Maximizing Fun at a Theme Park (UMAP)

A large theme park presents its guests with an interesting and challenging problem: choosing rides to visit and an order in which to visit them. To solve this problem, visitors must balance profits (enjoyment obtained from rides) and costs (time spent waiting for rides and walking from one ride to another). In this article, we describe how to use discrete optimization-in particular, a straight forward modification of a classic integer programming (IP) formulation of the Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP)-to solve this problem and thereby maximize fun at a theme park. To illustrate, we solve several instances of the M7TP, the problem of planning an itinerary for the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom theme park (M7TP stands for "Maximizing Mirth and Merriment on Mickey Mouse's Magical Mystery Tour Problem").

Table of Contents:

INTRODUCTION
Background

THE TSP
Dantzig et al.'s IP Formulation

THE M7TP
Assumptions
Data
Variables
Cardiff and Hughes's IP Formulation
Solution Strategy
Results

IDEAS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

APPENDIX
Solving the Problem with Excel
Web Page

REFERENCES

ABOUT THE AUTHORS