Disneyland Resort is re-opening Magic Keys sales on January 22, 2025. Magic Keys are annual passes to the parks of Disneyland Resort: Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park. (There are no actual keys or magic involved, but that would be awesome if there were.) On January 22, 2025, all four Magic Key Pass types—Imagine, Enchant, Believe and Inspire—will once again be available for purchase. Keep reading for a quick look at how these annual pass Disneyland Magic Key sales work.
Disneyland Annual Passes Are Only On Sale for a Limited Time
Before the 2020 COVID closures, Disneyland annual passes were basically sold any day of the year. Current pass holders could renew as their year was coming to a close and new pass holders could purchase passes online or at Disneyland Resort. The passes would have regular price increases, but they did not really sell out. This is the type of model you are probably used to from your local museums, zoos or other attractions.
Then came March 2020… Disneyland Resort stopped selling annual passes during the COVID closures and for some time after re-opening the parks. When Disneyland Resort did resume selling annual passes, they began doing so on a limited basis. Since then, Magic Key sales open on specific days and continue until the passes “sell out” or until Disney decides to close the sale period. Existing pass-holders may currently renew their passes as their pass year nears an end (without waiting for a limited sale period), but guests wishing to purchase a new Magic Key must wait until a designated sale period opens.
While there is some advance notice for when these sale periods will begin, there is not currently a long-range published schedule. Rather, the pattern that seems to have emerged is that Disney announces the next limited round one sale at a time. In this case, notice came just shy of a week before sales are set to resume. Disneyland has not offered an end date or time for this sale but says that “all 4 pass types will be available for purchase while supplies last.”
The Next Magic Key Sale Period is January 22, 2025
For Wednesday, January 22, 2025, Disneyland Resort says that Magic Key sales will begin online no earlier than 9:00am PST with the waiting room opening no earlier than 8:45am PST.
The waiting room is an online one and basically a way for Magic Key customers to enter a virtual line to purchase passes. (Yes, those Disneyland queues even extend to the online world of Magic Keys, but as far as we know, there are no Lighting Lane passes.) In the past, the volume of guests attempting to simultaneously purchase Magic Keys overwhelmed the system, so a virtual queue was needed. You may have encountered something similar when trying to purchase event tickets or limited sale merchandise online.
When you enter the waiting room, you will see which passes are still available and your estimated wait time before you will be able to purchase those passes. Of course, any and all of the passes could run out before your turn comes. Disney does not guarantee that everyone who enters the waiting room will be able to purchase a Magic Key.
When your turn does come up, you have ten minutes to make your Magic Key purchase before you basically have to “go to the end of the line” again. In more recent sales periods, Disney has added the option to receive an email notification when your turn arrives. This is a nice alternative to anxiously watching your screen and something that Disneyland Resort says “may” be an option this time around.
Disneyland Resort has a “How-to Guide” for the Magic Key purchase process on their website. You can find it here.
Disneyland Magic Key Options
Four pass types will be open for purchase at the beginning of the sale period on January 22. One of those passes, the Imagine Key, is available only to Southern California residents. The other three passes (Enchant, Believe and Inspire) are not restricted based on your home address. In the past, these passes have sold out at different times and some types might be available for longer than others this time too.
Each of the four pass types comes with different perks, prices and block-out dates. Block-out dates are specific calendar dates when that pass is not valid for admission to either park. The more expensive the pass, the more eligible dates per year and the fewer block-put dates. For example, the $1749 Inspire Key allows holders to visit most any day of the year outside of the popular weeks around Christmas and New Years while the $599 Imagine Key has many more black-out dates including most of the summer and weekend days. A pass holder wishing to visit the parks during a block-out date would need to purchase a ticket instead.
All Magic Key holders must also make a park reservation every time they wish to use their passes. That means that even on valid use dates, Magic Key holders might not be able to enter a park if they have not managed to secure a park reservation for that date. Higher level passes allow the holders to hold more simultaneous reservations at a time.
Is a Disneyland Magic Key for You?
If you are considering purchasing a Magic Key, be sure to review the different types and make sure the black-out vs valid dates work with your schedule. You can find Disneyland Resort’s comparison of the different pass types and the passes’ block-out calendars here.
The different price points and eligible dates for Disneyland Magic Keys also mean that the value of each pass will be specific to the holder. We suggest visiting that link above and calculating the value for your next year of visits. Be sure to take into account the current ticket offers while doing the math.
Disneyland Resort shows a row in the Magic Key comparison chart titled “Can Pay for Itself In This Many Visits,” but this is not as straightforward as it may first seem. Try to do an honest evaluation of when you will visit and whether you might be eligible for discount ticket offers during that time. You could find out the Magic Keys is not a great value for you. On the other hand, if you frequently use resort parking and spend lots of money dining at Disney, the Magic Key holder discounts on those purchases could make a big difference for you.
Of course, having a Magic Key could also motivate you to visit the Happiest Place on Earth a lot more this year…
Thanks for reading this quick overview of Disneyland Magic Key sales on January 22, 2025.
For a rundown of Disneyland Resort’s standard ticket types, we recommend our visual guide here: Disneyland Ticket Guide Flowchart and for general help deciding on the right ticket for you, see Essential Tips for Disneyland Tickets and Reservations. The latter is part of our complete (and free) Step-by-Step Disneyland Prep. Finally, please consider subscribing to our free newsletter below, and get the latest tips right in your inbox. Thanks again for reading.