Day 6: Coasters and Competition

Hi everyone! We’re John and Emily and we’re so psyched to be writing this blog post for you! Although a little tired from our 6:00 this morning to rope drop magic kingdom, we were just as psyched this morning to compete in what some call “The Amazing Race.” Known in the last blog post as the “traveling tourist problem”, we competed in groups of three in a race to finish twelve rides in Magic Kingdom. The twelve rides ranged anywhere from Winnie the Pooh to Space Mountain. We were given data from each of the ride’s wait times and the time it takes to walk to and from each ride. This information allowed each team of three to construct a strategy that they thought would give their team the best chance to win. Despite this, groups had VERY different strategies to complete the challenge. The best way to demonstrate the variety of strategies is from the winning team and the losing team. Based on the next two paragraphs, we leave it up to you to make an educated guess for who you think the winner was and who you think the loser was. 

How's it going ya'll, it's Emily. Virginia, Savannah and I made up the only all girls group of the day. We started our morning with a couple of pictures by the castle to really get the Disney spirit pumped (pictured). Our winning moves started early, being the only group to start with Space Mountain. In fact, we knocked out 7 rides in the first 2 hours which we were super excited about. Although our focus was on watching wait times and speed walking for most of the day, we did not let that keep us from having a good time. My favorite part of the day was not the win, but spending time getting to know Savannah and Virginia. Despite being 2 years apart at Furman, we learned that we have a LOT in common and we think very similarly. I truly think that our ability to work as a group seamlessly was the main factor in our victory. Not to get into too much detail, our win relied on a quick start, a whole lot of luck, and most importantly having fun. More about our group’s victory will be outlined in an upcoming blog post, so stay tuned! 

What’s going on everybody, I’m John and my strategy was far different from Emily’s. My group, self proclaimed “The Hakuna Matata Group” was made up of Alyssa, Sam, and myself. Based on the name we gave ourselves, I am sure you can imagine that we prioritized having a stress free great day at the Magic Kingdom with a side of competition. We constructed our strategy by defining the ride we wanted to begin our day on (Peter Pan’s Flight) and then going to whichever ride was relatively close with the shortest wait time for the rest of the day. Personally, I found that the slower rides like Haunted Mansion and Jungle Cruise were perfect for a quick nap so, naturally, those were my favorite parts of the day. Unfortunately, in the end, the “Hakuna Matata” method didn’t yield the best results for the competition, leaving our team with two rides left to ride at the end of the given time period. While our team didn’t end up fully completing all the twelve rides, we still had a great time and loved our consolation prize of an air conditioned van ride back to the hotel for a nap. All in all, I was very happy with our performance.

After a long day of racing through Magic Kingdom we had a slight lull in the haste before the remainder of the day. While some napped on rides (mainly just John), the rest of us were extremely tired. But a day would not be complete without class time and discussion. We met at 6:00 pm to touch on our victories and losses of the day and to outline the math behind our day. We learned that many touring plan companies solve the problems we faced today using a Genetic Algorithm. This consists of generating a random set of nodes and searching the state space around these nodes using a neighborhood search and a crossover search. In days to come, we plan to meet with someone who has built a company around solving these problems. We will pick his brain so we too will possess the knowledge to solve these certain types of problems.

Honorable Mention Pictures: 

I think the whole group here at Math and the Mouse can agree that today was one of the most exciting as well as exhausting days yet. I am sure there is only more excitement to come. Emily and I are going to jet off to bed.

Until next time,

- Emily and John 🤙