If You're Not First, You're Last

Hey everyone! Today's blog is brought to you by Courtney and Zack! Today was day 6 of our time in Disney World, and what an adventure it was.

Today we tackled the "traveling salesman problem" in the Magic Kingdom. Arriving well before the gates were opened, we were able to be at the front of the line to enter the park at 8:50 and start the competition. However, Disney cast members were at the front of the crowd setting the pace for getting to rides at the back of the park.

For spending a full morning and afternoon in the park, we lucked out on the weather. The rain mostly held off for us and clouds gave us some shade. We spent our night relaxing a little and then working on our workforce scheduling projects. As we get deeper into the problem we are running into some of the details that we hadn't considered so far that are very important for programming our models into the computer.

Group photo after we all finished the traveling tourist problem
and ate our Dole Whip reward

Traveling Tourist Problem

Caroline, Alex, and Lindsay
playing with some toys

On Prince Charming's Carousel
with Molly, Courtney, and McKenna

The challenge in our traveling tourist problem was to find the most efficient path between 17 rides and two picture requirements in the Magic Kingdom and complete it all before 6pm. There were a number of attractions that every group had to visit, and some attractions that we were given a choice between. We were all given data last night that included the ride time for every attraction, the walking time between attractions, and the average wait times throughout the day which we used to make our plan for the day. For the attractions we had to choose between, many groups took into account the ride times and the average wait times and made their decisions based on which attractions would take the least amount of time.

Statue of Walt Disney with
Zack, Mary Lib, and Johanna

Jamie was thrilled to meet Ariel along
with Alyssa and Maria

One member of each group was carrying an iPad with them all day which recorded that group's path through the park. Most of our maps turned out looking like a child scribbled with a crayon over the Magic Kingdom. All of the crisscrossing across the park shows that many groups placed more emphasis on wait times than walking distances when choosing their next rides. 

Both of our groups found that we deviated from last night's plans due to ride closures and unexpectedly long lines at rides that we thought we could get through later in the day. Many of our plans were based on the average wait time data that we were given, but we found that the real 

world is much less predictable.

Goofy and our professors

Unfortunately for some, in our traveling tourist problem, each group had to complete the full circuit of attractions even after a winner checked in at the finish line. When the first group crossed the finish, there was a collective sigh from all the groups still racing. The final group crossed the finish line at 4:48, well before the 6:00 cutoff. The official results of our competition will be posted sometime in the next few days with more details on the strategy of each group. This was our second and final competition between student groups and the professor group (who didn't win this time). At the end of the competition, though, everyone 

was treated to a Dole Whip reward at Aloha Isle.

Written by: Courtney Gale and Zack Miller