[woohoo]

This is what I have experienced with my kids over the years

I have never bought an infant other than a single day at MK while visiting friends. I was fine and he was fine but it was not a normal trip for us.
I think that at 1 1/5 they love the music and the lights and the excitement- they are a lot of fun to watch their reactions and they are pretty easy to bring with you.

At 3-4 they are a blast! They are interactive with the characters and they will talk about it for months later- They will dance and sing and know all of the songs and movies because its not hard to get them to watch them before leaving. They can talk to you and are very excited and that is easy to get caught up in.

4-7 They know the characters, they know the movies, they are big enough for all the rides (well maybe not RnRc) They have friends in school that will be able to talk to them before and after the trip. They "like" character dinners but are less likely to participate in the parades or anything embarassing. But the excitement was very high and they ultimately love the whole vacation

8-10 They are definately big enough for rides, but its harder to get them to do what you want because they have their own ideas of fun. I found that this was also the age of picky eating and complaining about being tired. They did not want to go to any character dinners because those "were for baby's" and they only wanted to go on the rides- they did not want to enjoy every part of being there. They bickered and fought the whole time. I also had issues at this age with kids that wanted to buy everything everywhere!! (this was my worst trip with Em and Nicky) But at the end of the day they are still happy at the end and they ride everything with you and its a lot of fun all in all

10-13 Was one of my favorite trips! They are helpfull with the little ones, they are patient and are polite. They cost a lot more to feed but they eat what they order and there was little complaining. They respect how much it cost to go and they did not mind helping save or be frugal just to go. They were happy to just be there and happy to just enjoy the characters. They played and had fun in the parades and they enjoyed the shows and fireworks. It was the first sign that they were becoming young adults and with my kids they were raised loving Disney so it was nice to see them develop their own love.