I thought the point of the optimize option was to give you the best options for your selected attractions, right?
I had gone through and made my own plans originally and have been tweaking them here and there (I’m a BIG planner so I’m constantly looking, seeing what I can do better, etc.). I was curious today, so I copied those plans, took out my scheduled FPP, using the same attractions, I optimized and then added FPP in where they should go based on the new plan. The results were interesting to me. I found that about half the time, my evaluated plan was actually better than the optimized plan. Below is a summary of the results. (And for the record, settings were very relaxed walking and minimize walking - I have arthritis and trying to do this without a scooter!) Main times I am comparing below are in line time and walking time.
Day 1: Epcot partial day - Future World - The optimized plan was better on both
Day 2 - Animal Kingdom (did NOT include Pandora) - The optimized plan was better on both
Day 3 - MK (Adventureland/Frontierland/part of Fantasyland) - The optimized plan actually saved almost 30 minutes of in line time; however, it added almost 30 minutes of walking time, even though I had minimize walking selected.
Day 4 - HS - very similar to day 3 - the optimized plan actually saved almost 20 minutes of in line time; however, it added 20 minutes of walking time.
Day 5 - Epcot - Original plan with Test Track and FPP for Frozen - my original plan was 13 minutes of in line time and 8 minutes of walking time shorter than the optimized version.
Day 5 - MK Nighttime (part of Fantasyland - Fireworks) - My original plan saved 14 minutes of in line time and 11 minutes of walking time over the optimized plan.
Day 6 - MK (Tomorrowland, parade, part of Fantasyland) - the optimized version was better - 13 minutes of in line time and 31 minutes of walking time.
So I guess my question - have you found that your plan ever comes out “better” than the optimized plan? And is there a reason to use an optimized plan even when the wait times and walk times are lower in my plan?
I have made the occasional plan that works better than an Optimized one, but they are few and far between. I think the issue here is that you are adding all of your FPPs at once and then re-optimizing. The problem with this is that FPP choices affect each other, so you are not getting the best result. One trick to avoid this is to optimize (several times), add the FPP that willl give you the greatest benefit, re-optimize, add your next FPP choice, etc.
I have a post on here that goes into more detail on this:
The order that you select the FPPs can matter, and you need to make sure that with each re-optimization they are still being utilized. Check out my link for further details.
I treat it like a game and try to come up with a better plan, as far as less walking and not too much more waiting, than the optimized one. Most of the time I can. The only in park experience I have is from last year and my plans worked pretty well, but we were flexible about changing so i don’t know if they were really better than optimized plan. But I’m doing the same for this year’s trip.
When I make my plans, I always Optimize the first time. After I make changes, I Evaluate instead of Optimize. If I do deside to re-optimize, I will make a copy of the plan, just in case the Optimize rearranges the attractions and rides and I don’t like how it is done.
I only optimize the first time and then move things the way that make sense to me. One time, I was curious, so I copied my plan and optimized. You know it came out exactly the same? I had made the optimal plan for that day and FPP combination.
