I'm also an Overwhelmed Newbie planning a trip for 2011.
One of the things I've been doing as far as saving money is I've signed up for a couple of those GPT sites (earn money or gift cards) and all the gift cards that I earn -- I'm saving to use for Christmas shopping and then I will put that amount of money towards our Disney trip. For example, one site that i've become pretty good at, I started in January and I've already received $285 in
Amazon & Target gift cards (they have tons of other gift cards to choose from, including the
Disney Store). So, come Christmas time, say I have $1,000 in gift cards, I'll use those cards to do my shopping and then I'll take $1,000 out of my paycheck and either pay off my trip or put it into savings for spending money or whatever.

I spend a few minutes a day doing this stuff - when I'm on the computer anyways - and it pays off pretty well.
Anyways, just thought I'd throw that out there. I don't know if I can post the info here. I'll check back and see if a Mod replies to this but you can always PM me. I thought of everybody here when I saw that you can get Disneystore.com gift cards. Too bad you can't buy passes with them tho.