I should perhaps have added that a) I do have the luxury of time and b) I also will play around for hours (and hours) using Evaluate to work things out. And usually have several plans for each park before finally settling on one.
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Like @Pod I avoid the zig zag so I never optimize. I agree that optimizing is great for maximizing number of rides but the TPs are usually too much go go go for my family. I wish there was a way to force it to stick with the least distance between each step. Reduce walking doesn’t do that, for me anyway.
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Yes, if you go to edit at the top of the touring plan it will open the screen to adjust your park time, date, copy the plan and make notes. There is a box to “publish” then it will give you a link you can copy and paste for others to look at. They can’t edit, but it helps.
I have optimized all our plans this time knowing I will adjust on the fly and possibly drop one all together depending on circumstances. That being said I have minimal wait times although we are criss crossing a park multiple times. Not my favorite, but DH will be happier. This is a man who will drive five miles out of his way in order to avoid a stoplight he has deemed ‘slow.’ The plans give us a place to start and then we’ll adjust.
I optimize first to get a sense of general timing of when I should do things. Then I shuffle around. I wish there was a way where you could keep certain steps and optimize the rest.
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optimize will sometimes leave big gaps in your day if ride waits typically are shorter in the evening (having you wait until after 6 or 7 to ride them). I hate the big gaps. I’d rather just hit all my must -do’s, and then gap at the end to re-do or add extra. I don’t want gap in the middle and then just fingers crossed that the evening will work out as planned. So i optimize the morning (those first 2-3 hours seem to be critical), then once I know what is the optimal order for those hours, keep those in the same order, and then just mix it up and evaluate the rest of my day until I arrive at a plan that i like with the right balance of walk/breaks/rides/back-tracking.
I start with optimize after I select my items, then I massage and evaluate from there.
I wish there was a priority button for the rides. Like I might do PP if there’s time and I’m there, but otherwise, just ignore it from the plan. Must do BTMMT. Don’t put it last on the list.
I do this too, when in the planning stages.
If things go south on the day-of, I tend to just delete the lower priority rides and optimize, though. I don’t want to spend my time in the park reordering a plan and evaluating a million times!
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And reordering things on the app is really hard. If you miss the button or hit it twice, you’ve suddenly optimized and messed it all up. I actually kept an extra copy of my plan just in case I messed things up, but I’m with you, just delete it and if you have time later, you can add it in.
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