hey scott. i know i'm a little late with this, but as far as IOA and US. my husband and i went about 5 years ago (pre-kids), and we followed the touring plan in the unofficial guide. it told us to be there at opening (which doesn't seem like a problem for you guys) and we were done with all the major rides by around 10:30am. then we just took our time and went on the stuff that we skipped earlier, ate, shopped, ate again. so you can definitely do both if you follow that touring plan at the back of the book. we ate green eggs and ham in seuss landing - it was YUMMY! who woulda guessed?
when we went down, just DH and i last month, his company had a "party"
at IOA, and we had the whole park to ourselves for about 4 hours, walked on everything, free drinks and food. it was great!
also, you've been on the spiderman ride before right? i LOVE it, i think it might be the best ride ever. it involves all the senses, it's amazing. i really like the hulk ride too. i know biff won't go on, but will you still ride it? for me?!