Orlando - What Are the Do's and Dont's

I would opt for the park hopper's pass to help save some money. Also making a trip to the store for snacks and maybe a meal in the hotel by the pool also helps save on some cash. My kids loved to have a picnic by the pool for lunch, supper and even a bowl of cereal for breakfast.

Call my travel agent - Angela Santoro with Home run tours and cruises.

Disney is her specialty - she knows the in's and outs - where to stay, what to do - what the best deals are. She can do better than the deals on the internet - you don't pay her a penny and she does the legwork for you.
She has saved me major $'s!
Her email is ____@____.com
Phone is ###-###-####
Tell her that M. from her networking group referred you.

With only four days you will not be able to really get to any other places
if your main reason for Orlando is Disney. All of these places (not sure
about Nasa) are very expensive. So you are going to have to shell out money no matter what. You just have to decide what you want to do. Will
you have a car. Where are you staying. Need more info in order to give
you some guidance.

Disney Parks - sign up for mousesavers.com and use undercovertourist.com to order your tickets (the link will be advertised thru mousesavers website. This will save you some $. I would also suggest the park hoppers added onto your wdw tickets so that you can see fireworks each night at a different park.

Look up the admission for Nasa before you get there and decide if you'd like to go. They have a buy 1 get 1 day free but if you only have 4 days you really need to decide what you want to see. I believe seaworld has the same kind of deal. It depends what your kids are most into.

We usually do 8 day park hoppers for disney and then do nasa for a whole day with packed lunches and snacks, drinks to save on the costs. Meals, snacks and drinks are what makes it unaffordable. Also find a local disney store before you go and get your souviners before you leave or have your kids take their own spending money. Then you can go back more often :) Happy Vacationing!!!

Universal is fun, but there is not much for little kids. I don't think it is worth the money and I get a resident discount. I would do Magic Kingdom for two days, and Hollywood Studios for one and/or Seaworld. I have not been to LEGOLAND yet, it is for kids 5 to 12 and costs the same as Disney to get in. My neighbor said she didn’t think it was worth it (they are also only open 4 days a week and are not open late).
There are other smaller sights to see around here. Check out Old Town in Kissimmee, Gatorland in Orlando are just a couple. International Drive has lots of stuff too.You can also Google free stuff to do in Orlando and you will get a list of 40 or more things to do.
Also check out orlandosentinel.com they have articles about local stuff all the time. NASA is about an hour and a half away and I don't know the cost of going.

V.,

Like the other moms have said with the younger kids I would not recommend Universal. Has for other recommendations here are a few we have used in the past:

To save on money in the parks you can bring your own snacks and it would be good to bring water, fruit snacks, nuts anything the kids would like to nibble on and would save you money and not have buy those types of things in the parks, which can added up day after day. Last time I had a small backpack for each of the kids and they packed it each morning with their snacks, juice boxes, water and autograph books and it seemed to work out quite will.
Also Disney restaurants provide a lot of food when you do eat at one, so if the kids are smaller you could more than likely share a meal between two kids and/or some of yours with one smaller child (on any meals you might have to purchase or if you don’t go with the free meal plan). Also if you can use the buffet places as you get a lot to eat and they are kid friendly and have a lot of children foods, like mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, etc. You can also book a dinner at one, like Hollywood and Vine and then get preferred seating for Fantasmic later that night and not have to wait in line.
The idea of “pre-purchasing” some items at Disney is also a great idea. There is a Disney Outlet not far from WDW (http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=17) and they sell items from the parks much cheaper, it might be last season’s things, but who cares. We went there last year before we checked into our hotel and bought the kids each something so that we would not have to spend more at the parks to get them something. You could also purchase a few things from the Disney Store to surprise them with as you see things go on sale. A few years ago when we went I made them each a lanyard before we left and give to them when we got there (and we put the pouches on the end to hold the tickets and Fast Passes all of which I got on eBay for a fraction of the cost). I figured out each of their favorite characters, got them that person on the lanyard and then purchased a mess of pins to put on them, all from eBay that they could keep or trade with the Disney people in the parks. Then we limited them to getting one or two at each park. We also gave them each their own Disney Gift Card with I think $25.00 or so on it so they could only spend what they had an no more. I also ordered autograph books on eBay for each kids with a pouch and a pen, they loved them.
If the kids are small, take advantage of the park that opens early and then take a break during the day and go back to the park that stays open late, that is the advantage of the Hopper Passes. Also use the Fast Pass system, pick an attraction you would like to really do, get a Fast Pass, you have an hour window to use that Fast Pass, before going on that attraction, get another Fast Pass for the next one you want this way you are a step ahead (you can get a Fast Pass every hour after getting your first one). Only one person has to go to the Fast Passes they just need all the tickets when they go (but as I recently learned after sending our oldest son to the park at 7:30 am to get Toy Story Fast Passes, you all do need to be in the park to get the Fast Passes).
When you go to the first park, get your photo taken by the Disney Photo people, they will give you a Disney Photo Pass card (kind of like a credit card) and you use it whenever you see a Disney Photo person and have them take your photo (you can have multiples of these so have the other family get them too). They even use them around the characters. When you get home you can log on and check out the photos and only purchase the ones you what and you can also add borders and dates. Disney has made it official! The ability to pre-purchase Disney's PhotoPass CD for $99.95 has returned and is available to everyone; this will allow you to get every photo that is taken at the park and including the ones that you can “add” by adding borders, dates, etc. http://www.disneyphotopass.com/previsitoffer.aspx (I think this is still good I used it in September before we left and it worked.) I shared the 99.95 cost with my sister and we put all the photos on the CD and just paid an extra 15.00 for an additional CD so we would have two. I think we had over 100 photos on the CD and you can go into the photos and add dates, Disney Boarders, etc.
I also have a spreadsheet that I made for my boss when she took her daughter a year ago, I have updated some of it recently for someone and would be happy to send it to you, if you would like it just let me know. We went in Oct. with our son who is in the Coast Guard and daughter-in-law and Dec. with our youngest and his girlfriend (he is in the Air Force, stationed in Abilene, TX), so for the last couple of months every pay day we go to the Disney Store and add 25.00 to a Disney Gift Card so when we get there that will be our spending money, we have also been doing it for each of our sons (using their money) so they also will have one to use. Also let me know if you have any other questions as we have driven down many a year.
I am sure you will have a wonderful time!

