A few items to add to the great advice you've already received:
(1) with the Magic Your Way dining plan, at some table restaurants (such as Artist's Point in Wilderness Lodge), it takes 2 coupons/person; however, some very good rest. are only 1 coupon last time I checked (including Akerhaus (Norway in Epcot) and O'hana in Polynesian). So it may or may not be worth a substantial extra cost, depending on how you plan to use it.
(2) Consider transportation time: I have not stayed at the cabins, but my impression is that the bus transportation from there to just about anywhere in WDW would be the slowest of the properties you list. The rooms of Poly. near the TTC would probably be the best.
(3) As with the others above, I think you would have a great experience at either WL or Poly. If you haven't, you might want to look into availability/cost for the 1 BR Villas at WL. That would give you a separate room. If you choose Poly, I'd request a room on side near the TTC/Epcot monorail (see Allearsnet.com for detailed descriptions). Both WL and Poly have a good restaurant for breakfast and a good one for dinner.
(4) Request a frig for your room; not guaranteed unless needed for medicine, but I've generally been successful. It's really handy for chilling bottled water to take with you into the park (which you probably want to try to pick up outside of the park, since all I was able to find last time in the park was the Desani bottled tap water).
(5) Even if you use Mears or other transportation between MCO and WDW, think about getting a rental car for a couple of days (esp. if you go with the cabins). Some of the rental car companies have locations in or near Disney and may pick you up. Disney generally doesn't provide transporation between hotels, so if, for example, you decide to stay at WL and want to go to O'hana in Poly for dinner and to watch the MK fireworks, driving would be much faster than any Disney provided alternative, most of which would require a connection at the MK or TTC. AK or the water parks can also require a long bus ride.
(6) Once you make a reservation, call Disney periodically to check prices, as their prices may move based on how full they are. Of course you don't want to mention that you have a reservation until they give you the current price. At times, you can see some price movement on Travelocity, but I don't think the best deals generally get listed there.
(7) One more plug for AllEarsNet.com: lots of great information, pictures of the properties, advice, etc.

Have a great trip.

jtrader,

you have gotten really good advice from Mary2e and TRRed as well.

I prefer the Castle breakfast because, well....you are eating in the Castle! And the kids will love it. From now on, when you see a pic of the Castle, your girls can say "remember when we ate breakfast there with the Princesses???" It's worth the steep breakfast price. (Just ignore the bill and pass your CC.)

Make sure the lunch and dinner at the Castle also feature the Princesses walking around. If not, don't go.

The characters featured when I was there for breakfast last year were a mix of Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, Mary Poppins, Wendy, Snow White (ok, not all technically Princesses). They all come to your tableside to chat and take a pic. Don't miss your chance when they come, as they have a room rotation they must stick to. After your breakfast, you go downstairs to meet Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother and take a pic. It's a can't miss.

By all means, if you are unable to book the Castle breakfast, go for the EPCOT Akershus character meal. Your daughters won't know that they missed anything, and they will love meeting the Princesses.

If they are at all into the Pooh/Piglet/Tigger/Eeyore characters, consider doing a meal at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom as well.

As far as the extra hours in the park, I enjoy taking advantage of those, but you know your own family best. They may just have Disney overload at that point. If you are early risers, you may not relish staying at the parks late. In that case, be sure to arrive at the gates early (830a is not too early).

With my suggestion about the Halloween party, that runs from 7p-midnight and requires a separate pass. You could do that on the day you arrive (say your flight gets in at 2p. You don't want to waste a whole days park admission, but with the Halloween party pass, you are only buying for the evening anyway. IIRC, that pass was around $30 for adults.)

As far as the Wilderness Lodge v. the Polynesian, here's my pros and cons:

The Polynesian is older. The rooms are more spacious (can easily accomodate 5) and have large bathrooms. Room cost is usually higher than the Wilderness (in fact, if you are considering staying here, check out the Grand Floridian prices as well. Sometimes the GF is the same price or only $20 higher than the Polynesian and is a much better hotel.) Polynesian is on the monorail line. Poly also offers a view of the nighttime fireworks and Electrical Water Pageant.

