I've never really done a Disney trip. For the longest time I swore I never would, but now that the kids are 10 and 7 I'm considering taking everyone on a one-time trip to do the whole Disney thing. Our total party would be somewhere between 5 and 7 - no bigger than one MVCI unit or two standard hotel rooms.

I realize all of those "crowd calendars" basically say avoid the whole place like the plague during mid-March, but I'm wondering if there are any tips/tricks that could make the experience bearable.

Reasons I'm even considering doing this to begin with:
- A variety of the good Starwood, HHonors, and Marriott hotels are available as awards.
- We have a couple airline companion passes to get us down there at reasonable cost, so the underlying (high) fare on the original ticket probably won't be a dealbreaker. We aren't dependent on award inventory, and we can avoid the blackout dates on the certificates.
- We have enough adults that we can split up itins if needed. We have enough elite baggage allowance on different airlines that we could even send 1-2 of our shorter adults empty-handed on Spirit if necessary.

I could stay at the Swan if the "onsite" benefits are worthwhile for the Disney-owned parks. Could likewise do the Doubletree for the breakfast and no-resort-fee perks. Marriott's advantage is with MVCI, but it's offsite and might necessitate a rental car.

I guess my biggest question is whether we'll get the "full" experience with the limited number of Fast Passes you get for rides. Seems like most other things at Disney aren't "things you wait in line for" but rather things you schedule in advance. We'd be willing to pay a premium for some of those things to avoid queues...

I have no status or points with Loews. I think we'd still try to go one day there to do the Hogwarts stuff, but the rest would probably be the Disney parks. Unless there's a backdoor to points/status with Loews that I'm not aware of...

Am I crazy for even thinking of this? Should I go in October and enjoy relative peace? Or is Disney just crowded 365 days a year so it kind of doesn't matter?