4. One month out!

Question 4: Everything's booked, now what?

I hate to break it to you, but your planning and preparation is not done quite yet! There is still a lot you can do to prepare and make sure your trip will be as easy and pleasurable as possible. 

There are a few things that you can do when your trip is about a month away. Some of these things are all about your activities at the park, and some of these things are to make those activities easier. 

Park Activities:

• Make reservations for any restaurants you may want to visit. Back in the olden days (early 2013) you had to call Disneyland to get any meal reservations, and you could only do it 30 days in advance. Now, not only can you do it 60 days in advance, but you can do it online right here!! Their reservation site is pretty easy to use, and you can even tell them about any dietary restrictions you have so they can accommodate your meal. Not every restaurant takes reservations, but some of the ones that do fill up very quickly. I'm mostly talking about the Blue Bayou. You can also make reservations for character dining, my favorite of which would have to be at Goofy's Kitchen.
• Update: You can also make reservations on the Disneyland app, and your reservation will then show up on your "My Plans" section so you don't forget!

One of my personal favorites... Cafe Orleans!

• Book some Disneyland Tours. Whether you've been to Disneyland two times or two hundred times, tours are a really fun way to get to know the park a little better than you did before. There are lots of different tours to fit your interests, and they all include various little gifts in the price. Look at and reserve tours here. Annual Passholders get a discount!
• Book activities in your hotel. If you are staying at one of the Disneyland Resort hotels, they have plenty of activities for everyone in the family. Take a look at the Grand Californian, the Disneyland Hotel, and the Paradise Pier Hotel.

Prepare yourself:

This is the time to start ordering things online that you might need for your trip. Not that shipping takes an entire month, but you're going to want to have adequate time to do your research not only to make sure you get the best quality products, but to make sure you find out about the best products to begin with. Here are a few things that could greatly benefit your trip:

• Frogg Toggs Chilly Pad. This is a super nifty little gadget that you are definitely going to love if you are going at a warmer time of year. When the towel gets wet, by some type of magic it becomes colder than the air outside. All you need to do is give it a splash and wring it out! Once the towel warms up a bit, just get it wet again. This will be your best friend at Disneyland in the summer!
• Camera/photography equipment. You're definitely going to want about a kajillion pictures from your awesome trip, so make sure you have a good camera! My personal tips (specific to Disneyland) as far as digital cameras go are as follows:
• Make sure it has good zoom! You'll see things from far away that you'll want cool pictures of. Or maybe the thing you want to snap a picture of is blocked my massive crowds. This might sound silly, but trust me, you'll use that zoom. A lot. 
• Make sure it's durable! You're going to be using that camera quite a bit over a number of days, you don't want it breaking on you. It might also get a little wet, or you might drop it a couple of times when you're scrambling to grab it when you see your favorite character. 
• Battery life is crucial. There are days that the park is open for 12-14 hours. If you're anything like me, that's 12-14 hours of potential Kodak moments. I go to the parks for the entire day, and I take a LOT of pictures. I don't need my camera dying on me, and I'm sure you don't need that either.
• Portable battery chargers. Speaking of my camera battery dying, I'm definitely going to need to make sure that none of my other electronics die either. Due to the fact that it is 2016 and everything needs to be posted online, my phone battery is at risk. Luckily, there are some pretty dang cool portable chargers out there. My personal favorite is the Flexion Power Bank Card. It's small, lightweight, easy to use, and it charges my phone quickly and fully. Its default cord is a micro USB, but it comes with a lightning adapter for Apple phones. This little guy is just the size of lipstick, and it can typically give you around two full phone charges, depending on your phone. I've heard that this one is also pretty good. 
• Mini USB power strip. Everyone knows that hotels are seriously lacking in electrical outlets, especially if you have a whole family trying to plug in their smartphones, tablets, cameras, etc. This guy not only has multiple outlets, but a couple of USB outlets for any of your devices that don't plug directly into the wall!
• Pedometers. Have you ever been to Disneyland for an entire day, and when you get back to your hotel and put up your aching feet wonder "Goodness, how much walking did I do?!" Well, take wondering out of the equation. I only started doing this last time I went, but I got everyone pedometers and it was a lot of fun to see how far we had walked throughout the days! I got this one from amazon, and it was great. It even kept a running total of my entire trip, which was great to look at. It comes with a little strap, but you can also get a belt clip for it. I got one and was so glad that I did. 
• A small wallet/business card holder. This is something you may not think of, but it comes in handy if you are trying to lighten your load. Or even if you just want a safe little holder for all your valuable Disneyland tickets! Etsy usually has some really cute ones at a reasonable price, and some of them are even made from Disney materials! You can also find some on Amazon, of course. Or just about anywhere that sells wallets. Anyway, I loved having a teeny little wallet in my fanny pack (yes I carry a fanny pack at Disneyland...don't judge, it's so handy!). It didn't take up much space, and it allowed me to just take my debit card, ID, and Disney passes. SO much easier than carrying around a huge wallet!
• Speaking of fanny packs... Guys, I know they get a bad rep but fanny packs are SO awesome to have at Disneyland! They're never that big, so they can't really get heavy and they make you really limit what you can take. Which may not sound like a good thing, but if I took a backpack to Disneyland I know I'd be toting around a whole bunch of things that I didn't really need. A fanny pack is hands-free, you don't really need to think about it AND it keeps all your stuff at extremely easy access. This is the fanny pack that I use, but of course find one that you like. I didn't order mine online, however. I managed to find it at a sporting goods store. I will say though, if there is a certain day that you know you will be buying a lot of souvenirs and your hotel isn't close enough to make a midday run to drop off all your new toys, you might want to have a full size backpack to carry stuff in. Make sure it's just about empty when you get to the park though!

You probably don't need a fanny pack this big though...

There are a few other things that you should do a month out from your trip. One of the most important is to START EXERCISING. You will be doing a LOT of walking during your trip, so make sure you can handle it! You don't need to become a marathon runner, just go for a walk every morning or night (or whenever you can, I'm not your mother). On that note, decide which pair(s) of shoes you want to wear on the park and wear those on your walks. You'll find out which pairs were a good or bad idea, and you'll make sure your shoes are plenty broken in. There's nothing worse than a big blister on your foot 4 hours into your first day on the park! 

I would advise that when you are a month out from your trip you start looking around online and on Disneyland's website at what kind of attractions are going to be available during your trip. There are different things going on seasonally, and different rides will be closed for refurbishment. Disneyland posts specific entertainment schedules about a month in advance, so make sure you take a look at those. Doing so will help you to get an idea in your mind about what you'll want to do, especially regarding the major entertainment events at night in each park (World of Color, anyone?). 

One last thing. If you have a Twitter account, there are a few crucial accounts to follow! If you don't already, make sure to follow @Disneyland, @DisneylandToday, and @DCAToday. They post really cute pictures, updates of ride times throughout the park, and if you're lucky they'll post a place where you can meet them for free buttons, cookies, or even fastpasses! I've loved following them over the past few months. And if you tweet to them, they'll usually tweet back! You can ask questions and stuff, they're there to help. 

Now GET PLANNING!! And have fun! :)