i think early may is a real good time for a cruise, we did the eastern 5/13/06-5/20/06, the ship was not quite sold out, but also bear in mind the dcl boats are somewhat smaller compared to many of the other lines, particularly the voyager class and such
hurricane season can be a value, but has it's own unique risks, canceled cruise, late arrival back, diversion to a different debarkation, cancelation of any and all ports of cal, etc
as far as wdw goes, we swear by mousefest time, but it has the 2 main things we want most, the christmas shows/decorations, and lower temps, neither karen or i enjoy anything close to hot, if it never went over 80 i'd be a happy human
karen and her sister did a girls only trip 2 years ago the last week of january, they had great weather and she was amazed in that every single attraction was a walk-on, not 5 minutes on line anywhere