Hi Laura,
I completely understand your dilemma! For years, you wouldn't find me at Walt Disney World without my DSLR camera. I love having LOTS of photos from our vacations and want them to be nice quality, so that was the best option at the time. It was great for what I wanted, but I wasn't as excited about the hassle of carrying it with me, worrying about keeping it safe on some of the rides and getting to it quickly if we had it stowed away in our backpack.
Over the years, I found myself using my phone's camera more and more and the DSLR less and less, especially once I started using Memory Maker. Eventually, I pretty much stopped taking my DSLR with me on our trips since I didn't really use it when I did. Admittedly, my phone pictures aren't
quite as nice, but I've been happy overall. We also try to use the
Disney PhotoPass photographers as much as possible to fill in the gaps and usually end up with a few hundred pictures (or more) on our Memory Maker account by the end of the trip.
I did learn (the hard way) about a couple things. First, consider how much memory you have available on your phone. You'll want to be sure you have plenty - you don't want to get halfway through your trip and not be able to take any more pictures - and I usually clean as much off my phone as I can before we leave home. The other thing is battery life. I usually make it about halfway through the day before my battery is about to die, so I always take my charger and a small external charger with me into the parks.
I hope that helps with your decision, Laura, but please stop by the Disney Parks Moms Panel if you have any other questions. Wishing you a picture-perfect vacation!
Beth