If you are going for 3-4 days, try to stay at one of the Disney Resorts. Its just so nice to be able to hop on a bus or the monorail to get back to your room to rest. Very helpful if you have a small kid. Then you can rest for awhile and head back out again.
You will need the park hopper pass to go from park to park in the same day.
We just went with our 4 and 7 year old. The roller coaster rides are likely off limits to your daughter. Many of them have minimum height requirements of 42/44 inches.
You CANNOT see all of Disney World in one trip unless it lasted a couple of weeks. So don't try. Just hit want you can. Use the ride reservation system when you can so you can avoiding standing in line.
We just bought into a Disney time share called DVC, Disney Vacation Club. I was real suspicious since its a time share but basically we can to any Disney property or 500 other places anytime we want. After six or so trips to Disney its paid for compared to staying at a hotel.
There is a way for non owners to stay at the Disney time shares. If the owners are not going to be able to use their "points" they put them up for sale on a website. Member or nonmembers can buy up those points. If you are interested I'll get the URL from my wifey.
If you do stay at one of the Disney resorts they open some parks earlier for you and some stay open later. To really see the animals at Animal Kingdom you have to get there early in the morning. You really have to take your daughter to the Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom. Its a nice resteraunt at the front of the park. You don't have to go inside the park to get into the cafe though. Its full of animaltronic animals the move and make noise when it thunders.
Just watch out for the volcanos.
Its great for the kids. The food is really good and they give you far more than you could/should eat. Had some awesome breakfast pizza and french toast.
After about 4-6 hours us and kids are tired. Especially if it is hot and humid. It helps to be able to get on the bus back to your room. The kids really liked to go to the pool.
Some of the resorts have awesome pool play areas for the kids. We won't take our kids to the two water parks until they are quite a bit older.
Epcot and Magic Kingdom have fireworks at night. If you can keep her up late enough to see the show they are awesome. We where on the Dumbo ride when the fireworks went off. It was awesome.
If you REALLY like food and want to spend some money make reservations at the California Grill on the top of the Contempory Hotel. Its the hotel that the monorail runs through. The food is awesome. Excellent Sushi from a chef names Yoshi. The deserts we had where the best deserts we have ever eaten. They are playing around with some of the Food Science techniques in the California Grill.
The Grill is high end. You don't have to get real dressed up but don't wear flip flops and raggity shorts.
Our kids had Mickey Mac and Cheese while the other just ate plain old Gold Fish Crackers!
The other reason to go to the Grill is that it over looks Magic Kingdom and they have a nice observation deck that over looks the lake and park. If you are eat at the resteraunt you can see the fireworks over the Magic Kingdom from the 12/15 th floor of the hotel. Its awesome to see the show kinda at eye level. Not many people see it from that perspective.
You can get your child into a Character lunch/dinner/breakfast. The Characters are also in quiet areas all over the parks but the lines can get long waiting to get to see them. There is a small restaraunt at the Contemporary Hotel called Chef Mickey or some such. For breakfast Mickey pops out for the kids. We could not get the kids up there last trip but will try our next trip.
The baddest make you sick ride is the Tea Cups.
After our honey moon trip to Disney, the wife won't rid the Tea Cups with me.
There is a new Buzz Light year ride that is really fun in Tomorrow Land. We rode it 3-4 times.
Can't wait to go back. 3 months and 3 weeks but who is counting....
Later,
Dan