The Wilderness Lodge is newer and is a beautiful resort. Great pool. Rooms are much smaller, as are the bathrooms. Some rooms do offer bunk beds, which might be fun for your girls. Transportation options more limited and mostly by bus.

Both have a private beach area. Both offer a boat to the MK. Both have good restaurant choices on-site. Both offer evening babysitting (expensive, but worth it. The kids won't want to leave.)

I have never stayed at the Wilderness Lodge Villas but if they are within your price range, I'd jump on that.

However, with all things considered, especially because you are first-timers, I would opt for the Polynesian, as the location and access to the monorail can't be beat. (Once, when we were staying at the Polynesian, we got to the Magic Kingdom gate, only for my husband to realize he had left his wallet at the hotel. We said we'd meet him at the Castle in 15 minutes, and sure enough, he just hopped the monorail back to the Poly, grabbed the wallet, and was back in less than 15 minutes. You could never do that staying at most any other hotel, certainly not an off-site one.)

Let us know if you need any further input!

OK, I'm narrowing down the options. I checked into this promotion with the dining plan added free. Not all the resorts are available. These are my choices for 4 nights (5 day standard park pass) the first week of Oct, 2 adults and 2 kids under 10:

Contemporary garden wing standard view: 1,832
Ft Wilderness Cabins: 1,955 (42/day for golf cart included)
Wilderness Lodge Villa (studio): 2,010
Contemporary tower room: 2,282
Grand Floridian garden view: 2,300
Wilderness Lodge concierge level (standard sold out): 2,339

Out of the above, I guess I'm leaning towards the Ft Wildnerness Cabin or the Wilderness Lodge Villa. I like the idea of kitchenette for simple breakfast stuff. If stay in the Cabin, I guess we need the golf cart so we don't have to rely on the Campground buses. I'm assuming boat transportation from Ft Wilderness is reasonably speedy and convenient. At this point, we're not planning on visiting anywhere except Magic Kingdom and Epcot (unless I get strong recommendations from others to try something else). The convenience pfthe Contemporary is a bit enticing but the hotel itself sounds kind of depressing. I'm not sure the Grand Floridian is worth the money.

Still very much appreciating the advice of people here.

Does anyone know how late the parks are usually open first week of October? I'm trying to figure out a logical schedule (we arrive around 11:15am at Orlando on Saturday and leave 7:30pm on Wednesday. The Halloween Party is on Sunday evening and looks something we definitely need to do. I'm not sure how late the kids will last most evenings, even with a rest break in the afternoon.

Finally, anyone have experience with the complimentary transportation Disney now offers to those staying on property?

The WDW transportation is definitely more convenient than staying off property, no matter what the savings. It eliminates the need to stop at the transportation center, since only WDW buses drop off at the main gate (at least this used to be true). However, that said, if you will primarily be in the Magic Kingdom, the extra dollars to stay at the Grand Floridian might be worth it -- the bus rides get long and tedious after a couple of times. You can take the monorail directly to the GF from the MK.

We always stay at the Beach Club, primarily because you can walk to Epcot or take a boat to MGM. This makes it easier to get back to your room in the afternoon and avoids any long waits for buses after Illuminations.

As far as park hours are concerned, you can call WDW or check online. Expect a relatively early closing for the MK except on weekends. Epcot closes at 9 pm, and the fireworks/laser show starts then.

The important thing to remember -- no matter where you choose to stay -- is that this will not be a luxury, relaxful vacation.

I probably wouldn't choose the Cont. Garden Wing. Nothing too exciting there. If you didn't, you might want to specifically confirm that the WL Villa 1 BR was not available. From prior diagrams, the Studio looked a little cramped, but I never compared it to a standard room. Remember, availability changes all the time, so keep checking even after making your reservation.

