I have been seeing some weird results when optimizing. The plan is for Magic Kingdom. I put in a 60 minute break for lunch, at 1PM. I used the break rather than a meal since I don’t know what restaurant I want.
When I optimize, I get 105 minutes of free time before that break, even though there are still 9 steps scheduled after the break. Surely at least one of those attractions would fit in that massive pothole in the middle of my day!
Anybody know what’s going on here?
That happens to me all the time too. I think it is because the system places each of the attractions at the optimal time of the day that will limit the waiting/walking time. So my guess is that placing any of the attractions sometime during those 105 minutes would actually result it a longer wait than it does by placing them later in the day.
For example, if PPF is a 45-minute wait at 12:00 but at 4:30 pm it’s only a 35-minute wait, the Optimizer will place it at the 4:30 time for you.
I’ll usually use the extra time to go do an attraction or two that I want to do more than once, or I’ll them mark it as done instead of going later on in the day.
The last time we went (2 years ago), I made touring plans and never saw this. Now, I’m seeing this happen (to a greater or lesser extent) on 5 out of 7 plans for the trip. What I’ve seen previously for free time has been a handful of minutes before something with a scheduled start time (a meal or show), and a block of extra time at the end of the day.
I also saw the same thing (but worse!) on a Disneyland plan which went from 9 AM to midnight. The optimizer puts an hour break before lunch at noon, then schedules one attraction between lunch and a break at 4 PM. That’s 3 and a half hours of downtime, with 20 more steps after the break. Surely some of those steps could fit in there somewhere.
The funky Disneyland plan: Personalized Touring Plans
Edit: Here’s the (working?) URL: Notional Disneyland
You need to go into “Edit” and check the “Publish plan?” text box for the rest of us to be able to see your plan. Then when you go into “Print plan” it will have the link you post to share it.
But if I had to guess, it’s because you’re able to finish all your steps and still be done for the day by your “finish” time on the plan. change the plan and put your “finish” time at 6 pm the try optimizing again, for example.
Can’t see the plan, but agree with @mossymom. You need to add more items to your plan, or shorten your hours.
This behavior is different from what I’ve seen before. I’ve made maybe 10 or 12 different plans before now and have never seen this. The behavior I’ve seen previously was to complete the plan sooner rather than build a huge break in.
Perhaps the touring plan software, which prints out a message every time I’m scheduled to arrive at a show less then 15 minutes before it starts, could also give me a heads up when it’s leaving a massive hole in the middle of my day, and suggest adding more attractions or changing the end time of the day. Because I don’t want a huge hole in my day, even if it does save a few minutes in line.
Look at Splash Mountain. Your FPP return is at 10 pm, and you’ve set your day to end at midnight. So the algorithm assumes you’ll be there until 10 pm at least, maybe midnight, and so will just rearrange the rest of your attractions to minimize waits.
I’ve made over 80 TPs, but only for WDW so I’m not sure how FPs get factored in when making a personalized plan on TP.
I think your options to fix would be:
What @mossmaci said is what’s happening.
The Optimizer thinks of it this way: You have 15 hours in the park. You have 11 hours of activities. There’s 4 hours of free time left in the day. Where should the 4 hours go so that the overall time you spend in line is minimized?
Generally that free time should be when the park is most crowded, and that’s usually between 11 AM and 5 PM.
The alternatives to getting around this, listed above, generally work too.
If this is true, either use that time to simply walk around and enjoy the atmosephere, check out shops, character meets or other stuff you haven’t already worked into the plan. There is SOOO much to see in MK that you’d never put on a TP. So if you TP already includes all your “must dos” then enjoy that extra time to leisurely enjoy other little things!