I just got back from a 5 night trip the 2nd week of December with my ds5 and dd7 (she just turned 7 that week). It is totally doable. If you're like me, I spend 24/7 at home with the kids anyway (except for when they are in school, though). Here's how the trip went and what worked and what I would have done differently:
Dh dropped us off at curbside at the airport and he got our luggage checked in for us. I only carried a sturdy backpack and a duffle at the airport so I could have my hands free to hold each child's hand. Each child had their own backpack with crayons, coloring books, etc. The time at the airport and the flight went very, very smoothly. Even on the way home when our flight was delayed 6 HOURS because of weather in Chicago!!! We found ways to occupy ourselves (but I wish our portable dvd player was working because I would have brought that along).
I'm someone who gets lost very easily, so I didn't want to rent a car. Using the DME was so simple...if I can figure it out, anyone can. It was so easy with the kids.
We stayed at Pop Century. Here's something I would change next time. I would stay at a monorail resort. All of the monorail resorts were filled already with the
AAA discount. And this was in August!!! However, I wished I would have just paid full price for the cheapest room at the Contemporary, but when I finally tried to do that in November, they were already booked up. I would never stay at Pop again. Not because we didn't like it, but because it was too much of a hassle with the children taking the bus rides. Most of the time at least one of my children had to stand.
I rented a double stroller almost every day. The kids really didn't need it for the whole trip. And for some of the day, we just parked it by an attraction and left it there for a couple of hours. But it came in handy because it held all of our stuff, and it was easier to keep an eye on the chidren. And of course, it was great for when they got tired. But the double strollers are expensive...$18 a day!
I used the dining plan and that was great! We went to places we usually won't go to: like character meals, and HoopDeDoo. My kids eat like birds, so it just kills me to spend so much money on a meal that they will pick at. So, with using the Dining Plan, it didn't bother me that we paid lots of money for a character meal that they just ate a few bites. Since it was just one adult and 2 young children, the dining plan only cost us $55 a day. It was the perfect amount of meals for us. Since my kids aren't big eaters, it's not like they can just get one big meal a day and snack. They HAVE to eat 3 meals a day. So, we would usually eat something in the hotel room for breakfast (like a poptart, or breakfast bar), then eat our lunch and dinner at the parks.
I've been to WDW before, and I'll get to WDW again, so we focused on the little kid rides this trip. It was nice not having to worry about fast passes to the roller coasters, nor standing in long lines to get to the "big" rides. The best thing we did was get to MK at opening and ride all of the Fantasyland rides first thing before it got crowded. We made the mistake of not riding Dumbo first. We never did make it on that ride!! The lines were always too long. We made the mistake of going to Mickey's Philharmagic first. That attraction ate up too much of our early morning time.
Almost every single ride we did, we were able to all ride together. The only one I can think of was Aladdin's Magic Carpets, and Triceratops Spin. Both of those rides are similar (and just like Dumbo). My 7 year old rode them by herself. We didn't ride on the Indy Speedway, so that could be another ride that 3 couldn't fit on.
Since Pop didn't have a coffeemaker in the room, I brought my own. That was great! I couldn't just leave the children alone in the room by themselves while I run out for coffee in the morning! lol. So, this worked out well.
We did
MVMCP one night and that was a BIG mistake. We took a nap that day, but the kids still got very tired. They almost fell asleep on the bus ride back to the resort. Also, it got very cold that night and even though we had winter coats and mittens with us, the kids were cold. The night started out fun, but then it was just too much for the kids: too late, too cold, too crowded. If they were older...maybe around 10 and 12, then I could see doing MVMCP by myself with them.
I went over IN DETAIL with the kids what the rules were. I assigned seats to the children on everything from the plane ride and the bus trips, to who got to sit next to me on each attraction. Of course the kids' bladders are alot stronger than mine (lol), but it was a rule that when Mom had to go potty, we all had to go potty (they probably hated this rule the most and would moan when I said it was time to go potty). We went over what to do in case someone gets lost. Which I'm glad we did because my dd got separated from us at a large store in Epcot. She found a store employee and by the time they found me, she was sobbing like crazy...poor kid! But at least she knew what to do. Before we left home, we went over what rides we were going on and which ones we were skipping. My dd7 is afraid of alot of the rides, so ds5 knew he wasn't going to go on some of his favorites.
All in all, it was a pretty good trip. Besides our resort, the only negatives from the trip were things I didn't have control over: the cold, and the rain. I would definitely go again with just me and the little ones, but I don't think I'll go in December again. There is just so much going on with preparing for Christmas, that getting ready for a trip to WDW takes away from the special moments we have at home for Christmas...kwim? Next time I go with just me and the kids, I think I'll try November or October.
HTH.
Mary
) Just be sure you're getting plenty of rest and try not to push yourself. 
