I’ve never been to Disneyworld but I LOVE Disneyland and I’ll be taking my almost three yer old in September for her second time. I know there is less to see at Disneyland, but you have to take it slow when they are young so there is definitely plenty to do. California adventure also has some fun kid attractions. Also, going Spring Break might not be a terrible idea depending on how your schools calendar compares to the local state or surrounding states. We always look at the blackout dates for the cheapest annual passes since the busiest days are typically blacked out and you can also google several websites that have crowd predictor calendars based on previous years stats.

I went to Disney World last year with my five year old and my seven month old. My in-laws paid because they have a timeshare there. We’d never have gone otherwise, though we all survived. The baby was very content in his stroller and the big one did pretty well with all the walking, but break days were a must. Disney World is awesome, but it was a lot for everyone. I went when I was three (back when it was one park) and again when I was nine (just MK and EPCOT) and loved it. Now with four parks it is a major challenge. Hollywood Studios and EPCOT skew a bit older in general. I’ve never been to Disneyland so I can’t compare, but if you can get a better deal at Disneyland I’d suggest that it’s probably a better option at this point. If Lil’ J’s main goal is to meet characters, that will probably suffice until both kids are older and can enjoy more at DW. Avoid breaks while you still can without Lil’ J missing school. They are crazy. I think the biggest tip with DW is that there is NO WAY to do it all, so you have to prioritize and prepare yourself to miss out on things. Circumstances intervene and sometimes it’s just not worth it. So prepare to miss things and just be OK with that. That said, with DL being a bit smaller, you may not have to do as much of that there!