Planning your child's first trip to Walt Disney World can be an overwhelming experience at times. Getting advice and information from family and friends can help ease the process but may also lead to more confusion. When you start surfing the internet to take a deeper dive and begin designing your itinerary you realize how big Walt Disney World truly is.

With so many rides, entertainment, attractions and dining options to choose from, the prepping you do before you leave home goes a long way in making sure your trip is close to budget with very little wasted time and is a success for the entire family. Here are a few tips to help make sure your visit is as magical as can be for your child. Hopefully, they relieve some of your confusion and save you time during the planning process.

This first tip may not be for everyone, but it worked perfectly for us. We decided to keep the trip a secret and not tell our daughter ahead of time. Instead, she found out the morning we were leaving as we woke her up at 6 am and surprised her. We video-recorded the whole thing and will always remember her excitement and the joy on her face when she found out she was going to Disney World. Our daughter would never have stopped asking us about the trip if we would have told her ahead of time. We avoided the constant question 'when are we leaving?'. We did drop subtle hints in the days and weeks leading up to the trip but nothing that would give away the surprise of her life!

This tip is something that should be done automatically by anyone visiting Disney World. Each family is unique and has its own circumstances and factors to consider when trying to schedule a daily itinerary. You can find plenty of tools - such as calendars, spreadsheets and charts online that will save you time and money. For us, the tool we couldn't live without was a map for each Disney park. We printed out the maps a couple of months ahead of time. This gave us a great visual understanding of the layout of each park before we left home and helped us navigate our way around much easier.

Plus, Disney maps are very detailed with pricing for restaurants and quick-service stops, Fastpass+, ride height restrictions and more. We also knew the exact locations of the rides we wanted to go on, which allowed us to avoid walking from one end of the park to another just to go on a ride. Instead, we worked our way around with very little backtracking. There will always be audibles to call and adjustments to make to your daily itinerary as you go about your day, but planning ahead will help you be prepared when the time comes.

There are so many benefits to shipping packages to your Disney World resort. The most important one for us was that it saved us a lot of time. Instead of waiting in line to order food we brought the snacks and drinks that we shipped in advance to the park with us. This gave us extra time to see the attractions. Plus, every time our daughter was hungry we had plenty of things to give her, which helped keep her happy and us sane. Saving money is always at the top of everyone's list when visiting Disney World and shipping things in advance is a great way to accomplish that. Disney does a fantastic job of accepting deliveries and will even put refrigerated items in your refrigerator if you have checked-in. We used Amazon Prime but there are other grocery services you can use.

Walt Disney World is almost 40 square miles in size so don't expect your child to be able to walk the entire time. Having a stroller will give your child the rest they need and is great for storing your bags and other items as you travel around the parks. Airlines don't charge for strollers so if you're on a tight budget take advantage of this instead of renting one at the park. If you choose to rent a stroller when you're at the park it's $15 per day for a single, $31 per day for a double. Be sure to mark your stroller with some kind of identifier to make it easy to find when you come off of a ride as there will be hundreds staring at you. Disney recently updated their rules on strollers requiring them to be no larger than 31 inches wide and 52 inches long and banning stroller wagons altogether.

One of the more important decisions you'll have to make when visiting Disney World is whether to buy the dining plan. When planning our trip that was the one thing that we were never sure about. Our daughter can be very finicky when it comes to eating so we decided to skip the dining plan and pay for meals at the quick service spots as we walked around the parks. Disney food portions are quite large and very good so the three of us shared a lot of our meals. We also had a lot of food shipped to the resort and figured we would be fine without the dining plan.

Spend a little time learning about the best quick service spots before your trip and that will help you make your decision. There are so many restaurants at Disney World but remember that reservations need to be made in advance for several. When my wife and I look back on that decision we feel it would have cost us about the same amount of money if we had bought the dining plan.

