I often feel like i’m waging a war between Optimize and Evaluate, when what I really need is a hybrid.
I would be great if you could move steps around and PIN certain steps and then Optimize. When optimizing any pinned steps would not be moved but any of the rest would be.
For example, Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom is something I want in my plan as a reminder, but I want it near the front of the plan. I want to optimize the rest but can’t if I want that SMK up front.
God yes!
When we went last year, it was priority to ride the carousel first. But every time I optimized, it moved it wherever. Ended up just putting it at the top and evaluating the rest.
Optimizing, rearranging, then evaluating is the work around for sure but not quite the same. Especially if you want to be a bit more reactive as the number crunching gets more accurate (presumably) as you approach day of. Because once you rearrange some things you CAN’T optimize anymore.
I agree, @jwvanderbeck. I do the same thing, but it makes it hard to update the plan on the go (ex. in the park).
Completely agree.
100% agreed. It is a shoddy workaround at best and from then on you’re never sure if you are getting the best information.
Why not start your plan after say an hour for SOTMK?
That would make more sense anyway.
Although you can usually choose which Land to start in (the first portal,is always the one near the Fire Station, it then sends you to the first Land), it isn’t always possible to get your choice if it’s already full.
And once you’ve played the first Land, the next one is randomly selected.
Depending on how many Lands you want to play, set aside some time with a “break” and then start a plan.
The first time we played it, we started in Main St, then Adventureland. That took us over an hour, probably closer to 90 minutes; the queues at the portals were usually about 6-10 people. We finished level one a couple of days later which was a little less busy.
If the lines aren’t long, you can do a Land in around 20 minutes. BUT that also depends on how much you guide them. You don’t go from the first portal to the next one distance-wise, you get sent back and forth within each Land. So if your child(ren) insist on doing it themselves and just randomly try every portal they see, every time, you can be there a looooong time.
Been there, got the tee shirt. After a while he got a little fed up and was happy for me to “suggest” where the next one was (“look, it’s an inside one, in a Tavern - oh look, there’s a tavern”)!
One thing I did as a workaround was add an additional fast pass (beyond 3) for the ride I wanted to keep in a spot and then force the plan to use all fast passes and optimize. It isn’t perfect, since it doesn’t have attractions without fastpasses (like SOMK and carousel), plus it may move things around within the hour as opposed to requiring the ride first.
Not an ideal workaround, but an alternative to optimizing, rearranging and then evaluating.
Would love to have your actual suggestion of pinning items. Or even being able to suggest if you want something in the morning, afternoon or evening.
I’ve had issues where the thing doesn’t even adhere to that requirement, sadly.
That is an interesting workaround. Must try!
But doesn’t that throw off your wait times? Like, if I want to do 7DMT at 10:30, it’ll have a much lower wait with a FP than without.
Oh good catch. I was doing it for the things I wanted to try and get 4th FP for, but you are totally right that if you use this and would be waiting standby that the wait time would not be accurate!
YES this would be fantastic
My workaround for this sort of thing is to replace the steps that I want to fix in place with a meal break of an appropriate length. The reason I use a meal break is that I can choose a restaurant that is close to the attraction in question so that the Optimizer can work out the correct walk times.
For example, say my current plan has Buzz first and I want it to stay that way. The plan has me arriving at Buzz at 9:08, waiting 9 minutes, riding for 5 minutes, and then walking 2 minutes to arrive at SPaM at 9:24. I replace this step with a meal break at the Lunching Pad at 9:10 for 15 minutes. After re-optimizing, the plan has me arriving at the LP at 9:08, staying there for 15 minutes, and then walking 2 minutes to arrive at SPaM at 9:25.
I’m having this trouble now building my first plan. We are starting at Epcot and HAVE to do Soarin first. But I’m so ignorant about what order to do the park, I want to optimize instead of evaluate. I’ve tried just leaving Soarin off the list, but not having it there to check off bugs me 
What I would do is leave Soarin off the list, add a break for it, and optimise the plan until you’re happy with the result.
Then copy the plan, add Soarin back in and evaluate. That way you can see what happens to the wait times etc,
My food breaks don’t always stay where I want them, though, either. If I put too many rides in a plan it kicks out the ADR, or has me arriving up to 45 min late for a QS lunch, rather than leaving the meal and showing me what I can fit in around it.
Check the settings for the meal break - there is a ‘Flexibility’ drop down that should be set to the lowest value (10 min). If it is and the Optimizer keeps having these problems, e-mail webmaster@touringplans.com describing the issue and giving them the plan URL.
I can confirm this will happen. Definitely happens when you have too much going on, it ends up just completely breaking the system. I believe the system logic is “In order to hit everything, you’re better off eating…at this time.”
It can also be what also causes the system to ignore your FPP usage.
What you have to do is kinda start with JUST the must-dos… then optimize…then start adding in secondary stuff. Then optimize again. When it breaks, start removing things and keep optimizing. It’ll usually start working again.
Interesting - I have never had this happen. If you have an example, definitely send it to the TP folks - AFAIK this is a bug, not the desired logic.
This is by design - FPP reservations are ignored when the Optimizer can come up with a better overall plan without using them. However, you can override this beahvior and force it to use your FPP reservations.