We are driving for the first time with two small kids (currently 10 months and 4 years), and our arrival day and first full day will be rest/exploring/pool days.
On our Nov trip, the first full day there, my girls were tired and cranky. All my 4 yo wanted to do was play in the sand (at BLT). So we spent that day relaxing and exploring the resort and it was the best thing. By the 2nd full day, we were ready to hit the parks. (Also, our arrival day we didn't get into our resort until 3:30pm after leaving at 7:30am for the airport ... so it was just a l-on-g day!)
I know that's not ideal (
I wanted to go to the parks!!), but it worked for us...so we're going to try it again this trip, too. We'll be at WDW for 10 days and I have 4-5 non-park days planned (well one is a water park day but we plan to only arrive around 3pm and stay until close).
I haven't used TGM ... I guess I don't know what I'm missing!

But with all the good information on the DIS, All Ears, and other sources for FREE (we get our Unofficial Guide WDW books from the library), I've never understood why I should pay for TGM.
Ok, enough of this snow now!! I'm outside Washington, DC and we've had enough!! 30+ inches is waaaaay too much for us.