Hi friends, thank you for the replies! Sorry I'm so late at this. I can toss the 7DMT FP, no problem. We'll (hopefully) have the
DAS, and I just think it's not essential. So now I'm thinking through your advice on moving Biergarten to later or stacking it with a longer Epcot day. I'll try to give my overall plan so far and you can critique.
day 1-fly in, dinner at BOG, do part of MK focusing on Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.
day 2-guys drive to coast while I have girl time solo at Epcot. Meet for dinner at 1900 Park Fare
day 3-MK, option of Biergarten/Epcot in evening
day 4-AK, then dh and Gramps go to rehearsal dinner while ds8 and I do whatever we want in the parks
day 5-sleep in, putt putt, lunch at Disney Springs, go to wedding
day 6-BOG ppo for MK or do whatever calls to us (Epcot?), dinner at HS for Fantasmic and SWG fireworks
day 7-Boma breakfast and fly out
So that's what I've got. And I don't know how it is that I can have 5 day tickets and not feel like it's enough, but if feels like it's not enough! And I think part of it is breaking up things for the wedding events and part of it is just not knowing where we'll want to spend our time. Like if park attendance is really low (end of January, coming up!), then we could conceivably knock out most of MK by mid-day on day 3. When I put things into the Touring Plans app, between what we're hitting day 1 and what we hit by 1-3pm on day 3, we're DONE with MK. That's all the stuff at MK that we'd want to do with Gramps. That doesn't really allow for like 7 repetitions of one ride. That would make things take longer, lol. And maybe ds won't do that? I have no clue.
I think I scheduled a pirate makeover for day 3 at MK. Need to look in my notes to find when that was. That will push things a bit. I could cancel it or move it to day 6 or try to do it myself. But even with that, according to the touring plans app we're done in MK by like 1-3 pm. And Gramps will need a nap. And we'll already have eaten dinner at BOG on day 1, so there's not really anyplace where I'm like wow lets eat dinner at MK, kwim?
So that's kind of how I got to oh let's commute over to Epcot while Gramps naps. We could move Biergarten to later. I was thinking Biergarten, because I thought it would be fun. I don't know, I've read so many contradictory reviews of the food at Disney that I'm just not expecting anything of quality anywhere. I live in an area where I can get AMAZING food of any ethnicity at any time. I don't know, I just kind of gave up and figured we'd pick something and call it good. Doing something still (quiet restaurant) with ds wouldn't be easy. Of course noisy is bad too, can't win.
Anyways! Um, I really wanted to do the Epcot fireworks (whatever they call the show now) and Fantasmic/SWG with my dh, and I only have two nights essentially to do that (day 3 and day 6). All the other days are scratched. I was thinking Fantasmic/SWG for day 6, because it would be a pretty wow way to finish out our trip. But I agree that if we scratch the BOG ppo at MK on day 6 and do Epcot instead (entirely conceivable), then it would make sense to be staying there for dinner. Of course it's also not terribly inconvenient to go over to HS for dinner and the fireworks around 3pm after a morning at Epcot. And it's possible Gramps would sleep in (probable in fact) and just meet us at HS.
So I would have to move Fantasmic/SWG to day 3, and that's too much. MK is pretty upbeat, and Fantasmic is over the top for my group, lots of stimulation. That needs to be the last day.
Sorry, I think I'm talking that through out loud.
So either we day 3 entirely at MK *or* we do MK till say 3-4 pm (flexible, hang 7DMT) and commute over to Epcot. We would stay in Epcot (open till 11pm that day) and catch some rides that Gramps can do, do dinner, stroll two countries only (Mexico and Norway), watch the fireworks. Ds8 cannot do the countries. I made some plans in the Touring Plans app, and the basic idea was hit part of the front half of Epcot, take the ferry across the lake, dine, stroll out past Mexico and Norway. Something like that. This is the park that I'm least likely to do well in with ds, because of his autism and extreme ADHD. I mean it's a nice theory to think oh go do Epcot with him, but pretty much not reality, lol. But I hear you when you're saying it's HUGE! I believe you. Sigh.
So we could do Epcot on day 6 the whole day. I could do Fantasmic/SWG on day 4 while Gramps and dh go to the rehearsal dinner. I think that kind of sucks for them, but it's fine by me. Is it even practical to do Fantasmic and SWG on the same day? I actually have the Fantasmic dinner reservations for both day 3 and day 6. I *can* flip them. I don't know how Fantasmic is with the
ECV. Where will it park? Like if we have to park an ECV, do Fantasmic, then recover the ECV and go over to SWG, how does that work? Is the ECV going to be in the wrong direction/location compared to where we're trying to go? Gramps *can* walk. It's just for the miles of Disney he needs to be on an ECV. But you're right, I don't know where we're parking it or how that affects exiting or going to the next thing.
Can I *Uber* from MK to Epcot? Like if it's just me and ds8, we could Uber over to Epcot while Gramps and dh nap at Shades. If we're going to lose a ton of time in the commute, that would be an option.
Does any of that make sense? I agree, I've never been there and have no clue what I'm doing, lol. Thanks for reading this far and for any more help!