Top five travel tips for a Disney Parks vacation.

Planning a trip to any Disney park is exciting, but can also be nerve racking as well. Some people like to wing it and some people like to plan. Here at Mousehouseguide.com we are big believers in planning your Disney vacation and so here are our top five tips for planning your next Disney vacation. As always let us know what you think.

5. Utilize the Disney website and apps: Disney has some great tools now to help just about anyone plan for their Disney vacation, especially if it's your first one. First, make sure you visit www.Disney.com, if you don't know what you are going to like this is a great way to get a basic idea before you start planning and head to the parks. Next make sure you check out www.mydisneyexperience.com and dowload their free app for your cell phone. As you check these items out you will quickly see why these are incredibly valuable tools. It can help you organize all of your reservations (resort, dining, fastpass, etc..) all in one spot for future reference and help you manage these items even while you are already at the parks.

4. Book a resort reservation early: The days of taking a family vacation to a Disney theme park and winging it are pretty much gone for the most part. Can you do it, sure anything is possible and it can still be fun doing it that way. However, Disney has now set up things that make it incredibly benefitial to plan early and often. I often hear people complaining about how they could not get in to eat anywhere at Disney because everything was booked or they had to wait in line forever at all the attractions because they did not have a fast pass. If you want to make sure you get in to your favorite restaurants, attrations, shows, etc... then you want to book early. Booking a resort reservation early, not only makes sure you get to stay at the resort of your choice, but it also allows you to book everything else at the earliest possible times, 180 days for dining reservations and 60 days for fast pass. Also, by having a resort reservation you can begin tracking your plans on www.mydisneyexperience.com and apply for a discount code as soon as they are available. Discount codes are limited, so don't miss out.

3. Buy your park tickets early: Two big reasons for this one! First, you may save a nice chunk of change by purchasing your tickets early. Disney has almost annually raised their ticket prices, so if you are taking the family to the parks, the savings by buying the park tickets early can be substantial. Second, you have to have your park tickets purchased before you can make fast pass reservations and if you are planning on hitting the hot attractions this is a must.

2. Make your fast pass+ reservations: Some rides and attractions can have some long lines, I believe it was reported Anna and Elsa had a 5 hour wait at times, a fast pass is a must for something like this. With just a 60 day window for resort guests, almost every minute matters for getting your preferred fast passes. The days of getting to the park early and getting paper fast passes are gone, now it needs to be done weeks in advance. Again you can wing it, but the new system Disney has setup has it's advantages if you plan ahead. I know the big complaint is that people don't like to schedule every minute of every day, but when you are standing in line for an hour or two to experience a ride and you could have seen it in 15 minutes you might regret not making a few reservations.

1. Make Dining Reservations ASAP: This one is very similar to fast pass reservations, you don't realize how important it was to book early until you are turned away from your favorite breakfast, lunch or dinner. This is a must to us, because we love trying different food at Disney and it's a bummer when the new restaurants and/or our favorite places are booked. There is always the possibility of winging it and getting in as a walk up, but why take the risk when you are on vacation. It is also nice to know if you have shows planned for certain times of the day that you don't have to worry about finding somewhere to eat in time because you already have a reservation.