ohh I hadnt considered rope droping MK, just because its such an ordeal, but considering, its a saturday, it might do well to have a head start and then leave in the afternoon, especially the day before the race! Thank you!

I would rope drop epcot, enjoy the park and then stack genie+ for HS in the afternoon/night

Jan 9th might be crazy! deff would get ILL for Rise and Tron since Tron gets long lines for virtual, and rise is just so unpredictable with how often it goes down. I would kinda plan the day around when you're doing Rise and Tron, but Passage early morning is a good bet (especially if you have early entry) and Cosmic Rewind is pretty lax with their return time so leaving it for the end would be my #1 pick

Yeah depending on where your staying might influence, I'm team AK in the morning, and stacking lightning lanes for HS, if this is your only day at the parks, I would buy ILL for both Flight of Passage and Rise (risky waiting till the end of the day but oh well) and rope drop Navi, should have almost no wait (outside of shows) doing this!

I think it depends what kind of trip your planning, with an 8yr old I would double check height requirements and see what their able to do. Yes it'll be crowded, deff be up at 7am for Genie/ILL since some things might sell out early on, but I think you should be able to do quite a lot! especially with 2 day sin MK, Hollywood might be trickier to do all the heavy hitter attractions so just focus on your top 3-5 and you should have a blast! good luck!