Needing Disney World advise.

After a not so Merry Chirstmas last week, my family has decided to do a 5 or 6 day Disney trip next year. Will be going with my wife, 2 kids in early 20's, and a 6 year old grandson. This will be our first trip in about 12 years and a first to stay on the Disney property. Looking for suggestions to maximise enjoyment and minimize the cost. Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

The first thing you can do is go when the hotel rates are at their lowest, assuming you have the flexibility to do so. Lower hotel rates both save you money, and give you a big signal about when demand (and hence crowds) are low. You can find the details about when those times are at MouseSavers

www.mousesavers.com

I like Port Orleans. The boat ride to Downtown Disney is a nice break from the bus commuting you have to take to the rest of the resort.

Absolutely. Port Orleans Riverside is lovely, convenient, and feels away from the hustle and bustle. Its a Moderate Resort, and wasn't too expensive. We went online and found a Disney package that included tickets, of course, and we added the meal plan. (Which has been discussed here before, and comes recommended by most, I believe. I know I'll never go again without it.)
You might save some money by skipping the park hopper option, with the number of days you'll have and the types of people in your party you may not miss or need it.
Save 2 of your dinner credits and go somewhere really nice one evening, just the two of you. California Grill at Contemporary or Citricos at Grand Floridian make a really great, special evening.
I'm sorry your holiday was crappy. Mine was too, and I'm thinking about Orlando this February as a consolation prize, myself!
You'll be glad you came here to ask, folks here are a fountain of knowledge and information, 'specially about Disney.

I agree about not needing the park hopper option and also want to add to not be afraid to take a break and enjoy the pool or a water park. It's really easy to get caught up in doing absolutely everything you can but personally the older I get, the more I appreciate the time I "forced" myself to take at the pool.

If you can go the week after Thanksgiving, I've found that's one of the easiest in terms of crowds during the holiday season.

And I'm a dedicated park hopper. With kids that age, I think they'll dig Epcot a whole lot more, and it's not hard to end up there almost every night. (Drink around the world!)

Beach Club is the tits. I believe they're already booking at a discount for that week after Thanksgiving. My room was quite literally 1,000 feet from the Epcot read entrance. Boat to studios beats a bus.

Jeff said:

Beach Club is the tits.

Call me old fashioned, but... huh?

Okay. You're old-fashioned. :)

But I'm quite a bit older than Jeff, and it's an expression I haven't seen in years. Hmmm...I may have a new catchphrase. Too bad I can't use it at work :(

I'd like to think that in context it's perfectly obvious what I meant.

With a 6 year old, make sure to schedule in down time. Hit a park in the morning, back to the hotel to relax/recharge and then hit a different park in the evening. You'll have a much more enjoyable trip when you're dealing with a rested 6 year old at 8pm rather than an over-tired cranky one that's been pushed all day.

Jeff said:

I'd like to think that in context it's perfectly obvious what I meant.

That depends. Are the tits you speak of perky like a 20 year old's or saggy like a 60 year old's? I think you can picture the difference:)

Are you saying you want to go to WDW next Christmas? As in Christmas week? If so, I don't recommend it. Hotels are their most expensive with no discounts, many food places have 'holiday' surcharges, and crowds are at their absolute worst. Last week a photo was posted to FB showing a 175 minute standby line for "It's a Small World". Don't do it.

I saw the NYE posting of the ride-waits board for EPCOT....5 hours for Test Track and Soarin'. A friend that went to BGT and UO said neither of those parks were too bad, but I have gotten to the point where I just don't attempt FL parks during that week (and I get that week off from work).

We went Dec 14-23. It was very crowded 14-21. Even being very crowded, we were able to do everything multiple times and only wait a max of 25 minutes using the Fast Pass system. It was super crowded the 22 & 23 after all schools were out, but by then we only hit the things with smaller waits or Fast Pass since we had seen everything already.

It looks like their best rates are in Jan & Feb, and probably the smaller crowds to go along. I wish I could have taken vacation in those months instead, but we had an excellent time in Dec. Disney can manage big crowds like no other.

We stayed at Carribean which is also moderate. Unless you are going to spend a lot of time at your resort, you are wasting $ on the higher priced hotels. No more time than we spent at our hotel, i believe that we will stay in one of the Disney budget resorts next time.

We did the park hopper and glad we did. Especially in the final days when we just wanted to go back and see certain attractions again.

It's worthwhile to stay on their property. We never drove anywhere for 8 days. Their bus system gets you to the parks quickly. It was a real vacation.

Thanks for the advise, please keep it coming. Wish we could go sometime other than Christmas, but with 3 of us with jobs, one in college and one in first grade, the week of Christmas is the only week that we can be sure that everyone can get off.

I, too, don't recommend Christmas week but if you MUST then I would encourage you to splurge and book a resort in the MK area (on the monorail) or over near Epcot. At least you could take advantage of ease of transportation and/or walking to the parks. When you start getting to places like All Star and Pop you start eating away at park time while waiting for busses and getting back and forth.

Keep in mind that if they have to close the parks due to crowds you won't get left out if you are staying on property. They close the parking lots down but they continue to move people around property who are staying there.