Hi. I thought I'd put in my vote for HIFS. We stayed there with our three sons (then ages 10, 7 and 3) when we visited in December 2000. It's a nice place with a fun pool, and the suites are great, with a living area with pullout sofa and two separate bedrooms. There's also a free hot breakfast buffet every morning, which we found worked perfectly with our kids' ages...they really can't wait too long to eat after they get up. What worked great for us was filling up on the breakfast buffet, then doing a few character lunches/dinners. By the time you're hungry again, it's time for your character meal, and you've saved the cost of breakfast every day (not a bad thing with five people eating, and it might make up for the cost difference between your two reservations). We didn't find the car ride to the parks bad at all...in fact, some nights when we left the parks at closing, and saw hundreds of people lined up waiting for buses, we were thrilled to have a short walk or tram ride to our car then zip right to the hotel. It's 5-10 minutes to most parks from HIFS. Also, traveling with three young children, we liked the flexiblity of putting our two younger kids to bed, then spending some time with our oldest son in the living room before we went to sleep. You said you have a four-year-old... if you're anything like me, you really won't be wanting to go to bed at the same time as your little one, but staying in only one room, you're basically stuck, unless you're willing to either have the kids up very late, or yourself in bed early (unless your kids are the type to just fall into bed and be fast asleep immediately, even with the lights and TV on, etc., which mine definitely DON'T do). I know we all push our kids' bedtimes for a vacation like this, but we found our kids could only take so much, and we loved having a separate room to send them to when they absolutely needed to get to sleep and we were not even close to being ready for lights out. Personally, I can't imagine staying in one room with my husband and three kids - but maybe that's just me? I know many will agree with me, but many probably won't, and I just wanted to offer you a different perspective. I know staying on-site you get an extra dose of Disney magic, but to be honest, you're probably not going to be hanging out much at your resort, especially since this is your first trip and I'm sure you'll want to spend as much time as possible in the parks. Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to explain why I'd recommend HIFS for your family. Hope this helps or gives you something to consider. Either way, have a wonderful vacation!!