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From what I gather, the only way to level up quickly is to send deliveries and fill train orders. Approximately how long does it take some of you to level up? I'm almost at Level 43. I am doing well filling some of the higher delivery orders, but a lot of those items take 4 hours to craft.
I have been working on advancing from level 59 to 60 since before the Valentine's Day event, as it requires more than 200,000 points to progress (sorry, I don't have my iPad with me so I can't check the exact amount). The higher you go, the longer it takes to level up because it requires increasing amounts of stars to advance. Events tend to retard my progress because I put crafting on hold to mostly buy what I need to succeed. There are two ways to handle those deliveries.
Because it does take a long time to craft items for some orders, if your desire is to advance quickly, your best bet would be to discard those orders and hope the next one takes a lot less time, or that you already have the items in your barn or silo, or that it consists of easy-to-buy items (from the newspaper or your neighbors' shops). I often do this when I am actively playing, as I try not to buy too much if I can at all help it (only basic items like produce or raw goods). I discard orders that will take too long or cost too much to fulfill and wait for the new orders to appear.
On the other hand, because we get stars from crafting items, and presumably, the longer the item takes to produce, the more stars we receive, the complex items that take 4+ hours to craft will not only give you the stars from the order, but also from the crafting...and that will help you to reach the next level that much more quickly. By scheduling some of the longer crafting during hours when I can't play (like while I'm sleeping or at work), I can do the 4+ hour crafts. For example, overnight Monday into Tuesday I had the Toymaker crafting wooden horses (4 hours each), Tuesday daytime I had my Sushi Shop making a raw fish platter (can't remember the name, and I think it's 6 hours for this, or maybe 8), and overnight Tuesday into Wednesday my Jewelry Maker was making wooden necklaces (2.5 hours each, I think, or maybe 3).
It's just a question of juggling your goals and timing your crafting for maximum efficiency.
There is no gold (or even gems) at the end of the level-up rainbow!!!...take it easy and level at your own pace; what's the hurry?...at this point, it's 100 levels and no new machines/production items/barn+silo+land space to accommodate......hmmmm!