OK, I was there about 4 weeks ago for my daughters birthday (11) and our 6 yr old son too. For the full experience you WILL NOT beat staying in the disney hotel, its over the gates to the park, so you walk out of the hotel and into the park, with kids of yours age this will give you the advantage of being able t go back to the hotel at anytime for a rest etc without queuing and waiting for buses etc.
You also have the ‘characters’ wandering around the hotel all the time which is a big plus again for the kids.
There are actually two parks , and the lightning maqueen show is in the studio’s one, lightning only really makes a cameo appearance but the rest is still a pretty good stunt show
If you have a self interest element and want fast thrilling rides save some money and go to Alton towers, but if you want he kids to have the time of their lives Disney is it.
One small thing that really impressed, in one of the shops my daughter was wearing her birthday badge, one of the assistants spotted it and called over a load of the ohers assistants and they all sang happy birthday to her!! where else would you get that?
As others have said above its not cheap, but for kids its amazing, the wildwest show in the ‘village’ area is also good for an evenings entertainment, there is also a Mcdonalds in the village which is not badly priced.
Travel wise we drove, doing it again I’d probably use the eurostar option as the train drops you off approx 300m (could be less but no more) form the disney hotel.
If you want any more info PM me