Our 2025 ended with something that has become increasingly rare for us – being at home. We watched some New Year’s festivities on TV with friends and Melissa somehow stayed awake through midnight, which is very rare when not on vacation. Then we were off to bed so I could rest up for a very full day of watching football and sitting on the couch. Next year we’d like to do New Year’s Eve in a theme park but we’ll see what happens. Watching the fireworks down the street at Disneyland last night was enough to hold us over and we were happy for a relaxing few days.

The more lowkey celebration came after an eventful year. 2025 saw us living near Disneyland, taking several trips to Walt Disney World, visiting Paris for the first time, taking our first group to Japan and Tokyo Disney, setting sail on our first Disney Cruise and following that up with a trip to Belize for my parent’s 50th anniversary. It was busy and beautiful. Those travels led to the type of year we could only dream of 5, 10 or 15 years ago.

We also made our way up to Seattle many times. While we live in Anaheim and have for 4 years, we go up north to Seattle see family often. Melissa’s job takes her up there for some in office work every once and a while and I go up there for as many University of Washington football games as I possibly can. This year, that was all of them! The team had a pretty good year and I’m hoping that 2026 will be even better.

Melissa and I went out to dinner the other night in LA, a day after returning from our Christmas trip to Washington. We were able to catch our breath after a very full few months and reminisce about the last year. We thought about the crepes by the Eiffel Tower, ramen near Fushimi Inari, Jiko at Disney World. Okay, not all of the best memories were food related. There were amazing sights, both new and old, and wonderful times with family and friends, both new and old. We made it to 14 theme parks in 2025 and that feels surreal to type, much less do.

As we talked about all of these wonderful moments and days, we were so grateful. This site has turned into the best job I could have ever asked for and I’m so excited to see what comes next. To be in a place where we can travel and experience all of these things and then offer our advice is something I’m beyond thankful for. There’s seemingly a milestone we get to celebrate every day and your support means the world to us.

2026 will hopefully be more of the same! We’re looking forward to writing more reviews, rankings, itineraries and tips. I’m also looking forward to writing a few more weird posts that make me happy but no one reads. Follow your bliss, and all that. There’s also a few projects that we hope to get off the ground as the year goes on. I love working on the site and hope you enjoy reading it. If there’s anything you’d like to see us do in the future, don’t hesitate to leave a comment!

We also think 2026 will be a big year for the Disney theme parks. That starts at the top, as we expect Josh D’Amaro to be named as Bob Iger’s (CEO) successor in the coming months. We’ll have more thoughts on that if, and when, it happens but we remain optimistic about that change for now.

August will bring the D23 Expo which should offer some exciting announcements about new projects as well as updates on current ones. In a year that will see smaller openings like the Muppets takeover of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Big Thunder reemerging at Magic Kingdom and a new animation courtyard in DHS, I expect the Expo to drum up some excitement for major projects coming post 2026.

Internationally, we’ll see the transformation of Walt Disney Studios Park to Disney Adventure World in Paris. That includes a Frozen land and an aesthetic transformation. We’re hopeful that the park will improve by leaps and bounds and also hopeful that we get to see the progress in person sometime this year.

Speaking of our travel plans, we have the next few weeks at home before leaving for New Zealand in mid-January! Our closest friends live there and we are spending a month with them, exploring the country and hanging out. We couldn’t be more excited. I’m planning to write a weekly update on this site. Obviously, that isn’t theme park related but thought it may be of some interest to a few readers. I might include individual posts about certain things like Hobbiton and the South Island. Let us know if there’s anything specific you’d like to see.

After coming back in February, we’ll plan to stick to Disneyland and Walt Disney World for at least a few months. I’m sure there will be things we’ll have missed in the month being gone that we’ll want to see in person. The rest of the year will likely include another group trip to Japan and other travels. That’s all up in the air right now but we’re excited about the possibilities.

Once again, thank you for reading this site and supporting us. We hope the new year is full of warmth, people you love and, of course, travel.

What are you most excited for in 2026? Let us know, along with any questions you might have, in the comments below. Planning a Disney trip? Check out our Travel Guides to help get you there! For those looking for discount tickets to the theme parks, check this site! If you enjoy what you’re reading here on Wandering in Disney please subscribe to the blog via email or WordPress and like our social media pages. You can find all of those things on the right side of this page. Thank you very much for reading, we appreciate it!