Help with 1st time trip planning!

[Terra2721]

Hello all. My family is beginning to plan a first time trip to WDW for Thanksgiving week 2014. I have read several threads but find all this information very overwhelming. So I thought I would post and ask you amazingly experienced people for help.

On this trip will be my brother's family (2 adults 3 kids: ages 9, 7, 5), my parents (2 adults), my family (1 adult 1 kid: age 3.5), and possibly my little brother (2 adults).

Questions
1. We are planning on staying at the Contemporary resort (mainly because of the close location to MK....I am fairly sure my son 3.5 will still be napping).
----What would be the best room (Bay Lakes Tower?) accommodations...right now we are thinking 2 bedroom suites.
-----Should we consider Club level?

2. The plan is to fly in early Sunday (early) and fly out Friday (late). What ticket plan would you recommend?

3. Love thoughts on the dinner plans. These kids are your typical kids (fries, chicken fingers, pizza, etc) the adults enjoy all types of food....no dietary restrictions.

4. Any tips/tricks that you would like to pass along would be most appreciated.

TIA

 

[melissafox18]

1. I can't answer as I've never stayed at CR. But good choice with a little one still napping
2. Totally your decision. Do you want a day off of parks completely (swim, explore your resort, explore other monorail resorts, DTD, etc.)? Are you planning to park hop at all? Both of those would factor into my answer. With younger kids, you might appreciate a day off completely from the parks to just relax, swim, go to a late lunch or early dinner.
3. Are you looking at table services dinners or counter service? You have a ton of options being along the monorail!
4. Research, research, research! I love to research things, so this part has always been easy for me. But I read somewhere that 10 minutes of research can save you up to an hour once you're in the 'world'. I completely agree with it! It's better to know what attraction is where, where you want to go when you get up in the morning, somewhat of an idea of what the quick service restaurants are and where they are located, etc. On our last trip, I did a lot of research on menus (I used allears.net) and found it to be super helpful when DH and I were looking for a snack or a QS lunch. I just pulled out my phone and looked at the notes I created and we chose quickly instead of looking at a map and wondering what what served where, etc. I work better with structure, but understand and identify with the fact that bringing kids into the equasion makes things a little more difficult/unpredictable. If you go in with a plan, I think your trip will be a breeze!

 

[kappyfamily]

We did a 2 bdrm at Bay Lake Tower with 4 adults and 3 kids around the same ages and had plenty enough room. LOVED this place. Seriously not one bad thing to say about it. Loved walking to MK as well as having the monorail to Grand Floridian and Poly as well as EPCOT.

We never do the dining plan, we are not big eaters and sometimes just want an appetizer for dinner each and dont always have desert so it has never made sense for us.

Have a great time. We rented DVC points thru Davids vacation rentals and had a fantastic experience. Make sure you book early, it sells out fast at BLT!

Have fun!