We just went in July. But being military, we stayed at the Shades of Green which cuts the cost of lodging considerably. We also got deals through the Morale Welfare & Recreation (again...military) which make it reasonable. Plus, we got the Fast Passes.
Bring plenty of bottled water with you, you'll need it. I would also bring snacks and stuff like that for the kids so you're not constantly having to buy them. And even if you don't have kids that ride in a stroller, I would still bring one so you don't have to carry anything and can just push it around in the stroller. Makes life so much easier than lugging around a back pack full of bottled water, snacks, sun tan lotion, aspirin, etc. We all wore "aussie" style hats with the wide brims to protect against sun burn.
We stayed for almost 6 days and we probably only saw a fraction of what there is to see. It is impossible to see everything Disney has unless you stay there for a month.
When I was a kid, I remember going on ride after ride...not so much these days as it just seemed to me that there are less rides and more "attractions". I was surprised to see that the old race car ride was still there and that they're still gas powered.
Splash Mountain is still there, but I can't imagine there are too many kids that remember what movie that is based off of. My daughter loved it and we wound up riding it about 5 times in a row (we went on the rides during the light show/fireworks show when no one else was on the rides).
Thunder Mountain is a must, awesome ride with some different than normal roller coaster stuff that kids will like too.
Space Mountain isn't anything like I remembered it. Roller coasters in pitch black with some flashing lights here and there aren't fun at all. I swear as a kid, that ride was lit up and there were all kinds of "sci-fi" stuff to see.
Downtown Disney is nice. They have a T-Rex (dinosaur themed) restaurant and a Rainforest Cafe for the kids and a House of Blues restaurant for the adults that is really good.
A MUST: Disney Quest on Downtown Disney. It doesn't look like much on the outside and it cost around $40 a person, but it's well worth it. I could spend two days in there. Five stories of nothing but games. Every arcade video game (all free once inside) known to man is in that place...all the old school stuff like Space Invaders to Joust to the newer games. They have hundreds of the racing games like NASCAR, Need for Speed, Fast & Furious, etc. The NASCAR one has about a dozen linked together so you're almost always in a race against all real people. The best part of Disney Quest though is the bumper cars with a cannon. Two people ride in a plexiglass enclosed bumper car. One is the driver and one is the gunner. The gunner shoots bowling ball sized rounds through a cannon at the other cars. If you hit a certain spot is sends that car spinning out of control. The driver tries to dodge and pick up cannon balls by driving over them. It's crazy fun. There is so much other stuff to do in there, it's well worth it (plus it's air conditioned).
One thing that is surprising about most of the Disney locations (except for Epcot and Downtown Disney) is the lack of places to sit and eat in the shade or in a/c. There are few restaurants at places like Magic kingdom and what they do have has very limited seating. We saw people eating on the floors of the stores eating as if it was their last supper. Plenty of stores though...ridiculous amount of stores actually.
If you have a daughter(s) and she wants to have dinner with the princesses you need to call now and for reservations. There are two dinners that I remember, one with Cinderella on Magic Kingdom, and the other is on Epcot with about 6 or 7 of the other Princesses. We went to that one because I wanted to hang out with Jasmine...I mean because my daughter wanted to meet more than one princess. The food was actually really good, they hold it in the Norway exhibit on Epcot, but it's a bit pricey...$143 for 2 adults and 2 kids (ages 5 & 8).
The fast passes aren't that bad of an idea, you just have to time them right. Get a fast pass (which usually means you can come back to the fast pass line in about 3 hours) and then go wait in line for 2 hours on another ride...get off that one and go straight to the ride you got a fast pass for. If there are rides you know you want to go on, I would try to plan on going on them while the park is having a show/parade/fireworks whatever when everyone else is there most of the rides are empty. Then come back another day for the show...you will want to see the light show/fireworks at Magic Kingdom, be directly in front of the castle though, it's killer.
