I live up in Tavares in Lake County. It takes about an hour to get to any of the parks in our area (BGT,IOA,SW,WDW). As for our trip, we had to plan it 2 weeks before we went due to our cruise getting cancelled. Originally it was to include Hershey, BGW,PKD, and Kennywood as well (a long 2 1/2 week thing). Due to time restraints, we cut it to 1 1/2 weeks. We flew into Cincinnati then rented an SUV for 10 days. We stayed at Hampton Inns (the official hotel for us) and 3 nights at Breaker's Express. The Express I do not recommend AT ALL!! For the price you pay, yeah you're close to the park, but it just really wasn't that good. I'd recommend staying at the Radisson across the street if you have the extra bucks, probably a better night's sleep. Here's a rough breakdown of costs:
Flight $250 round trip from MCO
Hotels average $100 a night, 9 nights
Parks : PKI $50 for 2 days (special deal)
CP $55 for 2 days (on-line deal)
SFO $20 for one day (AAA deal)
Then you have your usual postcards, shirts, shotglasses (my personal collection item), on-ride photos, etc.
-Shady