We've been to Orlando twice with our sons. Most recently the week before Labor Day 2011. We were there 8 days and still only decided to visit 3 parks at the most (a day break in between.) Kudos to you for trying to get it all in 4 days! My sons are 7 and 9. We LOVE Sea World because they are able to interact with so many of the animals. Both years we went, we were able to come back a 2nd day for free. You just have to go to a special window to get the 2nd day pass. Dinner with Shamu was fun, though we did it a few years ago. For Disney, we opted to go to Epcot & Disney Studios. They loved both. It depends on what your kids are into. Epcot has Test Track, Mission Space, and Soaring as their top rides. They also liked going around to the different countries to get "stamps" and learn about them. Disney Studios has an interactive Toy Story ride which is like being in a video game. They also have a cool Star Wars ride. My older son and I loved the Aersosmith roller coaster. My younger son is on the small side and wasn't allowed on, but would've loved it . We knew we were going to Sea World, so we asked them to choose 2 Disney Parks. We originally opted for Magic Kingdom, but went to Epcot instead b/c we ran into friends from back home who were going. We had been to Epcot on our prior visit, but the boys were too young to ride the rides. They still loved it back then. Legoland had not opened yet when we went, but I'd be curious about it. We went to the one in San Diego years ago, and loved it. I feel that the one in San Diego is only good up to about age 10 so consider that for your group. We want to go again, b/c my younger son is a Lego fanatic. We purposely decided to skip Universal until they were older so they could get the most out of it, like others have mentioned. Good luck. You'll have fun no matter what!

As far as parks go, unless you're huge Harry Potter fans, I would say skip Universal with the kids being so young. Your kids would probably really like Sea World, but unless you're military, it's pricey just for 1 day. Do Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom & EPCOT. Check out Kissimmee Guest Services online for decent ticket prices. Eat breakfast at home. You can bring bottled water into the parks, so load up a backpack & give it to the guys to carry. It's going to be fairly expensive no matter what you do, but these are definitely ways to cut back a bit on the spending. Have a blast!

If your family are Harry Potter fans Universal is SO awesome! But it is very expensive....

We just were there in December.

We did all the Disney parks and SeaWorld. My husband and I went to Universal for a day while our kids (7 and 4) stayed at the hotel with my parents to rest. I really liked Universal, but like another poster said, not a lot for kids that age. Most of the roller coasters are really fast and intense, and have higher height limits. Both Universal and Islands of Adventure have a kids area, but they are small compared to the rest of the park, and I wouldn't find it worth the cost of admission to bring the kids.

We really liked SeaWorld. We bought the Family Fun Tour, which was extra, but it gives you a personal tour guide for the morning, preferred seating for the OneWorld show -- right in the middle, one row behind the splash zone, chance to pet a penguin, and feed sea lions and dolphins, and the chance to go to the front of the kiddie rides (which adults can do, too) during your tour. We were there during Christmas, so our ticket included the Polar Express Experience which was seeing Santa. I think during the rest of the year it's a one on one meet and greet with Shamu (the character, not the real whale). Totally worth the extra cost and a great experience for the kids.

With only 4 days, if you really just want to do Disney, you could one park each day, and with a park hopper pass, you could do more than one park in each day (i.e. Magic Kingdom during the day, then Epcot at night for the fireworks). At your kids ages, that's probably what will be the most fun for them. I am guessing that NASA is at Cape Canaveral which is at least an hour away, if not more. The more days you purchase on a Disney Park Pass, the less each day costs. You can look up prices on-line or a travel agent can help you out.