Thank you to your husband for his service. I visit several times a year as my daughter is a CM, formerly at Star Wars Galaxy's Edge and currently at the Grand Floridian Resort. I personally enjoy the parks in short "bites" (3-5 hrs at a time), early mornings and evenings. I enjoy Dessert Parties for manageable fireworks viewing and and After Hours events when I can enjoy the park ambiance in a relatively uncrowded setting while my kids ride lots of rides. My husband dislikes the parks but is a good sport about it. We all love resort days.
On resort days, my family have done the following:
-Resort Hop 1: Monorail crawl of the resorts with stop off to explore the Poly, GF and Contemporary. Have a treat or drink at each. (Dole whip at the Poly! Eat at the bar at Steakhouse 71! Have some appetizers from the balcony at Enchanted Rose bar at the Grand Floridian!) Rent a pontoon boat if you feel like it. Pontoons are walk-up rental for 30 min or more and have Bluetooth so you can play your music from your phone if you want. Very fun.
-Resort Hop 2: Crescent Lake stroll. Start at the Yacht Club and walk around Crescent Lake, visit the Boardwalk, get some ice cream, look in some stores, rent a pontoon boat from the Marina if you're so inclined. If you're there in the evening and your husband doesn't feel like doing the whole stroll with you and the kids, he might enjoy sitting at Crews Cup Lounge at the Yacht Club, where they have some really good food (courtesy of the Yachtsman Steakhouse) beginning at 5pm. If you want to, you can ride the Skyliner explore some of the other Skyliner resorts (Riveria, Art of Animation, etc).
-Resort Hop 3: Visit Wilderness Lodge. My family enjoys having a bite at Geyser Point, the outdoor pool bar & grill. Really good food. Adjacent to Geyser Point is the recreation area where you can sign up for a 2 hour guided bass fishing tour on a pontoon boat if you're interested. Bike rental is available there as well. I've sat at Geyser Point while my husband rode bikes around Wilderness Lodge and Fort Wilderness. Fun for them, peace and quiet for me. Visit the Train Room at Boulder Ridge (the DVC villas of Wilderness Lodge) for a look at Walt's trains.
-Disney Springs. Not my cup of tea. Husband hates it and refuses to go. My teen/young adult love it. As a compromise, he stays at the resort, I go with kids. I have them pick a couple of stores, we go when it opens and leave after the couple of stores. We then always take the (free and nice) boat ride to Port Orleans French Quarter for some of their famous and yummy beignets. Bus back to the MK then to our resort. (You could Uber or Minnie Van, but the bus ride is very quick).
-Fireworks from the patio at Gasparilla Grill at the GF or from the beach at the Poly. My husband's preferred fireworks viewing.
A couple other thoughts (and I totally apologize for this overly long post):
-A word about Arrival Day. I read your comments about your Arrival Day and what to do. I get it if you want to relax that day. My family tradition is to hit up DHS on arrival day. Two reasons - we're excited and want to do something. And I hate DHS during the day, and LOVE IT at night. In the evening and at night, the vibe there is much more relaxed, not insanely hot and crowded, the neon signs and lighting comes alive and Star Wars Galaxy's Edge is SO COOL. IMO about a thousand times cooler than during the day. As a Star Wars fan, you should make SWGE at night a "must do". Hang out there when everyone else is at Fantasmic and it's that much better. My daughter worked at Oga's Cantina, which is kind of cool if you're a Star Wars fan. Toward the end of the night, they often have walk-up availability (same with Rise).
-A word about Scooters. I always rent a
scooter from Scooterbug. They drop it and pick it up from the front desk at the resort. They're cheap (like $20/day). Last trip with my husband, he tweaked his knee while playing tennis at the Contemporary (we were staying at the Grand, but he went over there with our daughter to play one day - Contemporary rents tennis equipment). He was super jealous of my scooter because of his sore knee. Whenever I went in a show, on a ride, or into stores without him, I came out to find him sitting on it. He said that he loved having a seat while waiting, and loved the "bubble" of space created by the scooter. He also found it super fun to drive around (which it is) and said that he rode off exploring on multiple occasions, instead of just standing around waiting for us. He "discovered" certain areas of the park that he really liked (and never noticed when he was trudging around miserable and hot). He said he had the best park day ever that day. I think it was because he had fun riding around on the scooter while I and the kids did stuff. I rent a scooter because I just can't handle the amount of walking and standing any more. I don't feel a bit bad about it. There are tons of scooters in the parks. Having it extends my park "shelf-life" big time and makes my trips much more enjoyable. Your husband might like having one. It's very easy to park it and walk around as much as you want, then get back on it and drive around when you feel like it. It's very easy to get it on/off the monorail, or you ride it on the GF walking path to the MK. Getting it on/off the bus to DHS/DAK is not my favorite thing, but it's not that bad.
-A word about Dining. I don't do ADR's any more. I find availability same-day, no problem. I look on the app a few hours before we want to eat and we pick from what's available and what we feel like eating at that time. There's tons of availability same-day, and most times, the "hot ticket" restaurants are available. CRT, BOG, Space 220, Ohana, etc. That way, we're not locked into being at certain place at a certain time. We are also big "bar" eaters. We like the bar at Citrico's, the bar at Steakhouse 71, etc. Note - you can now cancel ADR's within 2 hours of your reservation time with no penalty if you find something better same-day. Or (pro tip) modify that reservation to a later date and then cancel it.
Hope you have a wonderful trip. Take it light and easy and have some some fun vacation days!
