Where can I make a suggestion for a little tweak to the TP selections? I’d love to ride WDWRR but TP makes me chose which station I am going to use. I’d much rather tell TP I want to ride the train and have it tell me which station and when.
Now that I think of it, I’d like to tell it the same about certain snacks like Dole Whips. I know I want one but I have to make a TP, see when I will be in Adventureland, add the snack, and re-optimize.
Same with QS meals. I’d rather say I want to eat at Pecos Bills and CHH. One for lunch and one for dinner. Don’t care which one for which meal. Tell me which one when based on my TP.
Or, I want a QS lunch where ever I am in the park at 1:30. And TP gives me options.
I know I can work around by adding in break at mealtimes and just pick where to eat. But I think it would help people less familiar with the parks. And help my OCD plan
Those are both great ideas! I don’t think the program will do it for you. You could make multiple plans manually entering each station and restaurant at various times to see if it makes a difference in your wait.
I’m guessing that since reservations are so hard to get and QS stand fluctuate so much that it’s impossible to be accurate with which eatery would be best at each time…
I also would like to add a stop at a restaurant or snack stand without having to set a time. You can use the 60 minutes window to have 2 hour flexibility. It does help. The train is harder IMO. I also don’t think 20 mins is accurate from station to station or for the round trip. I wish they could program it to start at one station and end at the next (it’s about 10 mins plus waiting).
I like this too. I usually just make a break and fill it in later.
But it does seem that we could say we’d like to eat at any of these five QS restaurants, one for lunch and one for dinner, around these times. And TP can say “well, your touring plan indicates you’ll be riding HM at 12:15 so let’s do CHH for lunch right after. Plan for it to take 30-60 minutes”.
It gives me 60 minutes on either side? that does help some.
But I’d much rather have it tell me “hey, you’ll be in adventure land in the afternoon so get a dole whip around 3 while you’re there”. Right now sometimes I pick aloha island for 3pm and then my TP shows me in Tomorrowland at 2 and I have to cross the park. If I set my plan to less walking it helps but I don’t need the whole day rearranged to slow walking. Instead I edit my snack time to when I’ll be in adventureland and reoptimize. And then sometimes it moves all the steps and I’m no longer in adventure land at that time. So then I move to evaluate. I can do all the tricks to work around it but I’d rather it do it for me.
This is what I generally do. I do agree it would be nice if they could make a recommendation. But truthfully, it isn’t that hard to pull up the Disney World map for the park and filter on Dining to see what is nearby whatever location it is.
Still, I’m not sure how much work it would be just to add another type of “break” specifically where you can select food, and when it creates the plan, it in the very least gives a list of options which are nearby, which you can then select from in the moment or whatever.
As far as the train…that one is tricky, since the software treats each segment as 3 separate rides. I think 20 minutes is accurate enough, if you just happen to walk up to the station as the train is pulling away. That means you will be waiting probably about 10 minutes, and then have the 10 minute ride more or less. If you arrive to the station just as a train is pulling in, obviously your actual wait time will be less.
Oh, absolutely. And this is what we mostly do. Or I rearrange steps to get me to Pecos Bill’s (DD must do) for one of the meals.
I think I’m more thinking it would be nice to have the first QS feature I mentioned. Say I know I want to eat at Cosmic Rays and Pecos Bills today. don’t care which is lunch and which is dinner. Make my TP so I am in/near one of those lands at lunchtime and the other at dinnertime.
We are experienced Liners so we can figure this out on our own for the most part. But 10 years ago I would have loved to have this as a feature. And I’d use it now if it were available.
I think the best you can do now is add two breaks, one for each of those. Add a note that indicates it is for Pecos Bill or Cosmic Rays. When you optimize (and eventually evaluate?) your plan, you can then see which area you are going to be in, and which makes more sense…at which point you can swap out the break for the actual restaurant if you want (to get a more accurate walking time).
It does consider it “flexibility”. I wonder how close the software tries to reach the target time. I have had it put the step into the plan up to 45 mins away. But I always choose less walking… always
I also like to do my snack and meals in intervals. I try to target every 2.5 -3 hours. So I add a break in my plans with flexibility. Then I pick a place after I have my ultimate plan. I dontend to keep skipping a few that I would like to try because it’s never convenient. So I may have to make plans around that someday.
But you don’t end at the next segment (location). If I pick Frontierland RR station and my next attraction is Barnstormer, the software has me walking allllll the way from Frontierland RR station to Barnstormer. So then I have to add a break to combat the walking.
But the software also adds wait time on top of the 20 mins.
The earliest versions of the software did this. The code might still be in there … somewhere. I’ve got plans to revisit the code in the second half of this year. Let me see what I can do there.
Remind me that I have a funny story about this that can’t be told until 2025.
The early versions of the software did this as well, in a feature called “One-of Groups”. The code is still there. I’ll check on it when I do the above.
That feature was borne from the Unofficial Guide’s earliest touring plans, which said something like “See Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride or Peter Pan’s Flight - whichever is most convenient”. Essentially, it said “Pick any one from this group.”
Aha! So, I didn’t dream up this magical feature. You did. I’m guessing some tiny recess of my brain remembered being able to do it.
100% setting a reminder on my phone for 1/1/25 to ask for this story. Any story that has to remain under wraps for that long has got to be a good one!
This I think I recall from the days of ripping the touring plan cards from the back of the book to carry around with us in the parks. Ah, how times have changed.
I’m guessing some tiny recess of my brain remembered being able to do it.
