I am making a touring plan for Epcot that does a few headliners in Future World in the AM, but then focuses on the Pavilions in the World Showcase as this is a second day at Epcot. I optimized the plan but it seems like there is no method to the suggested order. For example the plan has me starting in US, then Japan then Italy thru Mexico. Back to Canada thru Morocco.
I do not have any of the 3 larger attractions selected (Remy, Frozen or Gran Fiesta) so I am not sure why that particular order is suggested. I realize that I can move them up/down as I like but I am concerned that my other plans are not optimized correctly either now, as I noticed some other “strange” selections in some of my other plans. I have been using TP for some years now, but not since the addition of Genie + or LL. (I did not add those to my plan yet). Just wondered if anyone else has experienced this, or am I missing something?
Did you optimise a few times? And did you select any of the entertainment options in the pavilions? And did you select the “minimise walking” option?
I’ve found that every year the Holiday Storytelling events in particular don’t allow for making a straightforward loop of WS.
Not sure why but I just put in a big fat break in my plan that says World Showcase.
I only Optimized once. I have the walking set at “balance” which I normally do. I have never tried the plans on “minimize walking”. I will try that.
I could do that too. Makes sense. I just am worried about my other plans for other parks. Hope they are optimized correctly.
It’s often recommended to re-optimise a few times to get the best result. Not sure if it would give a different result or not, but I find it can.
One of the things I do when it does weird things is create several plans…of the chunks of things I want to do at certain periods of time. So say I want to tackle future world from 8-11am and then walk around World Showcase after lunch. I just make one plan for morning for the Future World things and a separate afternoon plan. then that way when I’m in the park and I want to optimize I don’t have to worry about it mixing it up then.
I love doing this for Epcot and Magic Kingdom!
Weird, for sure. It’s telling me to rope drop Dinosaur instead of FoP. Good thing I know that’s not right.
Because it assumes you’re not at the front of the pack and if so you will have a long line for FOP in which case it doesn’t make sense to wait in line the. When you can get so much more done.
I put in that I was using early entry. It has me going to FoP at a time when I will have an estimated wait of 94 minutes. I won’t wait even close to that amount of time if I rope drop.
Oh, and when I moved FoP to ride number one the estimated wait is 63 minutes. That makes more sense for assuming I am at the back of the pack.
It’s still assuming you’re at the back of the pack for RD. TP is notoriously bad for RD.
It might actually be correct based on % of customer feedback of folks that don’t truly put the respect on the “ropedrop” name that it deserves. Just a guess. If park opens at 9am, and people say they are going to “ropedrop” by getting there at 8:55, so they can get on FOP and EE, and KS all by 9:30am - I think we all know what happens, when they start complaining about Touring Plans being a pile of garbage as they walk to Flame Tree at 12pm to stand in line with 200 of their closest (and clueless) friends.
This is all just a guess.
I also almost always have to tweak my TP a few diff ways to make sense to a human, and not a cpu. My brain always wants to figure out what the why the “computer” tries to do something I think is “off,” and I usually figure it out, but sometimes, I just can’t. But, just remember, it’s a computer, and it deal strictly with the logic of the parameters that are entered into it. If there’s any kind of conflicting info going in, or a glitch, it’s gonna do something we just can’t understand. I still absolutely LOVE TP tho. It’s not the “be all / end all” of my plan making, I always know I have to make tweaks, but I tell you what, I can plan a perfect day in about an hour with about 20 minutes worth of true work, and 40 minutes of watching a few It’s Always Sunny episodes.
I know a trick some people use is to leave out their first ride and just start with the second one. Then the TP does it’s usual “they’ll be at the back of the pack at RD/early entry” which works out just about right.
Sometimes it helps also to put a break first in the location of where you’re heading first or second, and fix it in place, so the software knows where you’re going to be.
This is exactly what I do and it works great. Watch Touring plan videos on rope dropping FoP and this will give you an estimate on how long to schedule your break. This keeps the rest of your plans a little more accurate.