You'll have to try and get there at some point while we're there mate so we can have a bite to eat and a beer.
I asked about booking through Disney as I'm looking at the moment at
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/#/deluxe-villa
as it's high up on Trip Advisor but I'm counting out Epcot because of what you said and The Magic Kingdom as I assume that would be madness. And my 5 year old is petrified of people dressed up as Mickey Mouse. I know.
Anyway, I wouldn't mind somewhere that's not too wild at night as that's when I'd prefer to try and chill, eat out and have some beers etc. Its the areas that I'm lost on.
Yea that's Disney's booking site, probably your best bet for places to stay that are affiliated with Disney. I've been wanting to stay at the Bay Lake Towers, it's right beside Magic Kingdom, right on a monorail stop so you can get to any of the parks pretty easily I believe. It's just been a bit out of my preferred price range. It looks fantastic though. Truth be told, because I travel a good deal for work and stay exclusively in Hilton properties, I usually stay at a Hilton resort or hotel when I'm up there because I can use points. We stay either at the DoubleTree by Downtown Disney, the Lake Buena Vista Hilton (near Downtown Disney) or the Hilton Bonnet Creek (
http://www.hiltonbonnetcreek.com/).
The Bonnet Creek doesn't have villas that I know of, standard hotel rooms for the most part, they may have suites...but they have a nice pool with a water slide and a lazy river. Also a nice golf course right there (shared with the Waldorf Astoria). I've played it...it's tough but a nice course all the same). The Bonnet creek has a complimentary shuttle to the parks but it's kind of secluded about a 10 minute drive from Downtown Disney area.
Now across the street is the Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort (
http://www.wyndhambonnetcreek.com/). They have condo type amenities for familes, at least a couple resort type pools with water features for the kids (a big pirate ship at one), it sits around a big lake, I stayed there once, it was nice, it's fairly new (last 4 or 5 years it was built) so that's another option.
I'll tell you, the Disney properties are nice but they are EXPENSIVE. Similar accomodations are usually much cheaper off property. It just depends on how much time you are going to be spending at the parks as to whether it's worth it to stay on property in my opinion. In fact I don't think I've ever stayed a a Disney property to be honest. Usually the folks that stay on property are going to be hitting the parks everyday all day long. If you don't think that's going to be you and your group, you may want to also look at some of the off property resorts.
I wouldn't count out Epcot based on what I said, it's fine for the most part during the day, it just gets crowded at night during the food and wine festival. I thought I remembered you having smaller kids...my boys (12 and 10) would do ok but man with the crowds at night, it's a pain to keep track of tiny ones.
I'd love to be able to pop up and meet up, I'll have to see how my work schedule is panning out...that yime of year starts my busy travel season. My boy has a cross country race at Disney sometime in Oct...there's a chance that would overlap with when you are going to be there. When you know your dates I can see if it overlaps. As you can probably tell we spend enough time up there that I could go on and on.
I guess the bottom line is...if you are going to be doing Disney parks every day, it probably makes sense to consider Disney Resorts, but if you think you'll be spending as much or more time NOT at the Disney parks then you may want to consider other locations.
Really you probably want to be in the Downtown Disney/Lake Buena Vista area (near parks) or you may want to be nearer International Drive which is a larger area, not as near the parks but near all kinds of other tourist areas including SeaWorld and to an extent, Universal Studios (Harry Potter world).
There are so many hotel rooms in that city, I'd be surprised if there aren't more rooms there than any other city in the world...it's seriously scary how many places there are to stay.