I’m creating Touring Plans for our trip during Presidents Week. I don’t understand why every thing I read from Touring Plans says to RD the biggest rides and yet when I hit optimize it takes that ride and moves it all over the place?! Very rarely does it follow your own recommendations! Very frustrating!
I would love to see a lock feature, so I could lock certain rides where I want them (ie: Mission Space BEFORE lunch or RoR/SDD at RD).
Is there a trick I’m missing when creating my plan or do most people just not use the Optimize feature and stick to their own agenda?
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When you press “optimize” it puts the rides in order by shortest predicted wait.
You can mitigate that by selecting “minimize walking” on the slider bar before optimizing
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Unfortunately when I minimize walking it takes me to the closest ride first. So at HS it wants me to ride RnR, I want Rise to be the first ride of the day (as long as its running. If not SDD would be next, so that still doesn’t help).
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Try using the ‘evaluate’ button rather than optimize
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This is the million dollar gamble!
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Sometimes I have made the starting time on the plan later to accomodate my own RD plan using Liner intel. So i basically don’t include RD in my actual plan if that makes sense. HS RD is a gamble so we have just had a plan B in case the original target (ROR/SDD) is down. I like to look at historical wait times from RD hours to determine RD priorities. Playing around with it helps me think things out in a different way.
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I learned my lesson on my first trip to WDW using a TP- don’t use optimize, seriously! Use evaluate, and then reorder the rides manually till you get it where you want it.
The software doesn’t think you’ll be front of the pack, so out of the gate, it gets that first ride wrong. Choose the ride you are going to Rope Drop and keep it firm.
On our first day, it took me to Winnie the Pooh BEFORE SDMT, which was NUTs. It was our first day in the parks, in 2015, and we would have been on and off SDMT in great time b/c we were…front of the pack, lol. Anyway, since then, for DLR for instance and Universal, I take control, creating if / then scenarios till it seems right. My family thought I was insane that Winnie AM. We WAITED for SDMT forever.
I only redeemed myself the second day b/c I sat down that night and reworked the plan b/c I finally ‘got it.’
For example, for my first MK rope drop on my next trip, which is a 7.30EE, I am planning on Rope Dropping SM (x2 if possible), then going to Jungle Cruise stand by (since it opens at 8), then Pirates stand by, then Tiana VQ, and then I’ll lean into to prebooked LLs (Haunted, PP, Winnie) before trying to get same day LLs (hoping to do Space again). I will LL SP SDMT and Tron. No way optimize would do this, but after Evaluating over and over again, this worked out for my goals the best. I could punt Tiana VQ till after my LL’s, but the queue time builds and when you add the walk to and from FL back to Tiana the only benefit is to tap and rebook sooner.
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Optimize does just that. But it could mean a ton more walking!
I like to optimize with least walking and relaxed pace. Then I will move things around.
Do you have extra time or do you have steps you can’t get to? Have you set breaks for all the times you think you will need?
That will be by coincidence. It does prioritize closer to you items BUT the software still puts lower wait times over some walking. Mine isn’t always the closest attraction.
Which isn’t the closest ride. Keep in mind the software runs that combination of all ride times and finds the least overall wait time. This won’t and can’t always mean you will get the lowest wait time for each ride.
I find it helpful to optimize at first then move things and evaluate.
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I’m also in the “Evaluate” versus “Optimize” club…
I might use Optimize for the very first step of my very first draft right after I input everything to get an idea of how busy the park / attractions may be…
However, I prefer a continuous route - when possible.
If there is a ride like RotR that you want to RD, but you feel TP isn’t giving you an accurate time you can add a “meal” at a location nearby. I’ve used “Baseline Taphouse” and “Ronto’s Roasters” for this. Just input however many minutes you think your research says the queue wait “should” be.
You can look up each individual ride’s predicted wait through the day in a handy bar graph by going to the TP page for that ride. Here is RotR for example:
You have to scroll to the very bottom of the page!
The TP program is really helpful, but does take a little “practice” playing with it. GL!
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