On your last question, probably every one on the board who has stayed on Disney property has experience with the transporation. Buses are the predominant form, supplemented with the MK monorail (Poly, TTC, GF, WK, & Contemp.), the Epcot monorail (TTC-Epcot), and some boat transportations (some MK resorts to MK and some Epcot resorts to Epcot and MGM, etc.). For some of the longer rides with a couple of stops (WL to Blizzard Beach, maybe), the wait for the bus and the ride may take as long as an hour. In the several times I have been to WDW, I don't think I've been asked more than once to show my WDW ID. I think either WDW's website or All Ears has a list which shows how frequently buses and boats run.

In general IIRC, buses don't run between resorts or between the parks and Pleasure Island. Thus, you may have to go to an intermediate point and wait for a connecting bus, which can also be a slow process. The exception would be if several resorts were on the same route (for example, there may be one bus from all the MK resorts to Typhoon Lagoon, so if you wanted to go from WL to Contemp., you would be able to use that bus if the route went in the correct direction); however, that info generally isn't published, so you have to call Disney Transportation or ask a bus driver if you want to do something like that. Thus, the prior recommendation to get a rental car.

continued thanks to everyone for their useful suggestions and advice.

We've got provisional reservations at both Fort Wilderness Cabins and Grand Floridian. The Grand Floridian is only $300 more for 4 nights (assuming we rent golf carts for 4 nights at the Cabins).

We're leaning towards the Cabins at this point. We see the pros/cons as follows:

Pros - separate sleeping living area which is nice after kids go to sleep; lots of things to do at Ft Wilderness (nightly campfire & movie; pony rides; trails, etc.); kids will have fun on the golf cart; full kitchen for breakfast & snacks

Cons - longer boat ride to MK and TTC (probably additional 10-20 minutes compared to Grand Floridian); pools aren't themed and less fancy (no water slide); double bed vs. queen at GF

From reading the various bulletin boards, I don't get the impression that the Grand Floridian is really all that luxurious an experience (e.g. Marriott versus Holiday Inn) so convenience and the nicer pools are really the big difference while Ft Wilderness seems to have other activities which we are more likely to prefer to the restaurants at GF. I would choose the GF if I really thought the difference in convenience was going to be a huge factor. However, in our case, we are going to spend most of our time at Magic Kingdom and secondarily at Epcot. We might go to MGM our last day. We need to make a decision by the end of this week.

I'm working on the character breakfast reservations starting in the morning...

Two points (caveat: I'm straying away from actual and/or recent knowledge here): First, it has always been my impression that GF was considerably above the quality of most Marriotts (and I generally prefer Marriotts when traveling on business, so my comment is not anti-Marriott). See the site referenced below and its comment on GF. My impression is that a Ritz Carlton would be a better comparision point for the GF, if that difference matters in your decision.

Second, my guess is that the time difference you estimated in getting to/from MK is a best case estimate and assumes no waiting for the transportation to arrive. I expect from FW, you will see some 20 min. waits for buses or boats to arrive (as you likely would from WL also, based on my experience there). You may also wait a few minutes for a monorail at GF, but I think it only takes 10-15 minutes for the monorail to run the entire track; if they have 2 monorails running on that track . . . (well, you can do the math). IIRC, the next stop after GF is MK (which means on the return, you stop at Contemp., Poly, and TTC before returning to GF).

From http://allearsnet.com/acc/faq_gf.htm

follow-up report
 

Really appreciated all the comments from everyone here. Thought I would post the results of our trip:

-stayed in the Fort Wilderness Cabins. Didn't rent a car but did rent a golf cart for our entire stay. The Cabins worked out well for us since we could eat a quick breakfast there before leaving and kids had their own room (one afternoon, they stayed played in their room while Mom & Dad took a much needed 1 hour nap). It's also nice being in something different from a regular hotel (like most here, I get enough of hotels on business trips).

