Disney Tips: Where to Stay

It's finally ready!  After a few months, one move and many hosted parties I am finally ready to start sharing my Disney tips.  I have LOTS to share so I think it's best to do this in several installments.  First up, where to stay.

We stayed in the Villas of Wilderness Lodge.  Let me first apologize.  Out of the almost 2,000 pictures, that's what I said, 2,000, I took TWO of the room and that includes the Mickey towel on the bed and the shampoo, conditioner and soap.  Terrible.  Anywho, I "borrowed" some pictures from the official website.  Trust, it looks just like this.

Here are my pictures.  Again, I apologize.  Ugh.

I would say my number one tip about where to stay is to save your money and STAY.ON.PROPERTY.  We had limited options because we stayed with my parents as well and wanted access to a full kitchen and a washer/drier in our room.  We wanted to stay in a villa so that we could all stay together.  Disney has one and two bedroom villas.  All the Disney two bedroom villas are pretty much like a little apartment.  The kitchen and washing machine were life-savers!  I didn't have to do any laundry when I got home!  The best part about being on property is that you can take buses and boats to all the other parks (Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Animal Kingdom). 
If you have little ones like we do, you will probably spend the majority of your time at the Magic Kingdom.  If we go back soon, we will most likely try to stay in a hotel on the monorail.  It is the quickest and most convenient way to get straight from your hotel to the Magic Kingdom.  There are three hotels on the monorail system; The Grand Floridian, The Contemporary and The Polynesian.  The monorail runs right through The Contemporary which is pretty cool.  More on that later.
I feel like Wilderness Lodge was a great fit for us because it wasn't super busy (like the Contemporary), boasts two pools (one only accessible to villa guests and one with a great waterslide for kids) and was only a short boat ride away from the Magic Kingdom.
Overall, the greatest advantage to staying on property is the transportation to the parks.  You can get to any park, anytime either by bus, boat or monorail.  We had a fairly good experience taking the boat to and from the parks from our hotel.  They stayed on schedule for the most part, meaning the boats came about every 15-20 minutes.  However, I do believe you will find more success getting to and from the Magic Kingdom on the monorail system.  However, the monorail only runs to the hotels on the line and the Magic Kingdom.  You will still have to take a bus or boat to other parks.