Disney 2013

I assume you are talking about Disney World in Florida.

You can book directly through Disney World.

If you can go in early November, that would be a better time as the temperatures will be cooler but very comfortable and the parks will not be as crowded.

I like to stay at the Port Orleans resort as it is moderately priced for a Disney resort and has great access to all of the parks.  Staying on resort gets you access to busses and the lines waiting for the Port Orleans buses is not as bad as some other resorts.

Also, you can take a boat to Downtown Disney whuch is a fun evening activity for shopping and dinner.

Your and your kids will love it Disney World.

We went a few years ago in mid October. The temperatures weren't bad, and we only waited for more than 15 minutes at 1 attraction.

We stayed at the Animal Lodge and had views of the animals on their little preserve. The best part of the morning was sitting on the balcony, drinking coffee, and watching the giraffes have breakfast.

You can book right through Disney, we found that to be the easiest. Depending on how much you want to spend, there are Disney resorts for most price ranges. The less expensive being farther away from the attractions, but as it was already stated, staying on Disney property gets you bus rides to pretty much anywhere else on the Disney property you want to go. Even at the airport, we had selected some feature that they picked up our luggage. We went and checked in at their counter and rode a bus to our resort. I know a vacation there can be $$$ but we had a really good time, and one more than one occassion they went above and beyond to accomodate us.

Your budget is going to dictate where you can/want to stay. Unless you're strapped for cashm though, stay on the grounds. So much easier to just hop on the buses to the park.

On the grounds we're never particular about where we stay as we spend little actual time at the hotel/ We've been happy att he All-Star resorts, and at Port Orleans, which are on the lower end of the price spectrum.

Never stayed at the Animal Lodge but I will say the restaurant there is one of the best bang-for-bucks on the grounds. Great food and not that expensive.

We went in April of last year with our then 2 and 6 year olds.  We booked through the Disney website and stayed at the All-Star Movies resort.  We also considered the Port Orleans, but figured that since the kids were small, they weren't picky and we were lucky enough to get a room near the huge Buzz and Woody statues at the hotel.  The kids loved it!  To be honest, I don't know that I would stay here again- the room was a bit small and it had outdoor access, which gave it a motel feel.  The food options were just okay and the pool wasn't spectacular.  There are a newer resorts at the "value" price level - Pop Century and the even newer, Art of Animation - so I'd recommend looking into those two.  But the rooms were clean and the service was great, so it was fine and served it's purpose...it's not like we were there that much anyway!

We loved the easy access to transportation to all the parks from the hotel.  We also had a meal plan and that worked out really well for us.  The All-Star resort doesn't have as many food options as some of the nicer hotels, but you can go to any hotel to eat or eat at the parks.  I would start booking the meals with characters as early as possible, because the most popular ones book fast.  We had breakfast with the Princesses at Epco, whic I doubt you'd be interested in with boys.  We also had breakfast with the characters from Disney Jr at Disney Studios and dinner with Pooh and friends at the Crystal Palace in Magic Kindom.  I've heard that the dinner with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy at the Contemporary resort is really great, but it was already booked when we were planning everything.  We had a really nice dinner at the Wolfgang Puck restaurant in Downtown Disney with our meal plan.

I would highly recommend checking out tourguidemike.com.  There is a small fee, but it's totally worth it.  He has sample agendas for each park and even has them broken down for different ages.  We found this really helpful, because he tells you when to arrive, which rides to go to first (because they tend to have the longest lines), which rides to get a Fast Pass for, etc.  We went to Magic Kingdom and followed his recommendations in Fantasyland by arriving at the "magic hours" and rode all the rides, rode the favorites 2 or 3 times, and were done by 9 am!  We had the rest of our morning to wander around seeing characters and riding other rides.

Since our kids don't typically sleep later than 6 am, it worked for us to take advantage of the "magic hours" in the morning.  Since we were staying on property, we'd get arrive at the parks an hour early, then we'd stay there until lunchtime.  Then, we'd go back to the hotel for some downtime, go to the pool and then go back to the park in the later afternoon and stay for the fireworks.  The Illuminations show at Epcot was great, Disney Studios has the Fantasmic! show that is awesome, and of course the fireworks at Disney are classic.

One other thing...at this age, the kids seem to love meeting the characters.  Tourguidemike has good advice on when to catch the characters when it's the least crowded.  Buy the autograph books, so the characters can sign them and be prepared to take a lot of pictures!!!

Sorry for all the info!  I remember being completely overwhelmed as well.  Fell free to send me a message if you have any questions.  We had an amazing time and can't wait to go back.  The staff at Disney were awesome and made sure the kids were having fun the entire time.

Early November is probably about the perfect time to visit the park. I agree with staying on park if you can, with just 4 of you all the resorts an option. We went this summer, but had 6 and I decided to stay at a VRBO because options were more limited/pricey when you have that many. Staying on site is nice because you can easily get away without renting a car if you doing an all Disney trip.

Here are some tips (I purposefully used a variety of sources so you could check out their other info too), feel free to PM me if you have any questions. 

Jedi Training - your 5 year old will especially love this, even better, it is free.

Character Dining - we did Cinderella's Royal Table, but with two boys Chef Mickey or Mickey's BBQ might be a better bet. Whatever you do, book as soon as you can in advance, they fill up fast.

The boys might also like the pirate cruise, it was a great way to watch the fireworks.

Fastpass system - might not be as big of an issue during an off-peak visit, but here's an explanation of how it works if you aren't familiar. With a little planning, you can get much more out of Fastpasses than just using them at random.

Magic Express is a nice feature if you stay on site.

I took my kids in 2011 when they were 3 and 5 and it was perfect. First week of Sept, kids did the Halloween fun run (Best $10 spent at Disney!), I did the wine and dine 1/2 mary.  We rented points from a DVC member to stay at the Bay Lake Towers and bought tix through some popular discount ticket place online.  

Best help I found was reading the Unofficial Guide to WDW. Totally helped me choose what was best for me and my kiddos.  Second biggest help was browsing the Disboard.com forums.  It gets completely overwhelming over there so maybe read the book first then go there to get more specific questions answered.

Enjoy!

So much good info here. I can add that planning is key when the kids are that age. Read a bit as well, "The Unofficial Guide to Disney World" was helpful for us when our kids were that age. Take advantage of Magic Hours if you stay on site. It may seem odd to get up early and rush out to be the first ones there, but the parks are really neat in the early morning (especially Animal Kingdom), before the crowds arrive.  Strongly consider park hopper passes. And hit some of the non park stuff like Boardwalk and Downtown for a break if possible.

www.allears.net has good reviews of restaurants and such.

And relax and drink it all in while you are there.

I forgot to add something.  We just were there a few weeks ago.

Download the Disney Parks Mobile Magic App for your phone.

It gives you wait times for rides, issue times for the fast passes, and show times.  When you are inside the park, it gives you wait times down to the minute.  BTW, their wait time estimates are right on.

It also uses your phone's GPS and will locate you on the park map and let you know what activites are close by.