-my major concern had been transportation to/from parks. We found it was really pretty good. Having the golf cart was key - I would have hated having to walk from the cabin to a bus stop and wait for the internal bus. The girls liked riding in the cart and it was easy to get to the transport locations. It ranged from around 25 to 45 minutes from our cabin to inside the park depending on how long we needed to wait for transportation (usually closer to 30 minutes). I had feared multiple stops at other resorts but all the buses went either direct or with a stop only at Fort Wilderness. We only had one incident where we had to wait 30+ minutes for a boat back from MK.

-We had booked a special deal where the dining plan was thrown in at no additional cost. It was phenomenal. We didn't even use all of the snacks and included meals and had more than our fill (it did help that we brought some breakfast stuff to have in the cabins). Enjoyed dinner at Les Chefs de France (wouldn't survive in NYC but very good for a theme park) and had an excellent meal at Artist's Point. The food at Hollywood & Vine (MGM) was mediocre but the kids (and I) loved the dessert make your own sundae buffet and the included reserved spots at Fantasmic were worth it. It was great being able to use the included snacks to purchase stuff from the Epcot Food & Wine festival booths. Almost all of the special festival items were great.

-My girls loved the Cinderella Royal Table breakfast.

-Crowds were not at all bad, all things considered. We followed the advice in "The Unofficial Guide to WDW" (a highly recommended guidebook) and got to all parks at or near opening. We took afternoon breaks. I'd recommend this time of year to anyone. While it was pretty warm (shorts weather for sure all the time) it wasn't brutal like the summer. It rained almost every day but only briefly. Reasonable lines made it worthwhile.

My daughters are already asking if we can go back again next year.

jtrader,

Glad you had such a great Disney trip. It sounds like you did your homework well. I am sure you will take your girls back again and again.

The best thing about going to Orlando is that you can ALWAYS find a hotel room somewhere ;) .....and on any budget, from $50/nt to $500/nt. We've stayed in all ranges :D

We also went to Disney recently (Aug) and I was able to get the same Magic Your Way package that included the food. It was more than enough, for sure, and we also had leftover credits that went unused.

For 3 of us for 3 days, I estimated that the food package saved me around $400. Not bad at all.

(PS- that particular food package is no longer available. Here's hoping they'll offer it again. Disney rarely throws a bone, but this was a GREAT one!)

The Food and Wine Festival is the BEST!

:)

The dining package was truly a great deal. I also figured our savings at easily $600+ for 4 of us over 4 days compared to what we would have probably spent anyway. With the package, we ate some meals we otherwise wouldn't have. I would strongly recommend it even if you have to pay list for it.

WDW tickets / sharing ?
 

Is there any coupon for Disney World tickets ? We 're going to WDW on december 17 and 18. is any one interested in sharing a 5 day pass with us ?
we are a family of 4, 2A + 2C.

There really isn't any way to share admission passes.....Disney uses a biometric hand scan system that prohibits anyone but the original passholder from using the admission days.

Unfortunately, two day passes for you are going to be mighty expensive, about $120 per adult, and that allows no park hopping (kids over age 9 are considered adults).

If you have any reason to believe you may visit again in the future, you might want to look into a longer pass (5 days perhaps) with the no expiration feature.

Have fun. We head to Disney again in 2 days.

You also might want to look at mousesavers.com and see if there are any deals through the ticket brokers - sometimes they have convention passes for shorter time periods. I agree that there's no way to share passes.

If you plan on being at WDW multiple times over a 365 day period, look into Annual Passes. You can also get VERY good resort discounts with one, generally 50% off whats available. Quite a few people book annual pass rates and activate their AP's on their first day in the parks.

Another one to look into is Disney's Dining Experience. $50/year for Annual Passholders (Although with the delays in receiving your card, you can generally get 15-16 months out of a one year card) it gets you 20% off almost all full service restaurants (alcohol included) and all Animal Kingdom counter service. It also gives you free valet parking at any of the deluxe resorts.