Hi Karen and welcome to the forums.
You must be excited planning for the first trip, although it seems overwhelming, if not a little daunting putting together the perfect trip is fairly straightforward once you have sorted the key elements.
These being
1) Transport Fly or drive (obviously depends on your location and childrens ages , weather etc), if you fly you wil probably need a car at the Florida end and there are some good value companies around with convenient pick up locations on airport.
2) Accommodation : again the choice great varying from a budget motel room to luxurious villas, the cost difference can be negligible, especially if your party make up means you need more than one room in an hotel, but even if it doesn't actually work out cheaper in a villa the overall vacation experience is so completely different that any saving you may initially appear to make in an hotel soon become insignificant. You work hard to save for your vacation and as you don't live in one room all year round , why would you want to cram in one for your precious vacation time.
3) Travel insurance: This is a must in our opinion. Much as we would like life to be perfect, unfortunately bad things happen, illness, job losses etc which may entail the cancellation of a trip.
Although as a US citizen you have one huge advantage over us Brits in that medical expenses aren't so much of a worry but a few dollars to buy an insurance package means that in the event you should be forced to cancel, for an insured reason, at least you have the knowledge that you will still have the money to take the trip another time. If you make the decision not to choose the insurance option then you are assuming the risk of losing the money (and unfortunately since most accommodation providers have encountered every reason plausible (and some not so plausible) have had to adopt the same cancellation terms as airlines.
4) Park Tickets: If the budget is really tight then try to get a consensus from the family on the ones they absolutely want to do and work from there but with the links at the top of the site the value is good good that usually time, rather than money, becomes the constraining factor.
Once you've sorted these then anything else you plan beomces the "icing on the cake" especially at Christmas time, things like Mickeys Verry Merry Christmas Party which is a separately ticketted event but is fantastic and magical for families.
Whatever you're planning, we're here to help if you need any advice/opinions at all.
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