Hey there Linda,
Welcome to planDisney, thank you for your question, and happy (early) 50th anniversary! What an amazing milestone - and I'm so happy to hear you'll be celebrating it with family in the Happiest Place on Earth.
I certainly understand things can change over the next year which might make you need to tweak your exact travel dates, but luckily the Disneyland Resort is typically pretty flexible in being able to change some of these details as long as there is availability.
There is a feature on the
Disneyland Resort website when you sign in to your Disney account called "
My Plans" that is fantastic and so helpful with vacation details like this. I have an upcoming trip where I'll be staying at the Disneyland Hotel so I double-checked and can confirm that there is an easy way to change the dates of your stay (again, subject to availability) in this section!
Once you've booked your vacation, you'll just visit the My Plans section (hover over "My Disneyland" and select "My Plans"). Then you can click on the "Hotel" bubble, which will be filled in blue once you've made your reservation. Then, about halfway down the screen, there is an option that says "Change or Cancel Reservation."
If you click that, you'll be taken to a page that has the details of your stay and there will be a section that says "Travel Dates" with a blue "Change" button on the right side. This will walk you through checking availability for new dates and room details (if applicable) and making the change!
I would also highly recommend at least one person in your party purchase
Disney Genie+ Service so that you can get unlimited digital downloads of your groups
Disney PhotoPass photos. You'll most certainly want to document this trip with a lot of pictures! Finally, make sure you grab an "I'm Celebrating" pin either at check-in to your hotel or at
City Hall in Disneyland Park.
You've still got plenty of time to plan all the details of your trip, so I do hope you come back and see us here at planDisney with all your questions, Linda! Thank you again for stopping by!
Have a Magical Day,
Greg