Welcome and Hiya Neighbor! We're about a 1/2 hour from you.
I must admit that a few years ago I was a total newbie. Being the newbie I was, I bought the Unofficial Guide and the Passporter, watched the video from Disney, watched all of the Samatha Brown shows on the travel channel and visited this message board a TON! Out of all of them, the most beneficial to us was reading these message boards. There is so much valuable information here, but it can make a newbie feel overwhelmed.
We have since stayed at Pop Century a couple of times, All Star Sports, Wilderness Lodge Villas and Beach Club Villas. Some of the things to keep in mind is that you will not be able to see everything you want to see in one trip. It is best to prioritize what is most important to you and your family. I enjoyed staying on site and visited several different resorts while we were there over the holidays to see some of the decorations. Each of the resorts have their own theme and "feel" to them. I personally love the tranquility of Fort Wilderness and the Wilderness Lodge. There is just a really relaxed feeling I get when I come to either of them through all of the hustle and bustle of Disney. It's just amazing!
The other thing to think of is what parks you want to visit and how much time you want to allow for each park. For us, we spend most of our time between Epcot and Magic Kingdom with a token day to MGM and a 1/2 day for Animal Kingdom. We have had park hoppers, but for us we would have been fine to have regular passes.
We have made plans with and without the dining plan and at that time I preferred to go with the dining plan. I have heard that there were changes made, but I have not looked into what those changes consisted of since I don't have a planned date to go back yet. Make reservations well ahead of time if you plan to visit any of the more popular restaurants like Le Cellier, Hoop Dee Doo Revue, Chef Mickey's, O'Hana, Crystal Palace, Whispering Canyon, Cinderella's Royal Table, etc.
I have never planned a vacation like I did when we went down to disney. I had it scheduled out which park we were going to on which day with reservations for our dinners the entire time with some flexibility built in. Make sure to schedule down time as well! There is a ton of walking there and a lot of go go go. My family enjoyed the time we didn't have the dining plan because it was a more of a fly by the seat of your pants type vacation with only a couple of reservations for dinner and had more counter service restaurants then.
Make sure you read through the Resorts and Restaurants boards on here. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
)
- we are also from PA (but we're in Eagles territory!) and planning our first family trip in June '09. We are super excited!!!! 
