Disney

We did a spring break trip about 3 or 4 years ago. Kids (both girls) would have been between 10&13. We agonized over flying/driving, getting a disney package or staying offsite, the extra hour of access when staying onsite, etc... Definitely information overload. Finally we just bit the bullet, found a hotel online at hotels.com and drove down the next morning.

Had no problems driving in and parking. What surprised us was that we liked Epcot and the Movie studio best. We bought the 4 day everything passes (don't recall the exact disney terminology - I do remember parting with 800+ bucks for 4 tickets at a ticket booth... OUCH). But it worked really well for us. We did multiple parks a couple times based on ride availability or just wanting to eat something else. Didn't miss the early hour too much - we figured out their ticket program to lock in our ride times for the biggies then worked around that schedule. That was really handy. Mostly we used their transportation between parks rather than going back out to the car.

I believe you are referring to the park hopper passes jeff. I just went to Disney world for like the 8th time this past June. We have always stayed at Fort Wilderness campgrounds when we go. You pay more to stay at a disney resort, but it is well worth it. When you park at the cabin, you never get in the car again until its time to go home. I mean you can drive, but the buses/boats/monorail's take you everywhere you need to go. I can elaborate more and more about this if you would like more information. We have never stayed anywhere except at a Disney resort. I think there are some other resorts that may be cheaper than Fort Wilderness. You can check out the Wilderness Lodge, Polynesian resort, and there is another that I forgot the name of. Top places that I like in order...

1) Magic Kingdom
2) Epcot
3) MGM Studios
4) Universal Studios
5) Sea World
6) Animal Kingdom

These are the only parks I have ever been to. They also have some cool waterparks such as Blizzard Beach and Typoon Lagoon. Like I said I can give you more information if you would like it. Just PM me with any questions.

My family and I just did Disney for the second time back in october of last year. I did alot of research before we went and I can tell you that you will get the best deal by going through Disney themselves. I checked site after site after site. Yes you can find cheaper rooms but you Will Not find the park tickets any cheaper. We are pretty much a no frills kinda of family and found the value resorts perfect for us. The first time we went we stayed at Pop century loved it. This time we stayed at all stars movies Loved it again. I mean there is so much to see and do that you will mostly only sleep in the room anyway.
If you are going to stay on the park I would definatly go ahead and do the full package including meals. The food in the park is expensive!!
We stayed for a week last time. For My wife, me and my four yr old girl it wound up costing us 2,000 for the week with park hoppers for 6 days,hotel and the meal package. My parents paid for themselves,my sister and her husband and it was just about 2700.00 for the four adults to give you a little comparison. As far as traveling goes we drove both times. flying would be nice if you can afford it but it just cost so much these days. I live in Pink Hill and we hit the road around 2am so everybody could sleep except the driver's of course LOL and got to disney around 1230-1pm. Very easy driving Hit I-95 and follow the signs once in Florida. Both trips did not get in any really bad traffic.
Are you taking kids? If you have a little girl definatly do the meet the princesses meals, we did a total of two of those, meet jo jo and goliath was cool. With the meal plan you can select the character dining as one of your big meals.
One of the biggest time consumers there is meeting the characters man you can eat up a lot of time meeting characters. So plan on that.
As far as rides go. For the little ones Magic Kingdom has all the rides. The dinasour ride at animal kingdom is awesome just like being in a movie. For the daredevils ride the (can't think of the name but) the curse of the yeti ride at animal kingdom. From the ground looks rough but was not bad at all it was very fun.
Any way you will have a ball. I loved it and am ready to go back.
but do your research and you will see going through disney is the best way to go. My dad is retired from military and still could not get any bettter price.
Good luck and have a blast.
James