Disney Orlando advice needed

[froot]

We are offf to Disney (hurrah for the zero percent credit card!!) staying in a Disney Hotel (Caribbean Beach) then 3 night Disney Cruise.

Regarding car hire, can anyone tell me if we will need one? We will need to get from the airport from the hotel somehow, and then to the ship, but were thinking of just hiring a car for 1 week instead of 2. Will we be able to manage or are we better off having it for 2? (Credit card nearly up to it's limit so belatedly trying to think of ways to economise!!)

Also any restaurant/shopping/any other sort of tips/suggestions gratefully received!!

For the days you are planning on doing Disney things you won't need a car as you are on the monorail/bus routes and can get around on those.

However, I tend to get a bit 'disneyed out' and its nice to have a car to get to other things. In particular there are some fabulous discount designer malls that I would hate to miss out on

Assuming you will do disney things for a week of the time you are there then a car for one week sounds fine

Soapbox do you know if it's cheaper to hire a car when you get there at the airport or doing it here??

I would do it here - then you can shop around for some good deals over the internet. I just wouldn't want to take pot luck at the airport!

TBH though, I'm a bit anal about travel arrangements being all sorted out in advance since I've had children

when i went (didnt have dd, although i was pregnant with her) we had a minivan/bus type thing drop us off at our hotel. didnt cost us, although i think we tipped the guy $10 (i didnt wanna give him that much, lol) and we didnt have a rented car although we were gonna be giving one but neither of us knew how to drive so we just got the buses, which takes you to most places. also went universal, seaworld, and florida mall was really nice. think i spent $300 in just the one shop

We've done this recently and best value for us in an SUV came up with www.dollar.co.uk (Chysler Voyager size). We are paying £436 all in including all insurance and two drivers for two weeks.

Hi just come back from Orlando. Shopping was great for clothes ,trainers etc. Lake buena vista shopping outlet had a great Gap and oshkosh shop...very cheap, also Belz shopping outlet was good too.
We found Perkins(various locations) did fab breakfasts (better than ponderosa) eggs benedict was lovely and their muffins were so scrummy.Four of us ate for around $20 and we were stuffed until late afternoon.
If you have boys or a motorbike/car loving dh then race rock on international drive is a must...you can't miss it as it has cars sticking out of the front and a big foot parked in the car park!
All you can eat buffets are pretty good value over there and we found that at lunch time the portions were so generous that we could split lunch between two.Also we took water into the parks as it was about $2 a bottle in most places and you do get thirsty with all the walking, talking of which pack your comfy shoes...you will need them!
We managed to eat out most nights for around $30 (2adults,2kids)
Hope you have a great time

Oh nearly forgot, don't know how old your kids are but if you have a little one that can't go on all the rides the parks does a parent swap thang where one parent goes first and you don't have to queue again if you want to go on aswell with the same child.