Recommendation for a first time WDW with 6 years old

[MudQueen22]

Considering you're only going on a Sunday-Thursday, I would scrap the idea of making any other meals than breakfast, and even that should be a grab-and-go type breakfast.
On our last trip, we brought our travel trailer with the intention that we would have at least two meals per day since we have a full kitchen. Well, that didn't work. Even with a ten day trip, we didn't want to leave the parks and return for meals, wasting that park time on travel.

Typically (and we're rope drop people), we would take our breakfast with us and eat it while waiting on boats/buses or on parks to open. The type of food we would take would be granola bars, fruit, juice boxes, etc. This did not require a full kitchen. (I did make bigger breakfasts on our down days, such as breakfast tacos and/or sausage and eggs with hash browns.)

The food at Disney is expensive, but it isn't all typical theme park food. Much of it is really good, particularly at Epcot.

Remember that all rooms, even value rooms, have a small refrigerator and a coffee maker. It's easy to keep breakfast items, snacks, drinks, and sandwich ingredients on hand. However, we found that we didn't eat very many meals that we made ourselves even with a full kitchen available to us.

 

[cutigerlady]

My family prefers to eat breakfast in our Villa (not a huge fan of QS breakfast) and usually come back from the park for lunch and pool time in the afternoon. For dinner, we switch between QS and TS. Now my kids have been to Disney a lot, so we do t feel the need to stay all day in the parks and we aren’t trying to do ride every ride. For a first trip, you may not want to leave the park to eat.

As far as where to stay, the best value for a 1 BR that is near MK, will be Boulder Ridge Villas at WL. The best overall value and where we stay most is SSR. We really liked Animal Kingdom Villas, but my kids never wanted to leave the resort. My kids now prefer HS and Epcot, so we stay more at BC or BW. Depending on the time of year, the villas here are very hard to get.

 

[annadreamsofdisneyworld]

Considering you're only going on a Sunday-Thursday, I would scrap the idea of making any other meals than breakfast, and even that should be a grab-and-go type breakfast.
On our last trip, we brought our travel trailer with the intention that we would have at least two meals per day since we have a full kitchen. Well, that didn't work. Even with a ten day trip, we didn't want to leave the parks and return for meals, wasting that park time on travel.

Typically (and we're rope drop people), we would take our breakfast with us and eat it while waiting on boats/buses or on parks to open. The type of food we would take would be granola bars, fruit, juice boxes, etc. This did not require a full kitchen. (I did make bigger breakfasts on our down days, such as breakfast tacos and/or sausage and eggs with hash browns.)

The food at Disney is expensive, but it isn't all typical theme park food. Much of it is really good, particularly at Epcot.

Remember that all rooms, even value rooms, have a small refrigerator and a coffee maker. It's easy to keep breakfast items, snacks, drinks, and sandwich ingredients on hand. However, we found that we didn't eat very many meals that we made ourselves even with a full kitchen available to us.

We usually stay in a value room and order some food via Amazon now, which we keep in our mini fridge or on our shelves. We order granola bars, yogurt, fruit, and fruit/veggie pouches. Each morning I'll get a few muffins from the cafeteria or 2 quick service meals (eggs, bacon, waffles) which we'll split amongst the four of us along with the food we have in our room. One person goes to get the food while the rest stay in the room and get ready. The whole process is quick for us and works well for us.

 

[Joe Brig]

The Wilderness Lodge offers a boat ride to the Magic Kingdom, that would be helpful for the mid day breaks. Any of the monorail resorts could be a good option for Magic Kingdom also. Maybe a split stay with the Beach Club area. Beach Club is walking distance to Epcot and has a boat to Hollywood Studios. The food at the resorts and parks, while not the greatest, is for us part of the fun, so we don't bother with cooking.

 

[dmband]

Honestly, for a first timer and with a 6 yr old, I wouldn’t look at DVC resorts.
I would find a theme resort you like and stay there.
You will most likely not be the the resort anywhere near as much as you think compared to skiing and such.
Sure you could save money on food by getting a DVC that has a kitchen but you can put that money toward eating at different levels of restaurants base on the savings of a normal resort and it would be much more memorable imo.
if you really want a kitchenette and save money, check out Art of Animation. Themed great for a 6 yr old too.