Here you go. Step 4 isn’t appearing for some reason - it’s The Untrainable Dragon show. That should be fixed shortly.
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I don’t want to try to represent myself as an Epic expert with my literal single day of experience, but I still think that this feels very optimistic for a morning in Berk. Hopefully it will work out with testing! Are they opening Berk substantially before 10am? We literally thought Dragon Racer’s Rally was closed because it did not move for SO long. It takes forever to load. I don’t think there’s any real scenario where someone is on and off of it in 7 minutes. I believe that Hiccup’s could still be a walk on but then I’m super suspect of 29 minutes for Toothless at 10:20/10:30 given I waited that long at rope drop.
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Yeah, that’s why we test these things in the park.
The wait-time curves are consistent across modeling methods, so I feel good about those. The actual-to-posted ratios are the thing that determines the actual wait. So we’ll see what those are.
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One suggestion for when you are testing: Take lots of videos for socials/blogs. I had a really hard time finding videos of Epic rope drop at any of the portals. It’s so new and I really just wanted to get an understanding of where people line up, how crowded it might look/feel. I think I took for granted how well I knew the patterns at WDW parks but I was so clueless at Epic.
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I’ve passed this on to Amy. She’s headed to the park on Thursday.
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Good luck! Thanks for everything!
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I noticed the same thing. What I did find was during previews or immediately after open, and I assume that isn’t worthwhile.
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Exactly!
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I’m looking at my Touring Plan for Epic Universe on Nov 22, 2025 (crowd level 7, weekend before Thanksgiving) and it feels waaaaay too optimistic. Says we’ll be done with all the big rides plus lunch by 1:30pm. Would love if that’s true (and we do have early entry and Express pass to help a bit, as well as no interest in character meets that can drive waits), but based on reports here this seems highly unrealistic. I’ve only got one day and probably won’t be back for a decade, so I’m wondering if there’s anything I should adjust now to give us the best shot at all the big attractions with a minimum of suffering. Thanks all!
(Secondarily – I’m curious: does the optimize my plan functionality factor in which rides that break down over the day when doing its sequencing?)
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My kids have been asking me detailed questions about Epic like I should know Epic like I know WDW. I keep saying: “I don’t know. I’ve never been there either.”
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Right?? I felt the same way. It’s definitely a smaller scale thankfully.
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See, I don’t have an issue with that. I just present my uninformed opinions and conjectures as absolute fact. They don’t question it (or they do, but not to my face) and I look like I know what I’m talking about. And then, as I learn more, I can just say, “Well, there have been changes, and NOW it looks like…”
– Excerpted from “Diaries of a Know-it-all”
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Have you optimized this lately? I feel like it is incredibly off. Maybe it’s the express pass making it so optimistic? I would venture to say this plan is impossible. It essentially says that everything is a walk on until noon. Even with express I have not seen anyone have that experience. I’ll be interested to see what Len says when he gets back.
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This I can’t answer but I don’t think so specifically.
Right now the data for Epic is just too new. They are tweaking it often and have a decent idea but really capacity isn’t 100%, rides keep going down so you could be on target or wildly off. I would set my walking to the slowest. This may give you some buffer for when the queues take longer. But everything you are visiting has express pass so this will help.
Totally unacceptable answer! 
And technically that is still true…
Yes, definitely wonky!
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This is optimized as of last night. If I adjust the walking speed to the very lowest setting (“very relaxed”) it adds about an hour, having me finish up at 2:30pm.
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1, 2, 4 and 11 are definitely not right. That could be your hour right there.
Here is what I would do. Make a copy of your plan and name it ALT. That way, you can optimize the original closer to your trip and see if it gets more realistic. On the ALT plan I would make the following changes:
- Start your plan at 9:15am. Keep your walking speed slowest.
- Add a 15 - 20 minute break between step 3 and 4.
- Add a 25 minute break between step 7 and 8. Note 8 technically isn’t back operating yet.
- Add a 20 - 25 minute break between step 10 and 11.
If you are ahead of schedule- great! Take a break, shop, get a snack, take some pictures.
These suggestions may even be on the conservative side BUT I can not handle being late, lol. Especially when I have scheduled shows that start at a certain time. If I miss a viewing, I hate tinkering day of to make things work right.
Hope this helps.
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Keep in mind that Len said they are testing the newly updated model Thursday. Sounds like after that, it will be published and you will start to see more realistic results.
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THIS !!
None of the recent work Len has been doing has reached Released to Production (RTP) status yet. With the roadblocks that Amy is encountering, next week may be questionable. In addition there are some issues with how show times are being scraped from Universal’s data feed so keep that in mind if your running simulations over the next several days.
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Thank you @drvillarejos !! This is very helpful and practical advice. I have 2 months until the visit, so plenty of time to update it as the algo improves. I guess I was just surprised by the output of optimization as presented to me atm, but seems like everything is far too early to be considered baked/realistic.
I should think my plan (everything that is not a meet and greet, for folks who do early drop and express pass) is pretty common one, such that it would be one of the standard plans for Epic. Hoping there are a few “7” and “8” crowd days between now and then that can help the algo improve for my situation….
Am extremely curious to see what @len will advise when he has time to chime in.
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Honestly, wait times haven’t been neat as bad as they could have been. But also Universal is controlling the population atm. I think this will still be happening in November. Maybe November is a little more busy than October. Thrill Data may also give you some insite into just how long the waits have been.
I think the general rule that EP should save you at least half the wait time will hold true for Epic as well. So if you apply this max wait time to each ride you should be fine.
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