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In this episode, we take a bit of a different turn as I interview Len Testa, creator of TouringPlans.com. He has spent more time and mental energy than anyone I know making visiting the Disney parks a more enjoyable experience, and he’s done it with thorough research, sound analysis, and a great team.
Len talks about…
- His graduate thesis project that became TouringPlans
- Whether going to the parks is still fun, or if it just feels like work now
- Staying at 6 hotels in 5 days recently
- Using the Magic Kingdom for that graduate project—why he chose it and what makes it unique
- Something interesting about the most recent rewrite of the TouringPlans software
- How they deal with the introduction of something major that is added to a park, like World of Color, new Fantasyland, etc. and what the plan is for Star Wars Land
- Walking down the Streets of America at Disney’s Hollywood Studios recently
- Some Crowd Calendar issues in late 2015, what they’ve learned, and what they’re doing to address it—you’ll be impressed and amazed!
- Using Amazon’s Cloud Computing for creating and optimizing plans
- What they’ve learned along the way of creating 10 million optimized touring plans
- A feature request Len had said no to for years, but now is working on, and why
- My experience using the Optimizer, and why Len added it
- Epcot First Aid
- Some observations they’ve made from many tens of thousands of WDW surveys
- What surprises him about the way people answer survey questions
- A very cool and exciting use of the Least Expensive Ticket Calculator tool outside the theme parks—it’s in the medical field
- What inspires him
- Shameless Plug Time
Find Len:
- Interviews with additional details about his grad school thesis:
- The Unofficial Guides
- The Unofficial Guide’s Disney Dish Podcast with Jim Hill
- WDW Today podcast
- Twitter (@LenTesta)
- TouringPlans.com
Podcasts Spotlighted in this Episode:
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If you call in, don’t worry about having to sound perfect. If you ask me to, I’ll edit out any mistakes so you sound as good as you possibly can. You’re even welcome to start your entire story over again and I’ll use the “take” you want! If you want to submit a story anonymously, for whatever reason you may have, email it to me and tell you me you wanted it shared that way. I’ll read it on the podcast, but keep your name private.
Thanks for listening!
Music and voiceovers provided by Rick Moyer.
Some product links in this post are affiliate links.
