Maximizing Fun at a Theme Park.

The article presents a solution to the problem of balancing enjoyment and time spent at a theme park using discrete optimization. The authors observed that most of the visitors to the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom theme parks had trouble in deciding which attractions to experience in the limited time available to them. Also, there were conflicts among small children and their parents about the sites and rides to experience. They found that the problem was similar to that of the famous Traveling Salesperson Problem. An integer programming formulation of the M⁷ TP on the problem of "fun maximizing " was constructed. A simple tractable model was created based on certain assumptions. Two sets of variables, ride to be visited and the adjacent ride on the tour, were taken. Based on this formulation one could design optimal tours for preschoolers and their parents.