if you are wanting to go to beaches you wont be staying in the disney area. the beaches are all a few hours drive away from the main disney area. it is one thing to stay in the disney area and just use the public transport. if you prefer to be near beaches you may want to head to miami instead of orlando. any hotel in miami would be good for what you are looking for.
That s two different things. If you want to do the parks, you can stay at either Disney or Universal and get around from your hotel to the parks without a car. If you want to do the beach, then you need to pick a beach to stay at, because Orlando is a good hour s drive from any good beach.I am generally a Disney fan. However, if you can t afford much time at parks, you might want to check out Universal s website. They have some good package deals where you can stay at their hotels and get 7-day unlimited admission tickets to the parks, so it won t cost as much as you are thinking.
In Orlando there are Disney buses and Lynx. One or two days will allow you to do maybe two parks almost. For the beach, if you go to Daytona Beach area, maybe Ormond beach, there are trolleys. I think you can get an excursion bus to get to DB from Orlando.Check out tripadvisor.com, a free site, the Orlando and Daytona Beach forum for more info. on the stuff you want to know. Real people who have been there done that will be happy to answer your questions.
If you stay at Disney your trans to all the Disney parks is covered if you want to do the other parks then stay at International Dr that is near Sea World and Universal. You can ride the I ride trolley around. But that wont get you near any beaches. Renting a car is a must for that activity