Preferred layover airport: ORD or CLT?

Spouse and I have cruise coming up between thanksgiving and Christmas. As is generally recommended we’re flying into MIA a day early to add some buffer. From our regional airport we basically can either layover at ORD or CLT. DFW is also an option and would generally be my preference but the tickets are priced like 3x more expensive and I just can’t justify it. Last time we flew through ORD it was an absolute nightmare and we lost an entire day of our lives due to our layover flight being delayed a few hours at a time until it was eventually pushed out to the next morning and we got to spend the night at the loveliest little Best Western 20 miles away from ORD. So anyway, we’d like to avoid ORD but cost wise it’s by far the cheapest option for us. I’m just worried we’ll have another 24 hours delay and end up missing our cruise. Our faith in AA is so low.