Disney World vs Disneyland

[Biffette]

Hi, I posted this back in April to the Disneyland board but I wanted to get the perspective of people in this subforum as well.

I'm planning a family trip to the Disney parks in 2023. The problem is, I'm having trouble deciding between Disney World and Disneyland.

-I was most recently at DL in 2015, and WDW in 2017. I used this board to research both trips. Both trips were adult-only, so my touring style will be quite different this time. Takeaways are that I am not completely new to either park and I've gotten (almost) all of the bucket list out of my system.

-My children will be 7 and 3 on this 2023 trip.

-My MIL will go with us, IF we go to WDW. She's nice and would probably watch one of the kids on at least one occasion, so that's a positive.

-My father and stepmother live near WDW. They wouldn't be going on this trip with us, but we would make visiting them part of the trip. This is positive because it is nice to see them, but would add extra logistics to the trip and it might be better to visit them separately from our Disney trip.

-My mother will go with us to either park. She's nice and willing to watch one kid on at least one occasion. (a positive)

-My mother and MIL get along really well so no issues there.

-While we are not on a tight budget, I do want to consider economic factors because,

-My husband and I both snore and we keep each other up with the snoring! My plan is to book two smaller rooms, hopefully near each other (but not adjacent lol), and each of us will have one kid and we can swap them every other night or something. The kids don't seem to be bothered by our snoring yet, thank goodness!

-This will be the kids' first visit, and my goal is to make it great. For them.

-I'm currently thinking 4 days max (not including arrival departure) for DL; 5-6 days max for WDW. I'm allowing more time for WDW since with 4 parks and limited park-hopping the kids may want to re-visit a park.

-We live in MI, so flights to FL are about $100 cheaper per person AND they are nonstop. We've flown with the kids with connecting flights before so that in itself isn't a big deal for me.

-My thinking was on-property at WDW or off-property at DL.
-The walkability at DL is extremely attractive to me.
-WDW's value hotels have that fun theming which is a plus. All the resort theming is a plus

-One thing I was thinking about this morning is the food availability.
-Breakfast is pretty easy at WDW value hotels, but I skipped breakfast on my DL trip. The DL subforum tells me breakfast is also easy there. We'll definitely want to eat before heading to the park.
-I'm not worried about lunch, that will be easy in or out of either park.
-How about dinner? My kids don't have a ton of experience in restaurants because of the pandemic . . and I wouldn't want to eat in them every night in part because of that. I noticed at WDW that the food court would close after 9? 10? and inside the bubble it was kind of hard to get food if we didn't beat that clock. Has that changed at all?

-I'm not expecting my kids to sit through shows, haha, but they might surprise me.

Please help me, I am having trouble deciding exactly what other factors to weigh when deciding which Disney park to visit!

 

[Frozen2014]

I've been to DL once and WDW twice. Both are amazing! But you've been to both so you know that already.

Cars land is great at DL. It's also so nice how you can walk across the street to go from one park to another. Park hopper is worth it there. It's Walt's original park so that means something to loyal fans.

WDW of course is much larger. You need transportation but luckily Disney is great and provides it for free (monorail, bus, etc) I love being in the Disney bubble and then focusing on each park (no park hoppers for us). There is just so much to see and do. And of course, you have the bonus of having family near by for the world.

I probably give the one-up to WDW just for having a bit more and different things, but you can't go wrong with either.

Am interested in other's opinions too, and what you decide.

 

[raidermatt]

Really its a matter of personal preference since you have been to both. One thing on your food question, yes, if you are on property at WDW and in your resort, you are at the mercy of the restaurant hours in that resort. If you are off-property at DL you will likely have many later options, including Downtown Disney, depending on how far away you are.