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How Disneyland Tickets Work
Disneyland Ticket Costs and Discounts
It's possible to obtain discounts on all multiday tickets, but only in the 1% - 7% range. One place to purchase admissions at a discount is disneyland.com.
If you purchase tickets on the Disneyland website, you can choose between hard tickets, which will be shipped to you, or eTickets, which can be downloaded as PDF files and printed at home. An eTicket printed from your home computer will show two bar codes. At the park entrance, a cast member will scan your eTicket and issue your actual ticket. You can also purchase one-day tickets through your smartphone using the Official Disneyland Mobile App without needing to print anything, but these mobile-purchased passes don't include any discounts or bonuses.
The deepest discounts we've found are from ARES Travel. ARES usually beats the Disney advance purchase price for multi-day tickets and also includes the Magic Morning feature. Note that a $2-per-ticket convenience fee is applied at checkout. You can order online or call 800-434-7894.
Disneyland Resort and other area attractions sometimes offer discounted afternoon and evening tickets for convention goers. See disneyconventiontickets.com.
One-Day One-Park Ticket
This pass is good for one day's admission at your choice of Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure. As the name implies, you cannot "hop" from park to park.
Disneyland's Park Hopper Ticket Option
A Park Hopper Ticket allows you to visit both parks on the same day. Multiday Park Hopper Tickets do not have to be used on consecutive days, but they do expire 13 days after their first use. On top of the base ticket cost, Park Hopper Tickets cost an additional $60.
Upgrading a Disneyland Ticket
Any time before a ticket expires, you can apply the value of unused days toward the cost of a higher priced ticket. If you buy a three-day Park Hopper ticket, for example, and then decide you'd rather have a five-day ticket, you can apply the value of unused days on the former toward the purchase of the latter. Upgraded passes expire on the same 13-day deadline date as the original ticket. To restrict the reselling of half-used passes, Disneyland photographs every multiday pass holder upon first entry for identification purposes; be prepared to have your pass (and face) scanned shortly before passing the turnstiles.
Disneyland Magic Key (Formerly Known As Annual Passports)
Debuting in August 2021 after Disneyland ended its annual pass program, Magic Keys provide a unlimited number of visits to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure theme parks for one year. Before you get too excited, note that brand new Magic Keys are not for sale at this time: Disney is only selling renewals.
Unlike the previous Annual Passport program, Magic Keyholders must make a reservation in advance of the day they wish to visit. All Magic Keys are subject to reservation availability. There are several levels of these passes, each of which has different blockout dates (blockouts can be park-specific, although most of the time blockouts apply to both parks). Magic Keyholders are not able to use their Magic Key to enter a park on a day when that park is blocked out for that pass. Parking is only included in highest level Key (Inspire Key). Those with Magic Keys also get perks including food and merchandise discounts and seasonal offers such as room-rate discounts at Disneyland Resort hotels. Magic Keys are not valid for special ticketed events like Oogie Boogie Bash or Disneyland After Dark (although there may be Magic Key discounts for such events).
Magic Key "No-Show" Policy
Disneyland Resort's Magic Key program has a no-show policy which is designed to deter people from making reservations they wont actually use. Keyholders who make a reservation and don't enter either Disneyland or DCA 3 times within 90 days will lose their ability to make reservations (and, thus, use their pass) for 30 days. This can be avoided by canceling a theme park reservation, which Keyholders have up until 11:59 Pacific Time the night before to do so.
Disneyland Magic Key Prices
- Inspire Key - $1599
- Believe Key - $1099
- Enchant Key - $699
- Imagine Key - $449
See Disney's Magic Key Access Calendar for blockout dates. Note that no Magic Keys offer access during the Christmas/New Year's period.
Here's an overview of the various options:
Inspire Key
$1599
|
Believe Key
$1099
|
Enchant Key
$699
|
Imagine Key
$449
|
Disneyland Ticket Specials for Southern California Residents
In addition to the Imagine Key pass, Disneyland sometimes sells discounted "SoCal Resident" multiday tickets for specific date ranges. If you live in Southern California, see Disneyland's Offers & Discounts page to see what (if anything) is available.
More Discounts on Disneyland Tickets
Below a list of potential Disneyland admission discounts that may be available to certain groups and individuals. (Note that some of these programs may be suspended.)
AAA / CAA
Members can buy passes for a discount of 3 - 5%. Each AAA/CAA club sets its own prices for Disneyland tickets. Buying from AAA/CAA is usually cheaper than buying from Disney, but more expensive than buying from one of the ticket wholesalers in our search engine above.
Convention-Goers
Disneyland, Universal, SeaWorld, and other parks sometimes set up a link cited in convention materials to purchase discounted afternoon and evening admissions. See DisneyConventionTickets.com and SeaWorldGroupEvents.com.
Disney Corporate Sponsors
If you work for a Disneyland corporate sponsor, you might be eligible for discounted admissions or preferential treatment at the parks. Ask your employee-benefits office.
Military
Active-duty and retired members of the U.S. military can buy special Military Promotional 3-Day Park Hopper Tickets for $225. (See Disneyland's web page on Military Promotional tickets for details.) That's $165 less than a comparable ticket sold to the general public. (Heavily discounted 4-Day Park Hopper tickets are also available.) Tickets must be purchased from a "U.S. military base ticket office," and pricing may vary a bit by office. Military personnel can buy a discounted admission for nonmilitary guests as long as the military member accompanies the nonmilitary member. If a group seeks the discount, at least half must be eligible for the military discount. Note that there are blockout weeks surrounding Christmas and Easter, so before purchasing make sure your travel dates are included in the promotion.
Disney Youth Education Series
Disney runs programs for K-12 students to learn how the parks incorporate everything from performing arts to physics. The program runs every day and offers substantial ticket discounts (with substantial restrictions). Disney usually requires a 10-person minimum to attend these events, but waives the minimum on occasion. See disneyyouth.com for more information.
Where Not to Buy Disneyland Tickets
In addition to the many authorized sellers of Disney admissions, a number of bricks-and-mortar sellers exist. They buy unused days on legitimately purchased passes, then resell them as if they were newly issued.
These resellers are easy to identify: They insist that you specify exactly which dates you plan to use the ticket. They know, of course, how many days are left on the pass and when it expires. If you tell them you plan to use it tomorrow and the next two days, they'll sell you a ticket that has three days remaining and expires in three days.
Naturally, because they don't tell you this, you assume the usual 14-day expiration period from the date of first use. In the case of your tickets, however, the original purchaser triggered the 14-day expiration period. If you decide to skip a day instead of using the pass on the next three consecutive days, you'll discover to your chagrin that it has expired.
Disneyland Ticket Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Can I Use 2 "Days" of My Ticket to Visit 2 Parks on the Same Day Without the "Park Hop" Option?
A: No, and we've tried. Disney's computer systems won't allow it.
