Hello all, I'm hoping some of you wish to chime in. I'm planning a trip for my parents aged 68 & 69. Staying at Dolphin (found a very good rate) 1/5-11. They purchased 5-day park hopper passes with plans for a midday break each day. They haven't been to WDW in about 5 years, and they are hoping to focus more on attractions new to them. With the Fastpass+ booking day quickly approaching, I've been working on devising an optimal strategy for them, but since it is a bit unorthodox, I thought checking with more seasoned Disney fans would be a good idea.
General Assumptions: With SWGE, and the Tiered FP+ rules at DHS, advance FP+ reservations there are not particularly helpful, as the only Tier 2 FP+ worth booking is Star Tours (they want to skip Fantasmic this time). Therefore, the better strategy is to Rope-Drop this park over multiple days, take a 2-3 hour midday break for lunch and rest, and then move on to a 2nd park with 3 FP+ reservations. Also not a whole lot of value in Epcot advance FP+reservations in comparison to MK and AK. Therefore, plan would be to book FP+ reservations for 3 days at MK and 2 days at AK. This would be the daily itinerary, with a 2-3 hour break for lunch and rest between parks:
1/6 HS, MK
1/7 HS, AK
1/8 HS, MK (PM EMH)
1/9 AK (AM EMH), EP
1/10 MK (AM EMH), EP
Although if necessary I may have to shuffle days around to acquire Avatar FP+ reservations.
AK FP+ reservations for AM itinerary would be Avatar, Safari, and Everest (with a plan to rope-drop to Avatar, then Navi), and PM FP+ reservations would be Avatar, Safari, and Rivers of Light
MK FP+ reservations would be
7Dwarfs x 2
Thunder Mtn x 2
Peter Pan x 2
Pirates
Jungle Cruise
Buzz Lightyear
Splash Mtn will be closed and they don't like Space Mtn (crazy... I know but I guess that's what happens when you get old ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).
I know no FP+ for Epcot is a bit bold, but Touringplans rates those days as a 3/10 and 1/10 for crowds at the park and I figure there's a decent chance they can snag one of the last FP+ slots for Frozen or Soarin' once they finish their AM park and worst queue prob won't exceed 45 min those 2 evenings.
I am very curious to hear the thoughts and opinions of the seasoned travelers in this group, and please let me know especially if you disagree with the plan and see any major flaws.