Too much free time in a Personalized Touring Plan

Sometimes customers complain when our Personalized Touring Plan software outputs a plan with lots of free time. Typically this free time is in the afternoon, and often it is attached to an existing break or meal. It seems like a waste since folks would prefer to be riding attractions rather than standing around.

Two things are going on here:

1. Free time needs to go somewhere. If you have a plan that spans from 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM, you've got 13 hours of potential activity. If you only schedule 5 hours worth of stuff, you are going to have 8 hours of free time somewhere. That a lot of free time! To have less free time, you need to add activities (attractions, breaks, or meals) or reduce the plan's hours.
   
   
2. Wait times are generally higher in the afternoon compared to the rest of the day. Our software aims to minimize the sum of all your wait times over the course of the day (it also minimizes total walking times, to some extent), and avoiding waiting during the afternoon (when waits are often highest) is an efficient move. That's why free time often ends up there.

If you do not like the optimized plan, you're under no obligation to use it. Remember that a plan that's optimal in terms of wait times is not necessarily optimal for your group's happiness, so feel free to come up with your own attraction order if you'd like. You can use the "Evaluate" option to see how we predict the wait times will pan out for your attraction order.