Does the tool use real-time data from reported wait times in the parks?
Or only historical data, which means optimizing a month, week, or day before wouldn’t change the results?
It changes everything in park using real time info. If doing this I suggest you keep a separate copy of your plan. You mark off rides completed and then optimise.
I don’t use it as my plans are finalised by evaluating as there are certain rides I will want to do at certain times like Kali Rivers. Optimisation will always put it early in the day but we do it before park close.
Adding on to what mumcalsop said, if you’re not concerned with your plans staying in their current order, I highly recommend optimizing while you’re in the park as you’ll get the latest info and shave considerable amounts off your day.
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Ohhh! So, let me make sure I’m understanding this. When I press optimize, it’s not predicting times for when I am going to be there? I thought it was using historical statistical data or something. It’s predicting times for NOW?
Am I better off using a non-custimized plan?
Thanks!
It’s a combination of both. Before the actual day, it uses historical data to make predictions. On the day itself it factors in “live” data that is being posted to “fine tune” it. Personally, I don’t do it because shuffling the whole day after every attraction may save some time, I have put my attractions in an order that I like, and the “wheel of fortune” approach doesn’t work for me.
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So, does that mean the pre-planned ones are in a better order? I’ve read people rave on how much time the touring plans save them…are they doing the optimization or just using the pre-made (vs customized) ones? And do the pre-made ones switch around when you ‘optimize’ also?
On the website it uses historical data. On the app it uses real time. Thats why you need to make plans on the website not the app.
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Oh, okay. I’m making them on the website. Thanks.
What do you mean “pre-made”? Do you mean the plans that TouringPlans has put together, either on the website or from the book, like “Magic Kingdom Unofficial Guide One-Day Touring Plan for Parents with Small Children”, or do you mean a custom plan that you make at home? Because those are two different things.
When you optimize a custom touring plan before your visit, you get results based on historical data. The software makes a prediction of what the wait in line will be on your day at the park, and reports that prediction. If you optimize, it tries to find an order that minimizes time in line (or walking, or a balance of the two). When you set your own order and evaluate, it uses the same prediction data, and tells you the software’s best guess of what your waits will be on that future day with that order.
If you optimize a custom plan on the big day, the optimizer takes into account the current day’s conditions, as well as that historical data, and tries to give you the best plan for the steps you haven’t completed yet. So, if you are using the Lines app to step through the plan, you click when you are done with things, so the software knows that you already did Peter Pan, for example, and it doesn’t need to find time for that anymore. The possible downside of optimizing while you’re using the plan is that it can rearrange things dramatically, and you might end up jetting across the park to get to the next short line. That’s what @bswan26 was talking about not liking.
The Touring Plans published plans (“Magic Kingdom Unofficial Guide One-Day Touring Plan for Parents with Small Children”) are built to be pretty good pretty much of the time, any day of the year, like if you bought an Unofficial Guide at the Hudson News before your plane to Orlando, you could use it and save a lot of time compared to just grabbing a map at the park entrance and winging it.
I think a custom plan that you have looked over, and sort of run through in your mind, and maybe moved some things manually and evaluated, is the best plan. After the plan optimizes, I like to look at how much free time there is, and where it is in the plan, look through the numbers on the map and make sure it’s not running me back and forth across the park, and making sure its not cutting showtimes too close.
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By ‘pre-made’, I meant the published plans vs a custom one that I make. Published is a much better description!
Good explanation of it all. This is what I thought it was doing, but the comment about it being in real time threw me. I understand now that it’s only in real time on the day you are there.
Good idea about looking on the numbers on the maps too.
Thanks!
Thank you everyone! The discussion really helped me understand how the system works.