In just 3 weeks time, my wife and I will be making our first journey to Disneyland after many trips to Disney World. We started going to Disney World about 18 years ago, and thought that for our 30th Anniversary, we should do something different. Of course, looking back we probably should have done something at Hollywood Studios, since they created the new logo specifically for us (okay, our friend @CarsonMalone edited it for us!):

I started this blog and twitter feed (@disneypicaday) last April, and my daily picture has so far been 100% pictures of Disney World, taken from those 18 years of trips, 2 and 3 times a year for the most part. Over the years, the process of planning for a Disney World vacation has changed, but I always felt like there was planning. With FastPass+, MagicBands, and dining reservations needing to be made at 6 months, ao I was ready to attack… Only to find that things are really different.

The primary early planning was getting a room to stay in. We were planning on staying on DVC points, probably at the Grand Floridian, so that had to be done by 6 months as normal in competition with lots of other people. But when I tried to call in and see about using points for the Disneyland Hotel at 6 months, they were like… they aren’t ready for reservations for next year. In the end, we ended up with a 1 bedroom suite, which is going to be amazing.

Dining reservations weren’t available until 60 days, and we got everything we wanted pretty easily (In fact, I somehow made a breakfast reservation for Christmas Morning for the Carnation Cafe… Not sure how it happened, but that probably cost me 20 bucks!)., Our dining reservations are for:

• Blue Bayou For Lunch
• Carnation Cafe for Breakfast
• Carthay Circle for Dinner

But honestly, I am way more excited about several of the foods I have heard about:

• Corn Dogs – Disneyland people always talk about how great the corn dogs are. I will give you my opinion when I see it (though I have had very few bad corn dogs in my life, so I can’t imagine I will be that negative!)
• Fried Chicken – I am a fried chicken maniac. I have been on a low calorie diet for 5 years now, and my main indulgence has been fried chicken. Disney World has really only the Prime Time Diner fried chicken to speak of, and it is good, but it is a table service place where you need reservations.
• Churros – The pictures of churros I see on twitter is just nuts, all different flavors, colors, etc.
• Chili Cone Queso – ‘Cause, you know, it looks cool (and probably sounds better than it tastes, but who knows.

The only one thing I am sure of is that there will be loads of pictures that I will sprinkle into the feed once I get back, and probably a lot of interjection tweets like “Wow!”, “Weird!?!”, “Huh???”, “Amazing!!” from Jan 27-Feb 1.