Whoohoo for the wind and the rain making Sunday a good trade-out day for the beach. And very cool that your kids dont give you grief about the early morning to enjoy the magic. I take it the turnstile opening allows you a better chance at getting to the area of the park you want to be at? We did (or at least tried for) rope drops at WDW, but didnt have to worry about crowds when we went in 05 so I dont know what the difference is for DLR.
Nice score with the Nemo loading, very quick turn-around

Good haul overall on the rides in the morning, lots of E Ticket attractions in a row. And I know what you mean about HM, our (then) 8yr old waited through the line until it came to loading and then got scared. I threw the dice and put on my stern daddy hat and my protective daddy hat and pulled her into a car and then pulled her close and reassured her that it would be fine. It turned out good for her and she rode it two more times, but I know that tactic wont work on all kids. Funny thing is that I think Winnie the Pooh is scarier than HM
Good run at CA too and you got out of there just in time. Good call too, getting recharged for the evening you had. And we had the same thing happen on Splash Mountain it was just me and the kids (other adults were resting on benches outside) about 30 min before park closing. There wasnt a wait and we ended up riding it 3 times in a row without getting off
hehehe. Since I just had adults waiting I figured they could suck it up and wait for us
Good finish to that evening.
On the general thoughts I agree about the whole hours thing. If the crowds are there the park should be flexible and extend the hours. The school thing is an BIG topic for DW and I. We took the kids out for 2 weeks last January for or big WDW trip and will be taking them out for 1 week for this falls trip. But it will probably be the last one since our older DD will be going into HS the following year and her scholastic demands will ramp up quite a bit with that.
Im glad that the ride waits worked out so well for you, it makes such a difference. You can put up with crowds if you can still ride a decent amount of rides to make up for it. Driving is a biggie for us too. If I drive straight through and am flexible with speed limits I can do Anaheim to So Oregon in under 12hrs. Not a fun one to take in one day for sure. But it is only 1/5 the cost of flying even with a hotel stay on the way down.
Nice tip about the music for the fireworks being piped into the courtyard area, well keep that in mind for a crowd avoider. Interesting info about the new parade. I like parades but my DDs dont want to waste the time and know the ride lines are shorter when theyre going on, so it sounds like this one will be a no brainer to miss.
Nice about the cheerleader groups not being an issue. When we were at WDW there were these big groups of students from Venezuela and Peru, who apparently have some pretty big rivalries. They got pretty loud and obnoxious at times and would block an entire street if their chaperones werent keeping an eye on them
Looks like a fun trip so far looking forward to hearing more and seeing some pictures!