The bolded is another one of the reasons I think/hope Neal and company are already in Neverland though. I just don't see them wanting the characters to spend X amount of episodes in NL, then realm jump to FTL for whatever reason where they would finally find Neal, then all realm jump again to get back to Storybrooke. That's just too much portal jumping considering they make such a big deal out of how hard it's supposed to be. I figured they'll just gloss over how Aurora and Mulan got there with some kind of brief explanation/comment.

I don't think it'll be so bad when the time comes. The first half would be from September to December. Then the second batch would likely run from the beginning of March to the usual end date in May. With how awful the scheduling was in January and February with all the breaks for sports and award shows this season it might not even feel like there's much of a difference. I think this could really help the show sustain momentum and hopefully better ratings.