybe cause a reordering.
The guys at TP are working on updating/refreshing things to make them more intuitive. They had hired a UX firm not long ago, and have been soliciting feedback through the forums on how things should look. So, I think it will take time, but we’re getting there. IN the meantime, it is a bit of a “mess” finding things.
But, fortunately, the usefulness outweighs any frustration I’ve had with the website/app design itself.
Optimize is a great first step. It will put everything in the sequence with the shortest queues. It doesn’t care how far away they are or if they are a ride or show. I’m not saying you can’t use it multiple times, but IME the first Optimize is good enough.
EXAMPLES:
When you optimize, you may get told to RD the Citizens of Hollywood street performers at DHS because they will never have any wait. They are street performers that walk around. Because their wait time is 0 they get placed at Step #1. This is terrible advice. You would be better RD at a big attraction
You may get also get an Optimized plan that will make you walk from Space Mt. to Splash Mt. because the queue at Splash Mt. is 2 minutes shorter than it will be 2 hours later. Even though it took you 15 minutes to walk there
IME - Put in all your rides, attractions, shows, meals and then hit optimize. Then you can rearrange the steps in a better walking order. (When TP asks for your walking pace it is to determine the walk time to the next step in the plan - not to arrange them in a shorter distance)
If a ride wait time goes up greatly - like 20+ minutes - because you moved it from step #7 to Step #4, then you can decide if the walk is worth the wait.
I’m not saying my way is the only way. It’s just been a tried and true system that I’ve had to develop through years of making mistakes. Just trying to help you and anyone else avoid my errors.
I wish it did! I used to think so too!! I had to learn the hard way. Been doing this since 2012
It’s almost like pushing a button for an elevator after someone else has already done it. It makes you think you’ve done something, but in reality nothing has happened.
EDIT TO ADD - You can test this on your own by taking a plan you’ve already optimized with “Minimize Walking” or “Minimize Waiting” and then switch the setting to the opposite and Optimize again. The steps rarely, if ever, change
Yes and no. Minimize walking, plus set your walking speed to very relaxed. That will optimize for walking distance first, mostly. Then after done optimizing, you can change your walking speed back to what you normally use (I always use relaxed) and from then on use Evaluate instead while you manually arrange and fine tune your plan.
