I just love threads like this!
You are going to have so much fun! You will love the AKL & eating at Boma. It is one of the three WDW restaurants that we will be returning to, the other two being Kona Cafe and Le Cellier.
I'm a DL vet who has been to WDW twice now within the last 3 years, so I can give you a little advice that either worked for me or I learned through the school of hard knocks!
I know DL like the back of my hand, but to me WDW is like living on a whole 'nother planet! That is, until I got used to it.
One important thing to realize right away: You cannot do everything there is to do there on your first trip, or even your second trip, There's always the next time!
Also, you will get a bad case of "deja-vu" when you enter the Magic Kingdom. Everything basically looks the same, but it's a bit different. It
I did happen to pay a few $ and register for the Unofficial Guide (UG).
This was one of the first things that I was going to recommend. Our first trip I thought I had planned well, but I didn't. We hardly saw anything. This last trip I followed the UG & the subscribed touring plans almost to the letter, and I was so completely amazed at how much we got done! For example, our Disney Studios day - we literally did all but one thing on our plan that day, which is a feat in itself.
What's nice about this is that the hard part has bee planned out for you in advance - the best order in which to do which particular ride. Even though we had already been once, I still didn't remember hardly anything at all. And since I have no sense of direction, it was a bonus to have someone tell me where to go next.
I also followed the UG's recommended days for each park, as well as the crowd level calendar. I'm positive that had a lot to do with how well our days went. Our only busy park visit was for
MNSSHP, which we will do again in a heartbeat.
We are doing the
DDP and I've already picked out our restaurants. It's just so crazy to me to have a touring plan so early in the planning process. I haven't had to come up with a touring plan in a long time because we've been to DL so many times, I don't even need a touring plan.....it's all ingrained in my brain.
We just returned a few months ago after doing the DDP and loved it. It was a lot of food, but we just planned it so we really didn't purchase any extra food while we were there. We ate a cereal breakfast in the room every morning, mostly to save time. We won't be doing it on future trips, but it was fun to do once. Yes, we could've seen more of each park if we had not done this, but we really enjoyed all the table service places we ate at.
Just use the touring plans to schedule your activities around the restaurants - it worked well for us.
I think this is one thing that's making me nervous: I see on the boards a
ton of people that's going to be there the same week as us. ... ... So in all actuality, even though there's a ton of people going, it still won't seem that busy in the parks. Does what I said make sense? It might just be a bunch of typed out mumbo-jumbo.
You make complete sense! It's true. But on our first trip, which happened to be during Spring Break, everyone around us was complaining about how crowded the MK was that particular day. I looked around and saw wide open spaces with nominal waits. I guess that nothing looks packed after spending the day after Christmas at DL when it's sold out!
I told my DH that I kind of feel like I am planning a trip to the Wisconsin Dells (for those who don't know... "The Waterpark Capital of the World"). :
In a word - NO!
I've been to the Dells, and it's not like that at all. Oh, that's funny. The DL area is just a different feel from WDW. I personally like how close everything is to each other.
If you are worried about time, I would skip some of the stuff that is the same as DL or that DL's is better cause you can see that all the time. Go with stuff unique to WDW.
A very good plan. Or you can just choose ahead of time what things you want to do that are the same, just because you want to do them.
And another word about planning - for me, I could never plan too much. Planning = Dreaming. And the one good thing about a plan is that it can always be tossed away if you choose to do so, which is what we did a lot. Most of the time we just did what the kids wanted to do, like ride on Soarin' four times!
Spend time over on the WDW boards. You will learn a lot just by reading through them, without even planning a thing. It amazing what people on the DIS know, and the different perspectives given are great.
Pick up copies of the Imagineering Field Guides (AK, MK & Epcot). They're filled with lots of fun trivia, but I found that they were very helpful just to orient myself to the parks.
Okay - I've jabbered on enough here. I wouldn't mind answering any of your questions, though. You can PM me if you want.
Have fun!
I'm soooo super intimidated by it all, I'm just kind of avoiding it and thinking I'll pack pb&j's and eat counter service.
)
The planning just takes the stress out of the what if's and gives me an outlet for withdrawals between trips. WDW at Christmas before the rush, AKL in the cool air, you can count on tons of animals roaming about. The whole world is magical, what's not to love? 
Enjoy the planning and count on having a stellar trip.
