I wanted to circle back and say THANK YOU to everyone for your help and info. My solo day yesterday was wet and exhausting but also amazing! I realized last week that there was EMH at DHS yesterday morning and I would be eligible since I was at the Dolphin. Soooo.....
I bought a hopper and made it DHS right around 8am (no small feat since I arrived at the Dolphin the night before at 11:30pm and I was on west coast time so my body was NOT ready for a 6:30am EST wake up!). Rode Slinky Dog Dash (LOVED IT) and poked around Toy Story land a little bit. I didn't ride TSMM since my understanding is its the same at DCA. I love TSMM but didn't seem like a good use of my time since standby was showing 50 min (and it was still during EMH). I thought about riding Alien Swirling Saucers but the line was crazy for that too and I didn't want to take the time. I wanted to ride Rockin Roller Coaster since its unique to DHS so I headed over there instead and did single rider. Enjoyed that one as well. Decided to walk around DHS a bit- the park was just opening at this point- just to sight see and standby for Star Tours was only 15min so I decided to ride. I like the outside queue area better than the one at DL. The ride itself was, of course, the same. Lately at DL I only seem to get the Last Jedi/Crait sequence on ST so I was happy to get the Kashyyk/Naboo storyline this time.
After walking around a bit more (and the rain getting a bit more persistant) I decided that was enough of DHS and headed for Epcot (about 10am). I did take the boat because of the rain- I really liked the boat as a means of getting from one place to the other. WS wasn't really open yet (it was a little after 10am) so I decided to hit the rides. The rain was pretty serious now and I was soaked but still enjoying things. I made my way through all the rides in Epcot by 1:30pm except for Test Track and Frozen Ever After. Really enjoyed all of them except maybe Journey into Imagination (sorry Figment fans). Test Track was down all morning/early afternoon due to the rain which finally cleared up around 1:30-2pm. They started running test vehicles around this time and a huge line began to form in anticipation of the opening. But lucky me, I had snagged a FP+ earlier in the week for 4:40-5:40pm and it was looking promising that I would still get to ride. So I wandered part of the world showcase and did standby for FEA until my FP+ time. I thought FEA was adorable. My DD7 would have LOVED IT (and probably DD9 and DD13 too though they wouldn't have admitted it). Then back to TT for my FP time. I really really enjoyed TT. I've heard people say RSR at DCA (which is a similar ride mechanism but obviously different themeing) is better but I think I love them both equally. They're just really different rides when it comes to the story aspect. I really enjoyed the "story" for TT and thought it was very well done- and RSR is too!
Wandered back around the rest of the WS and some of the
Festival of the Arts booths. Realized that I was hitting the America Gardens Theatre right around 6:30 which was perfect for the 6:45pm performance of the Disney on Broadway series which I had originally planned to see but almost forgot about. They had just opened the seating when I walked up and I got a great seat about halfway back in the middle. Heidi Blickenstaff and Gavin Lee were amazing and I was very happy I had managed to catch a performance after all.
Afterwards I continued to wander around WS and completed my loop before finally grabbing a spot on the UK-France bridge for IllumiNations. This ended up being a little suboptimal because there was a decent wind blowing all the smoke and ash from the show directly at us. I had realized this was probably going to happen but decided I still wanted to stay there so I'd be close to the exit for the boat back to the Swan/Dolphin as I had to go get my car and leave for a non-WDW area hotel for the night (for my conference). I enjoyed IllumiNations but not as much as I'd hoped. Still, I'm glad I saw it before its gone.
So all in all a VERY successful day (in my opinion) with a taste of DHS and a great full day at Epcot. 10.5 miles of walking later I was pretty exhausted but so happy I'd done it. I really loved Epcot- more than I expected to- and hope I can make it back with the kids and DH soon. I really like the location of the Dolphin and would definitely stay in that area again (though not sure how well the Dolphin itself will work for a family a 5 as the general rooms seem to only accommodate 4?).
And now I'm eyeing that Disney After Hours at Animal Kingdom on Wednesday night....hmmm..... should I? Just to get a little taste there too?