Walk time error

I wanted to post this so others can make adjustments to their Touring Plans to account for this significant walk time error. The problem is being investigated by the TP team “request (15430)”

The TP walk time estimates in relation to a scheduled “Add Break” or “rest” time is incorrect. If you add a “Break” into the day’s activities, the TP adds “1” minute of walk time from the last scheduled activity to the “rest” and “1” minute of walk time from the “rest” to the next scheduled activity.

For example, if an “Add Break” is added between Gorilla Falls and Primeval Whirl in Animal Kingdom, then the total walk time from Gorilla Falls all the way across the park to Primeval Whirl is 2 minutes. This means if you add a 20 minute break between these steps then most of the break would be spent walking.

In addition to the incorrect walk time, the other issue is that the TP also incorrectly assumes that these 2 activities are in close proximity to each other (due to the short walk time). The TP will then sequence steps together that would not be sequenced otherwise, based solely on a short “wait time”, even if they are on opposite sides of the park. The total “actual walk time” will be significantly longer than it would be otherwise, depending on how many “Add Breaks” you include in the day. If you don’t know exactly where you want to have a break or lunch, or even if you want to sit down right there for a break, then it makes it difficult to make an accurate plan and impossible to compare various plans.

This problem was previously corrected (see the post “Optimizer Update 8/26 - Better Walk Time Estimates Around Breaks and Restaurants”; Optimizer Update 8/26 - Better Walk Time Estimates Around Breaks and Restaurants. It seems that the Optimizer update for “Meals” is still active but has since been lost for “Breaks”.

I guess the only current way around this is to either select the exact location of the break near the last attraction and include it as a meal, or to guesstimate the walking distance and add that time to the break. Thus if I wanted a 20 minute break after Gorilla Falls I would have to add 20 minutes to my break for the walk to Primeval Whirl for a total 40 minute break.

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I was going to say that I thought it had been fixed. I don’t remember it being an issue in my touring plans in August. Hopefully they can fix it fairly easily if it’s been done before.

I can confirm the OP’s stated behavior.

In addition the flag “Leaving the Park” does not appear to make any adjustments to the walking time, and the Flexibility minutes cannot be set to less than 10 and are always consumed so that your break always starts 10 minutes early.

@WDWWOW @missoverexcited

Posed the question on the Touring Plans Help Site and got this response:

40x40 David Davies (TouringPlans)

Sep 6, 9:24 PM EDT

Hello, and thanks for using TouringPlans.com!

I understand if you’re disappointed, but we are not currently considering making a change to the walking times around breaks.

As with anything, that could change in the future. This particular change was made because taking the walk times around breaks into account was too computationally intensive.

Fortunately, although it’s not as precise, the workaround of making your breaks long enough to account for relocating should work well enough for most purposes.

Thanks for writing. I’ll note your message as a feature request for the future.

-David

I understand that adding a few minutes will take care of the additional walk time. But my bigger concern is that if the system thinks there is 1 minute walk time between step 1 to step 2 Break to step 3 and step 1 and 3 are on opposite sides of the park and the wait time is 0 then the system will put these steps together due to the wait time.

I think the best and most accurate workaround is to use “Add Meal” and find a food kiosk or location close to that last step. This is very difficult without looking at a couple of maps, a location map and an identifier map, since the location map only lists numbers. I will not have to estimate the walk time and this will avoid the possibility that the system will inadvertently place steps together that are on opposite sides of the park and will give a more realistic optimized walking route.