We went and stayed in the Orleans Riverside resort which was a middle class accomodation. I really recommend staying in the Disney resorts if you go. Life was nice and easy taking their buses everywhere, and having only a swipe card in your pocket. If you are getting a meal package which includes dinners, do a lot of online research before hand, and book ahead for the ones you think you really want to go to. Some are mediocre, others are great. I was glad my wife did this, and she was pretty good at staying away from the lousy ones. For example, all the ones steps from our room in our location were awful, except for the breakfast. I got addicted to their carrot cake down there. It was yummy. Had grits for the first time, can't say I was impressed.
One of the best ones for our dinners, with a huge variety, was at the Animal Kingdom themed resort called Boma. Had a watermelon salad there that blew me away along with a lot of good stuff there. There were a lot of restaurants available to us, but few that we could chose of this caliber from our meal program. This was by far the best overall one, for food qulaity, massive selection, and unique offerings for a buffet although you could order a la carte as well.
On our last nite, we went to one of the first class restaurants for the clams they seemed to specialize in. Overnite we were all sick as dogs. Sheets had to be changed a few times it was that bad. In the morning, we were making our way through the lobby frantically trying to figure out which bus to get to. I asked a staffer who was speaking with two trainees, if she could help with finding my bus, or running out and asking the driver to hold on for us while my wife caught up, as I struggled with my 3 year old on my shoulder and the huge valise and bags I was hauling. She brushed me off with "oh sir, you just need to walk out there..." as I turned to walk away in disgust, my son spews out the milk he just tried drinking a half hour before all over them. I blurt out loudly "Yep, good ole Disney food", just as a flurry of folks were coming into the lobby to start their vacation gazing on in horror. It was priceless! Now suddenly the staffers all wanted to help me and my wife. Thanks son! [big grin]
I must say though that I'm not a fan at all of the Disney line of characters/cartoons (Bugs Bunny rules imo), so the Magic Kingdom type of park was no great thing for me, but the African, Epcot, were more to my liking. You gotta do the waterparks. We only had time to do one of them, and the rides have long lineups, but the one we chose had the wave pool that was really huge and fun. The lazy river was a nice place to semi relax/meander in for long periods. That was my first water park experience, and now I'm hooked. Been only to three since, indoor ones, but even for me in the late forties, it's a blast.
One last note, if you have a handicapped person in your group, you get head of the line everywhere you go. Even getting on and off the buses, the attraction, rides, restaurant seating, everything. Jokingly now, I figured anyone organizing a group, get everybody to pitch in to bring a handicapped person for free. Do this, and you've just eliminated all the lineups, and believe me, there are a lot of lineups, although Disney has gotten quite clever over its long history at coralling you along so you don't notice as much. On the more popular rides, they segment the lineups, so you don't actually become as aware of how many people are really in line. It's really quite ingenious how they do this to otherwise keep people from getting unruly probably when they see there are thousands possibly ahead of themselves, with fooling you to think there's maybe only a hundred or so visible at a time.
Hope this helps, and hope you have a good stay! [smile]
