I did not realise that my thread was still getting replies! Thank you all so much for all these great ideas!
During the free dining period, how crowded is Disney? We really like early October because its warm but not Hades warm and the crowds arent so populas!!!! We went December of 2004 and felt like we were cattle being herded about. We went this past October 2007 and it was much more manageable, still very warm but we rode all we wanted to and most things 2-3 times! Like Soarin' which we fast passed twice and Its a small world which we rode 3 times in a row with no wait. Our then 1 1/2 now 2 yr old DD loved it soo much we just kept getting off and right back on! LOL
For those who have booked two rooms for families with 4 kids or more how was it getting everyone organized? For those who have stayed at the values, how hectic is it with all the other many families floating about? Are the buses ok? We stayed off property this last trip so we had no issue with buses or lugging stroller about. And now that Disney has raised stroller pricing we will be lugging our own everywhere. We had thought to rent this next time because our youngest will be 3 and can walk to and from bus or vehicle so we'd only need the stroller in the parks for her and the small cooler/diaper bag. Maybe WDW will offer free stroller rental as part of their package perks in future package pricingAre you reading this Disney??????
We're also a family of 6 (me, dh, 9,7, 3 and 1 year old kiddies). I"ll try to answer some of these. First, yes, Sept. is still very HOT, but we live in a hot climate too, so it doesn't bother us too much. Also, we take lots of rests during the day and either head back to our room for a break/swim during the day or just leave the parks early. I so, so, so love the free dining that we go in Sept.even though we would absolutely prefer Nov. or Feb. We used to always stress about the food thing trying to find the cheapest way to do it so that each meal didn't cost $40 for burgers and nuggets
and I'd plan to make meals where we were staying - free dining actually makes our family vacation a vacation for me too 
As far as crowding, it was more crowded than other times we've been, but when we hit the parks early, we made sure to hit our favs first and easily got to ride them more than once without waiting (except Dumbo - people love themselves some Dumbo
!)We've now stayed at POP and POR during free dining and actually preferred POP. This will be the first year we've needed 2 rooms but as they're guaranteed connecting, I can't imagine it will be too difficult, we'll probably play a lot of musical beds
Last year was the first time in a long time that we had little ones who had to be carried and a stroller to try and get on the bus. After the first day, we decided it was easier to drive for us, but our littlest ones were smaller than yours, I just couldn't hold both babies, some of our stuff and watch our 6 and 8 year olds while my dh handled the stroller and the rest of our stuff. You may not have as much difficulty with just a small stroller for your 3 year old. The car worked out great for us and parking at the parks is free for on-site guests.
HTH! Good luck with all your choices!
