As a family, we'd never been to the Happiest Place on Earth.

The mega-star of water cooler conversations, and American as the Big Mac, Walt Disney World in Orlando is twice the size of Manhattan, and reels in at least 10 million visitors each year.

"The boys are in middle school," my wife Ann said one gloomy day in February. "We should really go while they're still young enough." Point taken, but if we were going to go, by Jiminy, we were going to go prepared.

We knew that with its pricey tickets, Disney World was all about maximizing time, energy and resources. Since Disney connoisseurs love to give advice, and online information on the park could fill the Library of Congress, researching how to turn a match with Mickey into a fair fight becomes a matter of winnowing all that information down into something useful.

Before and during our first trip, we learned a few essential facts that helped make our visit fun and successful. Other newbies should take note.

First, don't violate the most important rule, as we did. Get there early. Disney's four parks — Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios — usually open at 8 or 9 a.m. depending on the time of year. Arrive a half hour before opening, and be right at the gate to get in line at any attraction you've designated in advance as a must-see.

This year, for example, Fantasyland has been expanded at the Magic Kingdom (where Cinderella's Castle is), and the hot new ride is the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train roller coaster. We never got on. (See the GO sidebar, for the reason.)

Because our trip to Disney was to include only one, epic 14-hour day, we wanted to see the classic sights, and therefore zeroed in on the Magic Kingdom. Basic tickets for any single park cost about $100 each, but for an extra $58 each, tickets can become "hoppers," which means all four parks are fair game. That's a lot of territory, so time becomes an issue, not only because each park could easily fill a day on its own, but also because getting between parks is time-consuming. True, the Monorails between parks are lots of fun in themselves, but new visitors also need to know they sacrifice the time spent at actual attractions.

While our sights were set on the Magic Kingdom, we decided to maximize our hoppers by starting out at Epcot, arguably Disney World's second most iconic park. Predictably, rain had been forecast for the entire day, but in true Disney fashion, the clouds already were lifting as we caught our first glimpse of Epcot's dome. Called Spaceship Earth, it glowered down at us from the departing mists.

We had not been in line early. The first Epcot ride was to be Soarin', a flight simulator that seats riders in hang gliders for a scenic aerial tour of California. Feeling smart, we calculated that the $17 parking fee at Disney was much cheaper than a shuttle from our hotel. Predictably, even with GPS, we got lost on Disney World's many back roads.

While luck was on our side with the weather, our chosen ride had malfunctioned, so we ended up in line for a tedious and discouraging hour and 55 minutes. Had we known earlier about the My Disney Experience Mobile App, we could have learned about the breakdown and excessive wait time. Note to Self: install the app before arriving at Disney World.

When we finally got on, Soarin' was spectacular. My Army Air Corps vet dad used to say war involved weeks of waiting that culminated in seconds of intense excitement and fear. He never took us kids to Walt Disney World, but there's an analogy in there somewhere. Soarin' took us over show-boating surfers, Yosemite's waterfalls (which misted us as we passed), and through orange groves we could actually smell.

If we'd had the app, we also would have pre-arranged the three FastPass+ ride reservations that are free features of all tickets. We walked out of Soarin' exhilarated and stopped at a kiosk to set up our Magic Kingdom FastPass+ reservations. They were for classic rides: Pirates of the Caribbean at 3:05, Haunted Mansion at 4:25 and the indoor Space Mountain roller coaster at 8:25 p.m.

With the foundations of our visit now in place, the rest of the trip was smooth sailing and fun. While at Epcot, we took our time wandering around the gigantic World Showcase, a sort of condensed and walkable world, with impressive cultural exhibits from 11 countries including a replica terracotta army in China and a Moroccan minaret. Near the realistic Mexican plaza, we stopped for lunch at the Cantina de San Angel, with its authentic and good guacamole and empanadas.

This brings up another important point. In the zeal to pack in many activities, don't forget to eat. We felt recharged after both our Mexican lunch and a pseudo-American colonial dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern, hours later, in the Magic Kingdom.

With the FastPass+ reservations, you will have enough time to make casual forays onto rides that happen to have short lines or to visit unexpected quirky attractions such as Club Cool at Epcot, which provided free samples of soft drinks from a variety of international spots. Who knew that Melon Frosty Fanta (Excellent!) was Thailand's favorite soft drink?

Of course the big rides make some of the biggest impressions. Jack Sparrow's eyes followed us on Pirates of the Caribbean; the Haunted Mansion's hologram ghosts spooked u;, and staff members everywhere were always friendly and funny.

On the Jungle Cruise, our captain warned us about an approaching crocodile named Ginger.

"Watch out! Ginger snaps," he said, before waving away "sympathy applause."

Our kids seemed to enjoy some of the less-expensive old-school attractions as much as the big ones. They climbed around the fort and mine on Tom Sawyer's Island, for example, until they were gently asked to leave at dusk.

Toward the end of the day, and since there was hardly any wait, we ducked into the 3-D, 12-minute, Mickey's PhilHarmagic movie, which seemed to distil all that's good in Disney with Donald, Mickey, Peter Pan and a magic carpet ride from Aladdin. Nostalgic and humble compared to the big nighttime fireworks and projection show at the castle, the movie was also less melodramatic and crowded.

Better yet, we didn't need to plan it out.