Welcome to our MouseBrief guide to selecting and purchasing tickets for Disneyland Resort and making park reservations.
This post is the second in Step-by-Step Disneyland Prep, our free and complete guide to preparing for a visit to Disneyland Resort in California. Here, we pull information from all over MouseBrief into posts highlighting each step of the planning process. In our first step, we helped you decide when to visit Disneyland (see that previous post here). Today, we are looking at buying park tickets and making park reservations.
We are going to cover what kind of admission and reservations you will need for your visit and walk you through choices including ticket add-ons and number of park days. Keep reading as we guide you through purchasing tickets for your visit to Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park.
So, Why Buy Disneyland Tickets Now?
If you are wondering why we are looking at buying tickets this early in the planning process, we have two reasons for that.
First, Disneyland Resort currently requires park reservations for anyone visiting Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park. We are going to explain more about park reservations later in this article. It is important for you to know that these reservations can and do run out. Maybe you will decide to buy tickets at a later date, but we suggest at least looking at reservations now to see if they are available for your desired dates.
Second, Disneyland tickets do regularly increase in price. The good news is that, as long as your tickets have not expired, you can use them even after a price increase. By buying tickets early, you are locking in the current pricing. You can read all about it here: Do Disneyland Tickets Increase in Price?
And, if you do buy tickets and they expire before you use them, there is still hope! We will cover that later too.
When to Wait to Buy Disneyland Tickets
We just gave you two good reasons to buy (or at least look at) Disneyland tickets today. There may also be a good reason to wait: if your planned travel dates are still a ways out, you might be able to take advantage of ticket discounts.
No one knows what ticket discounts Disneyland will release in any year, but if you feel comfortable waiting, we recommend that you sign-up for emails from Disneyland Resort to be alerted to new discounts. You can sign-up for emails at the Disneyland website here and check for current discounts.
In any case, keep reading for the Disneyland ticket purchase and park reservation process. You will need this information when you are ready to buy.
Disneyland Ticket and Admission Types
There are several categories of admission types for Disneyland Resort.
On the most basic level, there are general admission tickets. These are tickets that are sold increments of one to five admission days with options for add-ons like Lighting Lane and Park Hopper.
These general admission tickets also have a kind of sub-category of discounted tickets which can come with some restrictions but also nice savings.
Next, we have special events tickets. These are tickets for specific after-hours events at Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park. These events are not accessible with general admission tickets and are sometimes referred to as “hard ticket events.” You will need to buy a date and party-specific ticket if you wish to attend one of theses events.
Finally, there are Magic Key passes. These are Disneyland Resort’s annual passes and they come in varying levels with black-out days corresponding to their level (and price).
General Disneyland Admission Tickets, The Essentials
If you are a new or infrequent guest to Disneyland Resort, you are most likely going to purchase general admission tickets. Again, these are basic tickets that are sold increments of one, two, three, four or five days. This ticket may allow you admission to one or both parks on any given day, depending on the choices you make.
For a guide to Disneyland’s standard ticket types, we strongly recommend heading over to our guide here. That guide is going to walk you through the one to multi day tickets plus explain the ticket add-ons that are Park Hoppers and Lightning Lanes.
In that guide we have a visual flowchart to help you decide what specific ticket will work for you. If you still need some help sorting through these options and deciding what is best for your situation, we have some further tips at: How to Choose Your Best Disneyland Ticket. After you have a chance to look at that, meet us back over here!
Note that one-day tickets are subject to tiered pricing, while multi-day tickets are not. If you are considering a one-day ticket, you will want to acquaint yourself with ticket tiers in this guide. Still, start with that general guide, and then move onto information about ticket tiers if need.
Discounted Disneyland Tickets
Once you have decided on your ticket type, take a moment before you buy and look through available offers and discounts. We all like to save money on tickets!
What we do NOT recommend is purchasing tickets from anyone but Disney or a reputable third-party seller. There are many ticket scams out there, and the best way to avoid them is to purchase from Disney directly or from authorized sellers including Get-Away-Today, Undercover Tourist and familiar retailers like Target or Costco. These sellers can and do offer small additional discounts.
Some ticket offers will be for a specific number of days or particular days of the week. For example, you might see an offer for discounted three-day tickets to be used only on Mondays through Thursdays. You will need to compare prices and decide whether this might work for you.
“Hard Ticket” Parties or Special Events Tickets
If you are planning to attend any after-hours events, you will also need to purchase separate tickets.
Special or “hard ticket” events are not included in general admission and require a special ticket purchase. Examples of this include Oogie-Boogie Bash or Disneyland After Dark parties.
