Just wanted to point out that, to my knowledge, this is not true. There was unassisted speedrun competition on the stars in this game and the KTQ stars were obtained faster by people who got to the pole faster. Koopa speeds up to get there once you're there. Of course, there may be some upperbound to this speed... Still, I hope it was tested.
.... you seemed to go around the entire island, was this faster?
I think you forgot to choose not to save when you got the star from toad outside the entrance to Hazy Maze Cave.
How much time did this stage save?
...but wouldn't it have been faster to do the Manta Ray's Reward before Board Bowser's Sub, and hence before BitFS? That way you wouldn't have had to long jump as far a distance to get back to DDD.
I also have a quesiton. I noticed that you didn't jump over Bowser, like you did in your 16 Star Run. Did it turn out that the older way was faster? >_>
he made some pretty inventive new stuff, but the main improvement comes from previously known issues.
in big boo's haunt? then you mean it was extremely well executed, not planned. he didn't plan it :P
no, the route was same as mine, as far as i remember.