During the coming year, many families will be making the Disney trek to see Mickey. Our family of six recently ventured to the magical world, to put some of the Disney experts’ tips to the test.

Gone are the days of packing your suitcase, loading up the family station wagon, and heading out for a spontaneous adventure to see Mickey in the Magic Kingdom. Today, planning your trip can seemingly take longer than the vacation itself. Saving time is saving money at Disney, and there are an infinite number of sources you can reference to achieve this. You can easily go through a couple a couple of Joemuggs lattes and a chocolate chip muffin at Books-A-Million just looking at all the Disney World vacation books available. Once you make your selection, you can then surf the net through countless websites featuring tips to make your Disney trip terrific. From Disney on a Dime to Birnbaum’s Walt Disney World for Kids by Kids, and Walt Disney World with Kids to www.mousesavers.com, I searched them all—or at least a good number of them, anyway.

No doubt, planning your Disney Dream vacation can be overwhelming, so my first tip is to know that there is no perfect vacation. You have to keep your sense of humor, in all this Mickey Madness. Our family adopted an expression from the holiday classic, Christmas Vacation, “it’s all part of the experience.” So with two teenagers and two elementary-school age kids in tow, we were off to experience some of these newly researched Disney tips

1. Using Powdered Drink Flavor Packets: Anyone with experience going to theme parks knows that drinks can cost upwards of $3.00 each, so this little tip not only saved us nearly $20 at each meal, we also came out ahead by not buying extra drinks throughout the park. This is how we did it: Each morning, we’d fill up our water bottles, and then refill them at drinking fountains throughout the day. While standing in line, we found it easy enough to grab a bottle of water from our backpack and add a packet of Lipton White tea or grape-flavored Propel–the clear drink flavors are much more discreet at the nicer restaurants. After taking our 6 water drink order, the server came back with our food order and noticed the wide array of drinks that had magically appeared in our glasses—this is the Magic Kingdom, right? If the makers would only develop a Chardonnay mix to add to our water . . ., but I guess that would require a little Divine intervention.

2. Taking Snacks in a Backpack. Packing snacks like peanut butter crackers, fruit snacks, and dry cereal, turned out to be a great tip. While waiting in the many lines, my kids went through 152 peanut buttercrackers, 60 fruit chews, and well, actually, I am exaggerating, but trust me—Disney World makes my kids extra hungry.

3. Renting Strollers: A four- or five-day trip can turn into a brutal Mickey Marathon for the younger set. Go ahead and rent the stroller for the whole vacation; there is plenty of space to park it, and you can carry your bags of bottled water on top of it, too! And remember, you can pick up a free abandoned stroller at the train station in the back of Toontown, if you can make it that far without one—just ask one of the staff.

4. Enjoying a Free Breakfast: Definitely look for a hotel that offers free breakfast. The Embassy Suites offered a free cook-to-order breakfast with “create your own” omelets. This was a great way to get our day started. We ate snacks during the day, and finished our day at a sit-down restaurant.

5. Sharing Meals: Many of the restaurant portions are large enough to split. Maybe not for the man-sized appetites, but an entrée at Rain Forest Café, for example, was more than plenty for me to share with my daughter. At Disney World, some of the restaurants serve double cheeseburgers. By purchasing an extra bun, the double cheeseburger becomes two cheeseburgers, and with the “fixings” bars that include an assortment of toppings like grilled mushrooms, you can satisfy even the largest of appetites.

6. Taking $300 Cell Phones to the Park: Obviously, this is big mistake. My teenage daughter is now in the market for a new phone. I have assured her that I will be putting an “It’s a Small World” ring tone on her new phone to commemorate the moment her cell phone hit the water, as she exited the ride. Each time it rings, it will be a reminder to be more careful with it. She just loved when I reminded her, “It’s all part of the . . . .” Well, you know the rest.

7. Looking for Hidden Mickeys: Upon purchasing the Hidden Mickey book, I imagined my kids challenging one another in a fun-spirited game to find the Hidden Mickeys throughout the park, while they waited in ride lines, for the parades, and just walking around the parks. What I learned is that, first of all, you need the book in the park for the hints to find the Hidden Mickeys; secondly, teenagers don’t want to look like doofuses carrying around Hidden Mickey books; and thirdly, when the 6 of us stopped to look for the Hidden Mickey in the landscape, we were nearly trampled. In addition, my younger two thought every Mickey Mouse silhouette was a Hidden Mickey. So as we made our way through the park, they would keep pointing out, “Look, a Hidden Mickey,” on every trashcan, man-hole cover, t-shirt, and balloon.” Hours and hours of this leads even the most laidback of teenagers to yell, “Those are not Hidden Mickeys!” But of course, “It’s all part of the experience.” So, my advice here: Bag the Hidden Mickey book.

8. Photographing Your Tickets: After you purchase your tickets, photograph them, in case the tickets are later lost. A Disney ticket counter employee noticed us doing this and even commended us on our common sense. If your tickets are ever lost, they can be replaced with the information on the back of the ticket, and as long as you have identification too, your tickets can be replaced. Surprisingly, we held on to our tickets all week, but had we not photographed them, we would have certainly misplaced them!

9. Buying Souvenirs Early: I did save at least 50% on souvenirs by purchasing them online at www.disneyoutlet.com. The morning of the trip, we opened them, and for the younger kids, this was a good tip. They had Disney coloring books and figures to play with during the drive. I have yet to see my teenagers wear their t-shirts, however; they in general were much more concerned with the rides than with the souvenir shops, anyway. So this tip not only gave us more time in the parks, it kept us out of the shops. It was easy enough to remind the younger ones that their souvenirs were back at the hotel.

10. Splitting up for the Big Rides and Shows: At all of the parks, we split up for part of the day, and met up at a specific time and location later. In the Magic Kingdom, my 5-year-old daughter and I waited the 60 minutes at the Toontown Hall of Fame to visit with the princesses, while the others rode Space Mountain. The other kids were not too broken up about missing the “princess” experience. She and I also teamed up again to watch the Nemo musical at the Animal Kingdom, while the others rode Expedition Everest. And then later, she and I went to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, while they rode the Rockin’ Roller Coaster at MGM. Splitting up for part of the day worked well for us; it allowed us to enjoy some special moments together, while allowing the older ones to enjoy themselves at age-appropriate attractions.

11. Obtaining FASTPASSes: Free of charge, the FASTPASS is a must! Get them for all the major rides as early in the day as possible. They do run out. You can get the FASTPASS with all your tickets, even for those in your party who don’t plan to do the attraction. This way, those who want to can use the extra tickets and ride more than once. In addition, even though officially there is a window of an hour wherein these FASTPASSes can be used, you can actually use them until closing.

12. Starting at Frontierland and Moving Clockwise: This proved to be one of the best tips we ever tried. We actually followed this plan one day, and it turned out to be a much easier day for everyone. The lines were smaller for some reason. I’m sure if I sat down to think about it, I’d be able to come up with a logical explanation for the ease with which we moved through the park, because the day we started at Toontown, we were pretty sure everyone else visiting the park started there, too!

So, from our family to yours, we hope these tried and tested tips will help to make your Disney Dream vacation that much more terrific. Just don’t be overwhelmed, and try to keep a sense of humor. Here’s one more useful tip we picked up from our guide on the Jungle Cruise. Guess what happens to unruly children at Disney World? We were informed that they simply take the children to It’s a Small World, nail their little shoes to the floor in their native country, and, of course, teach them the song, “It’s a small world after all . . . .” No, we didn’t use this on our kids. Well, no more than half a dozen times, anyway. But now, “It’s all part of the experience.” Isn’t it?