Where to stay:
Staying at one of the Disney resorts gives you the most benefits - there are special bonus hours for Disney resort guests and little perks that other guests don't have access to. If that's a little too much for the budget, staying in Lake Beuna Vista is the next best. You're minutes from the parks and most resorts have complimentary transportation to and from the parks. We have a timeshare in Lake Buena Vista - if you're ever interested in using it, let us know!
Disney Parks:
The Magic Kingdom is the most fun for the little ones (and adults). It's also the most popular park - but that's for good reason. They really know how to do it! It's so magical!
We almost skipped ToonTown at the Magic Kingdom, but it ended up being Reece (5yrs.) and Eliot's (2yrs) favorite land. Their favorite thing was going through Mickey and Minnie's houses. Also, be sure to visit the Hall of Presidents!! Don't miss it!
The Animal Kingdom is second out of all the parks. It's a really fantastic zoo with bells and whistles. The Safari is awesome. Be sure to get there when that park opens and go there first. The animals are most active earlier in the day. By lunch time they're taking naps. This past time we had a giraffe walk right up to our truck - it was amazing! ...such a great experience.
Hollywood studios is good but it is a poorly laid out park. Still there are some good shows there: Beauty and the Beast, Indiana Jones, High School Musical...
The last one out of the four (for little ones) is Epcot. We LOVE Epcot, but it's a little "heady" for the little ones. Raegan is eight and she really enjoyed it, but the little ones missed a lot. They all enjoyed the Spaceship Earth area, The Land and The Sea areas; Innovations is awesome.
If you have a science lover they will be in heaven!! The Innovations area is fantastic! -a word of caution- evolution is very much an accepted philosophy around the Spaceship Earth area of Epcot, but not bad enough to skip. We used each opportunity as a teachable moment.
Moving between parks:
It takes about 2 days to get through Magic Kingdom. Every other Disney park can be done in a morning or afternoon - you may just want to go back and do some of those things again. The transportation between Epcot and MK is excellent, by monorail, but transportation between the other parks is by bus.....not so great. Hollywood Studios does have an option of going to Epcot by boat, which is nice. Because parking is good all day at any Disney park, we found it easier to just drive to the other parks most of the time (except for Epcot to MK and visa versa)
Personally, I would do a hopper pass for a few days and use it to go between the Magic Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom - hit the high spots of Hollywood Studios and Epcot, but then get a ticket for Sea World.
Universal/Sea World vs. Disney:
SeaWorld and Universal both have an awesome option - when you buy a ticket for one day it is good to use for 7 days at no additional cost! It's such a great deal. The girls really loved SeaWorld. You could easily spend several days at SeaWorld.
Universal definitely has some fun rides, and Dr. Suess land was a huge hit, but the park doesn't run nearly as efficiently as the Disney parks. We can't do Disney every year, and when we can't Universal is a great option. However, if you have the funds and you have to choose between Disney and Universal, Disney wins every time - hands down. If you have to choose only one park out of all of the Disney parks - Magic Kingdom wins.
Schedule:
The schedule that worked best for us was to get there when the park opens and stay until lunch. Head back to the resort, have lunch, swim, take naps, and then head back to the parks around 4pm and stay until we were tired. The parks have amazing fire works or lazer shows (except for the Animal Kingdom) every night. Epcot has an incredible lazer show at 9:30 every night. MK has awesome fire works, lit by a real Tinker Belle -which was neat for the girls - at 10:00 every night. Hollywood studios has a fireworks and lazer show at 9:30 - I think that's the right time - every night. We didn't get to that one.
One other thing: Mondays are the busiest day of the week for the parks. I don't know why. I read that before we went, but didn't really believe it.......there was no question of the validity of that statement once we were there..... Avoid going on Monday's if you can - unless it's just a really dead time of year, then it shouldn't really matter. Also, the busiest hours are between 11:00 and 4:00.
Saving Money:
Another great thing is that the parks let you bring in food. We saved SO much money bringing in our own snacks and sandwiches - when we did spend money it was on things we really wanted - ice cream treats, a gift on the last day to bring home, etc.
I think that's everything. Oh, yes, there's one more thing that we didn't take advantage of, but I hear is a wonderful thing for little girls, especially: Character breakfast, lunch or dinner. You have to book these months in advance, but I hear they are a sweet time. The Grand Floridian has the best one - or so I've heard. If your child dresses up, the princess she dresses as will spend extra time with her...just fyi:) I'm sure if you google Character meals at Disney you'll find lots of info, if that's something you're interested in.
That's all I've got - I hope it's helpful for your next trip to Orlando:)
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