Personally, we've never stayed at a Disney resort or did a meal plan option so I can't provide any direct assistance in either of those areas. But I can add some advice. First, if you haven't done so already, spend some time over at http://www.mousesavers.com/. There is an adbundance of information of there to score discounts, but realize a lot of Disney things are hardly ever discounted. You'll likely find very little discount when staying directly on Disney's property. So if it's a priority to you, go ahead and book.

Second, we loved staying at the Royal Plaza when we went. See here: http://www.mousesavers.com/royalplaza.html. It's located on Disney property but not a Disney hotel, therefore there is an easy shuttle service allowing you to get all over the property. We ended up getting a penthouse suite for our honeymoon, and it was wonderful. We really enjoyed everything about this property. And perhaps something that was underrated was the shuttle service. The nice thing is that because it's not on the Disney shuttle route (they have their own shuttle), the lines to get on a shuttle were never long. A lot of times the Disney shuttle lines can be super long because everyone is waiting for them. This alone was worth it to us.

When it comes to the meal plan, we love to eat and seek out better establishments as it's something important to us. We opt of the meal plans (unless they are thrown in free certain times of year) because we always felt it gives us more control and for the same money, we can eat a lot better than what is offered. Make sure the Deluxe meal plan is worth it to you. It's a lot of food from what I recall and we never found it worth it.

Overall, when you book through the Disney system, you are getting an all-in-one package. In other words, there probably isn't much discount. If you start pricing it out all separately, you can likely save a couple of bucks. For instance, purchasing tickets directly through the Mousesaver newsletter link can save you a couple of bucks. It all depends on how much your time is worth to you to save a couple of dollars.

A couple of other words of advice.

- Make sure it's realistically worth the park hopper option. The parks are so big and far apart, that it may not be feasible to hop around. You can easily spend a whole day at each of the parks, that it really may not be worth it. Since you will be there 7 days, the water park option is worth it.

- Backing up to the meals, if you make reservations for sitdown meals ahead of time (highly recommended!!), you can schedule your days to know which parks to hit, thus avoiding the park hopping.

Some advantages to staying at a Disney Deluxe resort:
- You can take advantage of the Disney Transportation from the airport. This alone will save you about $50 each way via taxi.
- Extra park hours on select days. This can be good and bad. On days when they open early for Disney guests, expect those parks to be packed. However, we find it most advantageous on the nights with extended hours. At the late nights, most families go to bed rather than keep the kids up late. However, this depends on the time of year. For example, during the summer the parks can be open as late as 2:00 AM, so this makes for some short lines. Maybe they aren't open that late though during January; you'll have to search.

Do you need the water park option in January? If not, this can save you a few bucks.

If you want to stay near Epcot, I would really consider a 1 bdrm at the Boardwalk Villas or Beach Club Villas with the whirlpool tub. We stayed at the Boardwalk Villas on an anniversary trip and loved it. On our last night of our honeymoon we stayed at Wilderness Lodge we got a comp upgrade to the honeymoon suite which was nice (great tub, could see MK fireworks from our balcony), but loud since it is on the top floor but off the lobby. We only did a package direct from Disney once (mom's birthday), and that was when they were offering 7 days for the price of 4 - I concur with the other posts to check with mousesavers and disboards first!!!

There are a lot of deals - buy 4 nights, get 3 free, Disney Visa savings of 40% off; don't just go with whatever they tell you. Price it all out first. Do visit the Codes and Rates Board over on the Disboardss, and think about applying for the Disney Visa- there's usually a great intro offer on it, such as a free 100$ g.c. PLUS no interest for 6 months. And/or consider getting an Annual Pass, which doesn't cost much more than what you are getting, and will give you additional discount opportunities.

Before you decide on the waterpark, look at the temperatures this time of year. I was there last year in Nov and it was chilly. Too chilly to go into the pool, much less run around to different water slides.

The Swan and Dolphin is a beautiful hotel. I didn't stay in a room there, but did attend many meetings, and I would have gladly choosen to stay there if it wasn't full. I heard it is very nice.

Do not stay in the Coronoado Springs. The hotel rooms are outdated and there is only one decent restaurants.

I disagree with some of the things that have been mentioned earlier. But either way, You need to do what you want to do. I mean, You are proposing, and so you want to make it special. One thing to do to decrease the price would be drop to a moderate resort, and I personally would recommend the Coronado spring. It's a very nice hotel, and they recently refurbished the rooms. I was just there in September and it was really nice. Granted the Restaurants there aren't amazing by any means, but you typically won't eat that the hotel you decide to stay in that often. It's better to go to other restaurants so you can get a chance to taste some other food.

There are other sites online that you can find tickets for cheaper than directly through disney and I don't think they are too difficult to find.

One benefit for the coronado springs is that it doesn't share a bus route with any of the other hotels, so if you want to ride the busses, you don't have to wait and wait hoping that they won't be full by the time they get to you.

Some other restaurants that I would recommend, Le Cellier (Canada in Epcot), and Tutto Itialia (Epcot). Epcot has the best restaurants, and next would be some of the hotels, which also have very good restaurants. None of the other parks have very amazing food though, they do have choices if you want to eat in the park. Tony's is good in Magic Kingdom, Yak and Yeti is good in Animal Kingdom, and Brown Derby is pretty good in Hollywood Studios.

Either way, just do what ever will make it the most memorable for the two of you. Staying off site is quite a bit more of a hassle, since you have to drive every time you want to go to a park, or dinner, granted if you REALLY want to make it cheaper it is cheaper, however I would recommend dropping the hotel to a lower priced one first.

and finally Congratulations!

With the water park package, you might want to check if they are open. I believe one of the parks is closed right now and I thought they both shut down during Janurary for refurb. If that is the case, you are basically paying a lot extra for only Disneyquest in downtown disney. Again, check the boards listed by others. I believe there is a buy 4 nights get 7 nights package on Disney's own website for Jan.

i stayed at the Lake Buena Vista Resort Village & Spa, a Sky Hotel & Resort
for halloween vacation and the place was great! i was able to get a 3 bedroom suite for 90 dollars. that might bring your cost down. the swiming pool has the pirate ship in the middle of the pool with a slide which was also fun.

We just went using Southwest Airline Vacation staying on Disney property and the cheap dinning plan. We would do this again.