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, where Disney sells tickets with Magic Morning. These tickets, in addition to the dollar discount, allow you to enter only Disneyland Park on select days 1 hour earlier than the general public one time during your visit. The feature is offered only on three-, four-, and five-day tickets purchased in advance of your visit.

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 now purchase one-day tickets through your smartphone at m.disneyland.com without needing to print anything, but these 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 by $4 - $6 per ticket and also includes the Magic Morning feature. Guests may pick up their tickets at any main entrance window; a $2-per-ticket convenience fee applies. You can order online or call 800-434-7894.

If you plan to visit other Southern California attractions in addition to Disneyland, you might want to consider a Southern California CityPASS. CityPASS includes a three-day Park Hopper for Disneyland Park and DCA, including early entry to Disneyland Park for one day. Also included are one day's admission each to LEGOLAND California and SeaWorld San Diego. Costing $329 for adults and $294 for children ages 3 - 9, the pass is valid for 14 days from first use. If you plan to visit all these parks, it will save you about 25% on admissions. If you don't use all of the admissions, however, you will save little or nothing by purchasing the CityPASS. The pass does not include dining or shopping discounts. Details concerning other CityPASS destinations are available at citypass.com.

Military discounts are available for all Disney theme parks, usually in the 7% - 25% range. Check with your base Morale, Welfare, & Recreation office for information. Military ID may be required at the gate. Many readers report buying military tickets for friends and relatives who used them without problems. Also consider any special Military Promotional tickets being offered.

Disneyland Resort and other area attractions sometimes offer discounted afternoon and evening tickets for convention goers. See disneyconventiontickets.com.

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.

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 1-Park ticket cost, Park Hopper Tickets cost an additional $60 for on Value-priced dates, $55 on Regular dates, and , $50 on Peak dates. he Park Hopper option can be added to multiday tickets for $40 (that is $40 more per multiday ticket—not per day on the 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 four-day Park Hopper ticket, for example, and then decide you'd rather have an Annual Passport, 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; annual passes expire one year from the first usage of 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.

An Annual Pass provides unlimited use of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure theme parks for one year. There are several levels of Annual Passes with various blockout dates. Passholders are not able to use their Annual Pass on these blockout dates. Parking is not included on any of the Annual Passes below Signature and Signature Plus. A Signature Plus Annual Pass also provides unlimited use of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, but there are no blockout dates to worry about. Annual Pass holders also get perks, including, food and merchandise discounts and seasonal offers such as room-rate discounts at Disneyland hotels.

The Annual Pass is not valid for special events such as admission to Mickey's Halloween Party.

Disneyland Annual Pass Prices

• Southern California Select Annual Pass (170 Disney-selected days) - $329
• Deluxe Annual Pass (315 Disney-selected days) - $599
• Signature Annual Pass (352 Disney-selected days) - $849
• Signature Annual Plus Pass (every day) - $1,049

Disney offers a special annual pass to Southern California residents living in ZIP codes 90000 to 93599. The Southern California Select Annual Pass ($329 for adults and kids age 3 and up) both offer admission and park-hopping privileges to Disneyland and DCA.

This annual pass has a large number of block out dates throughout the year, including most weekends. See Disneyland's website for a list of blockout dates.

Here's a list of Disneyland admission discounts available to certain groups and individuals:

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.

Disney Vacation Club

Members get a discount on Annual Passes.

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, Department of Defense, Civil Service

Active-duty and retired military, Department of Defense (DOD) civilian employees, some civil-service employees, and dependents of these groups can buy special Military Promotional 3-Day Park Hopper Tickets for $143. (See Disneyland's web page on Military Promotional tickets.) That's $152 less than a comparable ticket sold to the general public. At most military and DOD installations, the passes are available from the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation office. Civil-service employees should contact their personnel office to see if they're eligible. 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. Military discount tickets are only valid January 3 through March 19, 2016, and April 2 through December 19, 2016.

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.

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.

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.