Couldn't imagine spending a week there, but then we live in FL so it's only fun drive over for a great 4 day midweek thing...
When the kid was young, in that 5ish window, we rented a house, and that was a great experience. Full 3BR 3BA house with a screened in pool. Grabbed some basics for the kitchen and we had a place to decompress the kid for a bit, kind of a quiet base of operations. Was nice.
Last few times we did Universal, and stayed at the Lowes Portofino Bay. Can be a fairly nice place to stay, walk or boat to Universal & City Walk etc, and the first time you wander over to CW for dinner and marvel at the traffic leaving the park you may never stay outside a park again...