If you would like to attend one of these events, it is a good idea to really plan ahead. These parties have been known to sell-out, and sometimes on the very day that ticket sales open. We have a schedule of these events with dates and hours for 2025 here: Disneyland Schedule for 2025: Plan Your Visit!
You can use a general admission ticket on the same day as a special event, but pay attention to the parks’ schedule for that day. The park hosting the special event often has shorter general hours, and you will not be able to use your general admission ticket during the party hours at that park. If you have both general admission and a party ticket for the same date, you will be able to use both, but we do not recommend it. That is a long day and not the best value. Instead, try enjoying other offerings around Disneyland Resort or Orange County during the day and attend only the party that afternoon and evening.
Disneyland Magic Keys
”Magic Key” is the new(ish) name for an annual pass to the parks of Disneyland Resort. Currently are four levels of Magic Key Passes: Inspire, Believe, Enchant and Imagine. The Imagine key is available only to guests who reside in particular Southern California zip codes.
Generally, the more expensive the Magic Key, the more admission dates are available to the holder. There are also greater perks for more expensive passes like parking discounts or the ability to hold more simultaneous park reservations.
If you are considering the purchase of a Magic Key, pay attention to the sale schedule. In recent years, Disney has paused the sale of all or some Magic Key passes for months at a time. During these pauses, renewals are available, but new passes are not.
To explore the Magic Key levels and see what is currently available, visit the Disneyland website here.
Make Park Reservations for Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park
Entering Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park during general admission hours (i.e. not a special event) requires a park reservation. If you have a special event ticket (see above), that ticket is date specific, and you do not need to make an additional reservation. For all other tickets, you will need to pair them with a park reservation.
We have a guide to park reservations here: Guide to Park Reservations for Disneyland & Why You Need Them. That guide walks you through the reservation process with screenshots and detailed instructions. It also covers what to do if you need to change your park reservations and addresses other frequently asked questions. Again, you must have a park reservation in order to enter either Disneyland Resort park with a general admission ticket.
Disneyland Park Reservations Are About Where You Start Your Day
That guide will take you through the park reservation process, but to preview it briefly: you must pair a park reservation with valid admission in order to visit Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park.
Park reservations are free and they are for a particular day and park. For example, you could make a park reservation to visit Disneyland Park on July 2. You do not need to reserve the time you plan to visit, just the date and park.
The park reservation will be for the first park you want to visit each morning: you will choose either Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park. If you have a Park Hopper add-on, you will be able to cross freely between both parks after 11am, unless one of the parks reaches capacity (this is unlikely on all but the busiest days). If you do not have a Park Hopper, you will visit only your reserved park on that day.
Changing Your Disneyland Park Reservation
You can change your park reservation without any fee or penalty right up to your visit as long as there are reservations available. There are a limited number of park reservations available for each park on each day, and they do run-out. Information about canceling or modifying your park reservations is also in Guide to Park Reservations for Disneyland & Why You Need Them
Keep in mind that—if you ticket is a one-day ticket—it is subject to tiered pricing. This means that your park reservation day must be for your designated ticket tier or lower. If you want to switch to a higher-tier day, you can upgrade and pay the difference in tier price. For more specific information on ticket tiers and what it takes to switch a one day ticket reservation, see our ticket tier guide here. That post is one of our most popular, and it will walk you through different scenarios for changing your one day ticket.
Make Park Reservations Early
We suggest making your park reservations as soon as you have your tickets and desired visit dates. Again, are no penalties for changing your park reservations prior to your visit, so there is no risk in reserving early. Disneyland Resort park reservations can and do run-out!
For this reason, we also recommend checking the park reservation calendar before you purchase your Disneyland Resort admission. You can find it here. While you do need valid admission to make a park reservation, you do not need it to preview available reservations.
What Happens When Disneyland Resort Runs Out of Park Reservations
If park reservations for either Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park disappear for your desired days, you have a few options. First, of course, you can choose another date or park.
Second (and you can combine this with the first option), you can watch the reservation calendar and hope more park reservations open. These calendars change all of the time.
Finally, you can consider changing your admission type. A certain number of park reservations are allotted for each admission type. If you are not seeing open park reservations, opting for a different ticket type (for example, adding Park Hopper) MAY open-up availability.
Thanks for reading this article on purchasing tickets and making park reservations for Disneyland.
We hope you have found this post helpful. Do not forget to take a look at that ticket decision guide here and the guide to park reservations here.
This post is the second step in our Step-by-Step Disneyland Prep series. To see the first, please visit Your Best Time to Visit Disneyland: A Complete Guide. Our next step along the way involves transportation, so hop-on board part three and check-out Your Guide to Getting to Disneyland: Transportation Tips. Finally, please consider subscribing to our free newsletter below. Thanks again for reading.
