Florida - 2 centre Orlando/Coast - where to stay - HELP!!!!

[tactum]

Have booked flights this morning - eek! for this Easter!!! Got a great deal (£600 each which I think is great!) and have been talking about it for ages.
Hoping to do a week at Orlando/theme parks etc and then a week along the coast relaxing, with the odd boat/day trip.
We want to self cater and ideally each time have a 3 bed villa with pool.
I have no idea which are the best locations to stay in - particularly in Orlando so the parks are handy but not on top of us. As for the coast I've been to Sarasota which was lovely. Don't need lots of nightlife, just a few restaurants and shops.
Anyone got any suggestions for locations - was planning on booking villas through Owners Direct or some such. If there is a really good NA one please shout! We will have a car obviously.
If anyone could share their wisdom that would be great - feeling a bit panicked about the amount to do, but VERY excited!!!!

Check out Davenport. We have stayed there 4 times now on a development called Tuscan a Ridge. It is a very good location if you are considering visiting Busch Gardens or anywhere else in Tampa because you are just off Interstate 4.
For seaside try St Petersburg’s/Clearwater.
There’s a book called Visiting WaltDisney Worl With Kids which is full of useful advice about queue-busting at the parks & all other Orlando fun.

We stayed at Indian Rocks, near Clearwater for the beach part of our Florida holiday. Beautiful.

Used Airbnb for booking our villa in Orlando. Owners direct would offer very similar options.

We did hotel so can't help with apartments but we stayed in Marco Island which was lovely great beaches, not too touristy, friendly people etc and we did a gator/ fanboat/ swamp day out from there which was fab

Thanks all!
GetMeOffTheTable - have booked a house on complex on the northern edge of Davenport - thank you very much! Looks lovely and v reasonable and convenient.
blametheparents - am currently torn between Indian Rocks and Clearwater itself. What was Indian Rocks like? We don't really like big resorts, just want somewhere with a pool, not too far from beaches and restaurants and not miles to drive to attractions.
iknow Marco Beach is a bit outside of our area but looks lovely!

We really liked Indian Rocks. We stayed in an apartment which was walking distance (on actual pavements!) to restaurants - about 5/10 mins. The apartment was a little dated, but that didn't worry us as it was right on the beach, and yet still had a pool. Loved it!
Really nice not to have to get the car out to go to a restaurant in the evening, as is often the case in the US. Easy drive to Clearwater if you want to do some dolphin watching, and we even went to Busch Gardens from there for the day - probably about an hour from memory?

Have you been to Orlando before op?
IMO if it’s your first time, consider spending longer (or even the whole 2 weeks) in Orlando.
There is literally so much to do and see. It’s impossible to even scratch the surface in a week.
We were lucky enough to spend 3 weeks in Orlando last summer and even then some things were a bit of a rush.
For more relaxing days we went to a water park, in between the theme parks, so I still felt like I’d had a rest, but we were all totally blown away by how much Orlando has to offer.

Thanks all. Poptart its funny you should say that we've now adjusted things so we have 11 nights in Davenport and then have booked 5 nights at Longboat Key off Sarasota. I know 11 nights still won't be enough but we do want to go to the coast aswell.
Thanks for the ideas everyone, now I've got to get to grips with the whole theme park ticket shenanigans!!

Attracts tickets direct were good for tickets - I was recommended them by a friend

Sorry attraction tickets direct