Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover. It’s nice and relaxing, takes you through dark air conditioned places along the way, has a brisk enough pace to give you a breeze but is slow enough that it won’t jostle you, and there’s never a wait. If it’s a hot and tiring day, that’s the perfect place to just have a seat and go for two or three rides in a row, particularly if you have a young child in need of a nap. Or an adult.
Two of us stayed 4 days just outside the Magic Kingdom for about $1,000 including the Disney tickets. The drive into the Magic Kingdom was 5 minutes or less.
The place I stayed was a timeshare that I guess wasn’t reserved for that time period. I think I found it through hotels.com or a similar site. This was 5 or 6 years ago so YMMV.
Once you’re in one park, it’s not hard to take the monorail or whatever between parks.
My choice, from the same kiosk (near the lake, directly opposite the *Chefs de France *restaurant), is the Grey Goose & frozen lemonade. Yummm! You won’t go wrong with either of these, but be prepared to be asked “Where did you get that?” at least three times. 
Also wines by the glass or in tasting flights are available at France and Italy. You can get a Black & Tan or your favorite variant at the Rose & Crown Pub in the U.K., sake in Japan, beer in Germany, and a new tequila bar (indoors and air-conditioned!) in the Mexico pavilion. Epcot is great for the alky in you!
When we went, we stayed at an Embassy Suites. For the price of the hotel, we received free breakfast every morning and a free shuttle that basically ran every 30 minutes from the hotel to each of the 4 parks. It wasn’t quite to the gates but it was close enough that walking wasn’t a big deal.
We would typically get up early, eat breakfast, and catch the first shuttle to the park. We would stay to around lunch and then decide if we wanted to eat at the park or not. We could ride the shuttle back to the hotel, eat at a nearby restaurant if we wanted, and then go swimming or take a nap for a couple of hours. Then back to the park for the afternoon and evening shows.
We had a blast and the free shuttle was worth the slight inconvenience.
What we found was that Animal Kingdom was only worth 1/2 a day. Epcot (especially for younger kids that aren’t interested in walking through all the areas") was another 1/2 day. Plan for a full day at Magic Kingdom. We skipped the water parks completely. Take advantage of the monorail which is fun and convenient.
I would also second looking at other options. Universal might be fun for a day. The number one thing we found being with young kids is that you MUST schedule down time into your day. Everyone will be much happier if you do.
Hey Blank Slate, thanks for reading the Unofficial Guide. Drop me a line and I’ll be happy to talk you through any of this over the phone.
Also, thanks to Yookeroo and everyone else who recommended the UG.
Len
Well hell, thanks, that was unexpected. I’m getting excited about all this…I have zero Disney experience.
Another recommendation for the Unofficial Guide. (Hey, len!) However, that link goes to the previous edition. A new edition was just released–link here.
All great websites. I’m a member over at DISboards.
As for me, I used to live in the Orlando area years ago. I once took my younger sisters to WDW nearly 20 years ago and had no particular desire to go back. Commuting in every morning and driving home every night was a real downer, IMHO. We also didn’t have any plan whatsoever (I did no research at all), wandered around wondering what to do next, and had no dining reservations (which were necessary at most sit-down places even 20 years ago–now they are absolutely essential if you want to eat anything other than counter-service meals.)
In 2007, when my son was 10, my wife convinced me to go back. We stayed onsite at the Wilderness Lodge, booking though Disney. We ended having the best vacation of our life, and one big reason was staying on site, IMHO. We’ve been back twice since then, and have two more trips booked for the next year (this Christmas and next year in conjunction with a Disney cruise).
There are many ways to keep costs down, even if you book through Disney. The Unofficial Guide goes through most of them. One great place to find bargains is Mousesavers.com, which summarizes all of the current promotions and discounts, and even has a listing of historical promotions for the last few years so you can get an idea of upcoming promotions.
If you get into repeat trips, you can start looking at more exotic ways to save money, like renting a Disney Vacation Club member’s points, but I wouldn’t recommend this for a first trip.
I would recommend staying onsite at a Disney resort hotel. The value resorts are great bargains (Pop Century is highly recommended); the moderate resorts have great amenity/price points (all are good); and the cheaper deluxe resorts like Wilderness Lodge and Animal Kingdom Lodge give you a lot for the money. I wouldn’t ever pay rack rate. You can almost always get some deal if you research it and if your dates are flexible.
Some great tips for WDW newbies from the DISBoard:
Top 10 Disney Tips for Noobies
The Studios and AK are harder, but not impossible - less strolling around with booze, but you can find it. Namely - the Tune In Lounge in Disney Studios and the Dawa bar in Animal Kingdom.
For a grown up treat, there is the monorail drinkathon - where you hop from bar to bar in the resorts around the monorail (I’d start at the Wilderness Lodge, then take the boat over to the Contemporary, work your way around, and then take a cab back to your hotel). For grownups, the hotels are worth touring - some of them are worth taking a peek at for adults.
Those of us grown ups who do Disney a lot aren’t riding Dumbo - generally speaking .
Epcot for kids may be only half a day. But it’s my favorite park there. It’s great for adults. Especially for an uncle who can ditch the kids. 
And as an uncle, don’t be afraid to adventure off by yourself. The Disney "cast members’ are usually great. And the fellow guests tend to be friendly. I’ve made the solo trip twice and have had a blast. Drink around Epcot’s World one night.
Yes to the down time. Go early, take a mid day swim break, then back to the parks. And definitely try to make Universal’s Islands of Adventure, especially with the new Harry Potter ride.
Nice. You can’t ask for better input.
I much prefer staying onsite. But for a group their size, I’m not sure I’d recommend it. Renting Disney Vacation Club points (Disney’s version of timeshare) might be the best bet for a group that size that wants to stay at the resort itself.
Good point. For a group this size, with 3 adults and 5 kids, you’d either need to split the group up into two hotel rooms (4 people per room, with at least one adult per room), or get a suite to stay on site at a Disney resort. Two hotel rooms would be cheaper than a large 2-bedroom suite, but you wouldn’t all be together (obviously).
The 2-Bedroom suites at Disney’s deluxe villa resorts are pretty pricey if you make a cash reservation through central reservations, though you might be able to get a good discount at times. (See the Mousesavers website that I referenced in my previous post.)
Because all of the deluxe villas with the suites are actually Disney Vacation Club (DVC) timeshare resorts, a cheaper option is to rent a DVC member’s “points” that the member is not planning to use, but that’s rather ambitious (IMHO) for a first-time visitor. It takes a lot of research to understand what you’re getting into.
OP, if you’re interested in going this route, one good resource is David’s Vacation Club Rentals. He specializes in renting out DVC member’s points. He takes care of a lot of the legwork involved in renting DVC points. There are good guides to renting DVC points on the Mousesavers site and DISboards as well.
I didn’t go this route until our third family visit. It worked out great for us, and saved us a lot of money.
Another thought might be to rent a suite at an offsite hotel, or to rent a vacation home. The Unofficial Guide goes through the various options. Personally, I’d figure out a way to stay onsite regardless of the extra expense, but that’s just me. YMMV. Good luck!