If you decide to stay outside the theme park gates, you'll have lots of options, says Visit Orlando spokeswoman Susan Lomax: Orlando has 115,000 hotel rooms — many of which have theme park shuttles, 26,000 vacation homes and more than 20,000 timeshare units. For small kids, just the pool may be enough to keep them entertained for a while — many have lazy rivers, water slides and other tyke-friendly bells and whistles.
In general, it's a good rule of thumb to build about an hour into your schedule coming and going to allow time for parking, catching a shuttle to the park entrance and getting through the gates.
Visit Orlando's Lomax says if your plans include Universal or SeaWorld, hotels around Universal Boulevard and International Drive are the most convenient. If your main focus is Disney World, look for accommodations along state route 192.
If you're staying off-site and visiting Disney World, here's how to beat the rush out of the park in the evening, says Ashley Forster, a member of its "Moms Panel" of local Disney experts: There's a parade in the evening, followed by a fireworks display when night falls. "Leave about an hour prior to the fireworks," she says. You won't miss them; you'll just be getting to the ticket and transportation center around when they begin. You can still see them, and speakers pump in the same music visitors inside the park hear. "It's a pretty good way to see them and be away from the crowds," she says.