Well that's a great update!!
I sure was happy about it!
I'm not a big fan of Wishes going away. Yes, I'm completely confident that the new show will be amazing and I'll love it, but Wishes, to me, was one of the best things Disney World had to offer. And frankly, it has withstood the test of time better than a lot of other shows that should have been higher on the chopping block (I'm looking at you Illuminations). To me, it seems like this is just a gimmick so that when guests complain about a lack of a night time parade this summer, they can say, but look at this shiny new show! So I might be looking at it wrong, but this new show has an uphill battle in my mind. I'm going to be judging it against the combined draw of MSEP and Wishes.
I totally agree. Wishes is/was so memorable for me, not just on a personal level. I mean the origin of the song being form a Make a Wish kid, and I'm with you on the test of time. Plus ALL the other MK seasonal fireworks shows are Wishes, so now every one of them must be changing. That new show has some big shoes to fill, especially since there's no night time parade anymore.
Anyway, I'm glad that you've been able to work in an extra trip to see Wishes before it goes away. It looks like you have some good plans coming together. Planning for a large group is always tricky, but you can do it. We got ADR's for 11 for our upcoming trip without a whole lot of difficulty. Just had to split 1 up into 2 ADR's of 5 and 6. And September isn't as busy as July, so you should be fine.