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With kids you'd deff need 3 days at DL. We spent four days in Nov and got rained out on a fifth.

But I would do Disneyworld since free dining and more time. Am trying to talk my husband into going for free dining but he is being a grinch

I've been to both, multiple times. My grandma worked at WDW for 10 years.

I think WDW is better in the sense that it has more parks, more rides, more shows, more nearby waterparks, everything. We usually do a 7-8 day trip there.

I liked DL, but wasn't hugely impressed compared to WDW. It took us about 2 days, but we went for a 3rd anyway because we had a CityPass. We only went to DL because now it is a lot closer and we bought the CityPass, which was a great deal.

In my opinion, park hopper passes aren't that important. Each park deserves a full day.

Also, since DL & WDW lets you bring in food (an entire picnic basket, if you want), I personally don't think the dining plan is that helpful. We always ate breakfast at the hotel, a picnic lunch, and then dinner at one of the cheaper buffet style places.

Now, granted, all of my trips have been age 12 or older, I don't have kids and I haven't gone with kids. If price didn't matter and I didn't have kids, I'd choose WDW hands down. If I had kids, I'd lean towards DL when they're younger (8 and younger) and WDW when they're older. There's just so much to do at WDW I feel like younger kids wouldn't appreciate it, and they'd be just as satisfied with DL. I'm also a "do ALL THE THINGS" person on vacation so I'd want to wait until we could do WDW "right."

I'd do your original plan. DLR is a nice intro to WDW, and everyone that I know who's gone to DLR after going to WDW was underwhelmed. Plus, with their ages, I think a more low key approach would be better.

Paradise Pier-> Disneyland Hotel-> Grand Californian is cheapest to most expensive if you're looking to stay on property. Paradise Pier actually has the largest rooms, and the Grand has the smallest.

If you know you want to do lego land, check out the SoCal city pass. 3 day park hopper to dl, 1 day lego land, 1 day seaworld. Are you pricing dl hotels or local hotels? We always stay in the local hotels (just got back from 3 days at dl ourselves). We love cal adventure more than dl but both are fun.

@Charm54: I am also partial to DLR. Being the original Disney park, it's much more charming and authentic. I like the smaller scale. I also think the weather is much more bearable! We did WDW as a family when I was 12 and it was a dream come true (good old Disney Magic!), so I'm pretty sure it will be great no matter what you choose. I agree with others about staying at the resort hotels to take advantage of the Disney family-friendliness. Have fun!

I second everything @Charm54 said! Do WDW at your own pace and you'll have a blast. Plus Animal Kingdom and Epcot are awesome.

We’ve done both, and they both have their pros and cons. IMO Animal Kingdom is only meh, and I would skip it in the future. There are some better rides at both DL and DW so it’s ideal to go to both at some point (both rides that are not the same at each park and for example both DL and DW have a “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride, but they are not the same and the one at DL is tons better), but for me overall, I like the rides at DL better.

If you plan to do things outside of the parks/resorts, obviously DL is hands-down better. Southern CA vs. central FL isn’t really a contest.

That said though, DW wins big-time for an “all-inclusive experience”, if that’s what you are looking for. We were just there a couple weeks ago at the Yacht Club, which has it’s own manmade beaches (so you don't have to leave the resort to have a beach experience) and tons of pools and kids activities all day and evening. We did the parks in the morning, and then when it got super got out we just took the bus back to the hotel and hit up the beach. LO had a blast digging around in the sand and DH and I sipped margaritas and lounged on beach chairs. At night they had roasted marshmallows on the beach and showed kids movies on a huge blow-up screen. They bell-service your luggage for you everywhere, and check it to your airlines so you don’t even have to take your luggage to the airport. It was all AWESOME, and we will definitely go back to DW.

I couldn’t agree more with @MrSads about reservations and FastPasses. You can do everything online, it’s super easy and it really is necessary.