Need a Disneyworld Primer - 5 days there, how do I spend them?
My wife and I went down there the week before Christmas with her sister's family and had a blast.. We were like big kids, taking pictures with the characters and getting their autographs..
We had a couple more days than y'all do, but here's what we did.. Also, like someone said earlier, take advantage of the Magic Extra Hours..
We went to MGM the first day.. Missed out on the rides b/c Rockin Roller Coaster (supposed to be awesome) was closed for "technical difficulties" and Tower of Terror b/c those of us that wanted to ride it already had.. Don't miss the Lights, Motors, Action! Stunt Spectacular.. Also, the Fantasmic show in the evening is pretty cool..
Then we did Animal Kingdom.. The safari was pretty cool (think taking a bumpy jeep ride through a zoo).. There's a new ride there called Expedition Everest.. Definitely ride it.. I had to ride it a couple times and bought the tee shirt.. The Bug's Life 3D movie is pretty cool too..
We did Magic Kingdom next.. Definitely hit Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and Space Mountain.. They're classics and cannot be skipped.. Also, do the updated Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean rides.. There's generally a fireworks show at night around 9 I think (at least when we were there).. We came back to the Magic Kingdom another of our evenings and when the fireworks were going off, we hit Space Mountain..
We did Downtown Disney one day and did the DisneyQuest interactive arcade.. It was pretty cool.. Couple of neat virtual reality type rides/games in there and a ton of arcade games.. Downtown Disney is free (open air mall) but the Disney Quest is $38 extra per person..
We did Epcot another day.. Definitely do Soarin' (probably one of the best rides of all the parks) and the Test Track.. Didn't get to do Mission:Space, but that might be open now.. Nice fireworks/laser show at night as well.. There are generally vendors in every country with the beer/wine/mixed drink of that country available..
We didn't get to do Pleasure Island, but that's also available for adults..
Mission Space....if gravity-type rides bother you, do the "easy" version. Drew actually got a bad headache when we rode the "real" version. Soarin...best ride ever. Test Track...FUN!! Fireworks/laser show at Epcot...great; seen it a few times.
MGM, specifically the Fantasmic! show...that was an absolutely awesome show. Don't sit too close to the front; there are flames on the water and I imagine it gets pretty hot. There is limited seating and a dinner reservation will include seating at Fantasmic, but if there are two shows of Fantasmic that day, wait until the later one and you can usually walk in (we were able to do that in June, when it was busy). Check the Disney site for the schedules of events like that. Again, I absolutely loved Fantasmic! ... we went on the very last day at the 11pm show, and it was the best way to close our Disney week, IMO.
We didn't do the parades, etc, at MK since the kids were hard to control in that sort of crowd, but I do remember going without kids many years ago, and we really did enjoy that sort of thing. So, especially if you have the Park Hopper option, you may want to do part of a day at MK and then catch up at another park, go to Downtown Disney, etc. Again, I liked the 3-D Mickey's Philharmagic at MK (right by the carousel), Buzz Lightyear was a favorite for both kids and adults (we rode it at least a dozen times, thanks to my autistic son's endless fastpass -- it was his favorite ride), and my husband took the boys to the Comedy Club (near Buzz) -- it was an interactive, funny show. Turtle Talk with Crush in Epcot is like that...geared for kids, but I went back a second time since it was so well done and funny.
MGM -- another funny 3-D movie is the Muppet one. If you liked the Muppet Show, you'll like this. I loved the Muppet store....I have a stuffed Beaker and the Swedish Chef on my desk. :D Star Tours was good, and I loved the Tower of Terror (make sure you leave just an inch of slack in your seatbelt so that you actually come out of your seat...!!!). Skip the Little Mermaid show...yawn, and with a long wait to boot. We did the Indiana Jones show years ago, and I liked it, and my boys liked the Lights, Auto, Action show a lot (what boys don't like explosions....:) ).
Skip "its a small world"...unless you feel the need to punish yourself....:D