Well, it helped that this was my sixth trip there (fifth as an adult). :)

And, at first I thought I'd feel weird ... but actually, I didn't. Struck up conversations with other Guests while in line for some attractions now and then. Had other guests do the same - one pair of women who wound up sat next to me for one ride even jokingly said "Looks like we're your new family, now!" :)

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>How did you decide where to stay and what to do each day?

Where to stay was easy - POP Century, on Disney property. I'd stayed there before, and really liked it^(1). Also, the room was largely going to be just a place to sleep, shower, and store my stuff ... :)

As for what to do? You have to plan out which park you're going to in advance anyway, right now - they still have the "park reservation" system in place from the pandemic. Plus, at WDW, if you don't make your dining reservations WELL in advance of actually getting there, odds are you're not going to eat at any of the sit-down "table service" restaurants at all (walk-up availability is rarer than snow in Florida, ha!!).

So what I did is, months beforehand, I made a list of the parks, where I hoped to have each meal, and which attractions I wanted to do (some marked as "must", some as "want", etc). Here's an example from an early draft:

>Day 3 - EPCOT
>
> ATTRACTIONS
>
>(NEW) GotG: Cosmic Rewind
>
>(NTM) Remy's Ratatouille Adventure
>
>Soarin'
>
>(NTM) Mission: SPACE
>
>
>
> MEALS
>
>B: (Q) Resort
>
>L: (T) Space 220
>
>D: (T) Rose & Crown
>
>... inquire about fireworks viewing ...

For meals, (Q) means a "quick service" - you get your food on a tray, and then go find somewhere to sit and eat. (T) is table service, you get seated and given a menu, then a server takes your order and brings you your food. For attractions, (NTM) = "New To Me" but had been there for a while; (NEW) = "new since my last visit".

Now, "no plan survives contact with the enemy", and I did keep refining things (as I chose dates, etc). So, EPCOT moved from Day 3 to Day 2, and I never was able to get in to Space 220 (I even went for a moonshot by checking if I could get a walk-up table ... no dice, sadly). Here's what my plans actually looked like, two or three weeks before getting there:

>Day 2, Friday 27 JAN - EPCOT (9am-9pm; early entry at 8:30am)
>
> EXTRAS
>
>Genie+ & A La Carte (GotG)
>
>
>
> GETTING THERE
>
>Skyliner
>
>
>
> ATTRACTIONS
>
>(NEW) GotG: Cosmic Rewind
>
>(NEW) Remy's Ratatouille Adventure
>
>Soarin'
>
>(NTM) Mission: SPACE
>
>
>
> MEALS
>
>B: (Q) Resort
>
>L: (Q) TBD
>
>D: (T) Rose & Crown

And even that, was only a loose guideline. I didn't manage to do Cosmic Rewind at all (I didn't understand that the queue was only virtual, and by the time I wanted to get in, it was already full up for the entire day - oops!).

Also, the Skyliner was down for maintenance that whole week (but I did get to use it to get to/from Hollywood Studios on Day 5!).

In practise? I got to the park, rode Mission Space (not much fun by yourself, sadly), before meandering over to the France pavilion on the World Showcase, to line up for Ratatouille (my 10yo niece had insisted I get pictures - I gave her video instead, heh). Then wandered the World Showcase, checking out the shops etc.

Around lunchtime, I was done with that part of the park, so I had lunch at a quick-service location, decided I was a bit tired, and went back to my resort for a brief nap (hey, being >50 sucks sometimes, haha). Then went right back to the parks, rode Test Track, and went to the U.K. pavilion for my dinner at Rose & Crown (fish & chips, preceded by a scotched egg - I'd had that egg the last time I was there, in 2014, and loved it so much that R&C was a "do or die" meal, ha!).

After dinner, hit up The Land, rode the "Living with the Land" attraction (an educational tour of some high-tech greenhouses - nice and relaxing), then found a good spot to watch the closing fireworks show before heading back to my room for the night.

The first half of the day was a little bit of a let-down, being alone - I hadn't yet acclimated to the idea. But after that nap? LOVED the rest of the day. And my days alone in Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom were excellent alone, too. (For the Magic Kingdom ... I have family in Florida, so I invited them all to join me there - including my nieces, ages 2, 5, and 10.)

Unfortunately, I got sick, and Day 6 - which was to be a day alone in the MK, to do the things I wanted, rather than what my nieces wanted - I spent in my room, instead. The whole day. :( And it turned out, I'd caught COVID ... probably on the plane, despite mask, vaccination, and up-to-date boosters. Not a brilliant end to the trip, but the days before that were wonderful.

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^(1): Actually, a bit of a story: this trip was paid for with some insurance money form my mother having passed in June - I needed the trip, and it's planning, to help distract me from my grief. Anyway, I had chosen a "Preferred" room, which means it would be within a shorter distance of the main building. I'd also specified I wanted to be on the side of the building facing away from the pool, and on the second floor if possible.

Well, when I checked in, I was assigned a room in the 1950's section (POP century has sections for the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s - where Art of Animation is now would have been the other half of POP, with sections for the 40s, 30s, 20s, 10s, and 1900s ... but the Great Recession torpedo'd those plans and eventually AoA happened instead).

Well, my mother was born in 1950, and I'd bought a small pendant that holds some of her ashes specifically to wear to WDW. I'd long wanted to take her back there (she'd last been there, with me, when I was only 14) ... so, symbolically at least, I did.

But, yeah ... the coincidence of being in the 1950s section, and my mother's birth year? Yeah, I sat and cried quietly in the room for a brief while. Really felt like she WAS there with me.

^(Edit: attempt to fix formatting)