Something you must do before you leave home is download the My Disney Experience App. This app is a great tool for planning and bundling nearly every aspect of your Disney vacation together. From scheduling FastPass+ and dining options to managing your Disney PhotoPass pictures this app has everything you need. Use it as your room key if you're staying at a Disney resort hotel, plan out each day of your trip, link your park tickets and Magic Bands, plus so much more.

A cool feature of the app that we took advantage of was checking current wait times at attractions and character greetings in the parks. Everyone wants to make the most out of their time at Walt Disney World, by using the Disney My Experience App you'll be able to accomplish this, plus save time while removing a lot of the stress that can come with planning your trip.

A great way to capture the amazing memories from your vacation is through the purchase of Disney's Memory Maker. For convenience and depending on your budget, this may be a great way to take photos of your experiences. Memory Maker is tied to your Magic Bands, therefore, it's easy for Disney photographers to send your photos directly to your My Disney Experience App, where you can see them quickly. You'll also have digital download access to all the photos online. Another cool feature of Memory Maker is that it includes on-ride, character dining and meet & greet photos at select locations.

Disney also creates cute little pictures of characters in the images called Magic Shots. If you plan on taking a lot of photos and have the budget to spend, I would try Memory Maker. Remember to purchase Memory Maker online as the cost goes from $169 to $199 when you buy it at the parks. If your budget is tight and you feel as though your own personal camera will work fine, then that would be the way to go. Buying individual photos from Disney is another option but that can get expensive.

There are so many amazing photo and video opportunities at Disney World that you need to plan on having access to some sort of phone charging device as battery life drops quickly. For $30, you can purchase a portable phone charging system at kiosks located throughout Walt Disney World Resort or bring a portable battery charger from home. There are also multiple locations where you'll find free charging stations to take a break and plug in your cell phone. Whatever you decide, be prepared to charge your phone while you are in the parks.

There are a few different options to choose from when deciding on how you'll get to the parks. The buses are free and will pick you up right at your resort. They run every 20 minutes or so but don't be surprised if your wait is much longer. Buses can get stuck in traffic, wait for additional passengers to board or take extra time loading motorized scooters and wheelchairs.

If your budget allows for it, I recommend jumping in an Uber or Lyft. The wait is less than 5 minutes and the cost are around $8. We saved a ton of time by using Uber and Lyft in the morning and took the bus back to the resort in the evening. If you're looking to take things to another level and have the budget to do so, Disney offers a premium transportation option called Minnie Vans. They work like Uber and Lyft but are driven by Disney Cast Members. They cost between $25-$45 and can really cut down on the stress.

Overall, the weather at Disney World is comfortable. However, you should expect afternoon rain showers at least once during your visit. Sudden downpours that last a few hours can also occur so be sure to pack ponchos, back up clothing and a change of shoes before heading to the parks. If your family enjoys water rides, you'll be all set as some rides will make you wish you had a change of clothes and shoes. Our daughter absolutely loved the splash pad at Magic Kingdom and was completely soaked by the time she finished playing. We were able to change her outfit, which kept her comfortable and saved us time.

Disney World character meet and greets are some of the most memorable experiences your child will have at this magical place. With so many characters to choose from you'll need to plan to make sure you meet your favorites. There are a couple of options when deciding the best way to meet Disney characters. The first, character dining, is when you have breakfast, lunch or dinner at a restaurant. This is the easiest way as the characters will come right to you.

Meals can get a little expensive and you'll need to make a reservation six months in advance, but the food is very good. The other option is to wait in line at different locations throughout the parks. This is where your My Disney Experience App will come in handy. Use the app to see the location and wait times for character greetings. Don't forget to bring your child's princess/character costumes!

Even if you're not staying at this deluxe Disney resort you can still take in its futuristic atmosphere while watching the monorail glide through the main building. A great place for lunch and chance to unwind, the Contemporary is air-conditioned and less hectic than the park madness going on outside of it. We loved having our daughter take a nap in the big comfy chairs. After we rested and our stomachs were full, we walked 10 minutes to Magic Kingdom to begin the second half of our day. If you're staying in a resort that is off property or in another park, this is a great way to save time.