Buying theme park tickets is often the most expensive part of a Disneyland vacation. Do you really need a Park Hopper ticket, which allows you to visit multiple parks per day? Is there a way to save on tickets that is safe and legal? And how Disneyland Reservation System really works? Understanding all your options is important to truly having a happy time at the Happiest Place on Earth.
After visiting Disneyland regularly over the past few decades, I’ve bought nearly every type of ticket there, including annual passes (now called Disneyland passes). Magic key).
Here’s everything you need to know about buying Disneyland tickets so you can make the right choice for your trip.
Basic information about Disneyland tickets
One day ticket
Let’s start with the most basic option: a one-day ticket to one park at Disneyland. There are two parks at Disneyland (Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park) and a one-day pass will get you access to only one of the two parks.
One-day tickets at Disneyland vary in price and range in price depending on the day you plan to visit. However, there is no price difference between Disneyland Park tickets and Disney California Adventure Park tickets. Ticket prices for one day, one park per day are as follows:
- Level 0 — $104
- Level 1 — $119
- Level 2 — $134
- Level 3 – $154
- Level 4 – $169
- Level 5 – $184
- Level 6 – $194
At Disney, an adult is considered anyone 10 years of age or older, while child tickets are for ages 3 to 9 – anyone under 3 gets in free.
Disneyland categorizes dates into its tier system about six months in advance. For example, single-day ticket prices are currently only available through December. This corresponds to park reservations, which are released 180 days in advance.
As you might expect, periods of highest demand (like weekends and holidays) are classified as higher demand days. Historically, Tier 0 (least expensive) days tend to occur mid-week during months of lower demand and are harder to find. If you don’t know what dates you’ll want to visit or think you might need to cancel and reschedule after booking, the safest (but also more expensive) way is to buy a top-class ticket. Upgrading to a higher level type later is usually not possible.
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Multi-day tickets
If you’re planning a longer vacation to Disneyland, Friday passes are also available. Prices per day tend to decrease the longer you stay. The most basic Friday pass also allows entry to one park per day. So guests with a three-day, one-park-per-day pass can spend two days at Disneyland Park and one day at Disney California Adventure but cannot visit both parks in one day.
Not like in Walt Disney World Resort, where multi-day tickets have variable prices Based on the day you visit, Disneyland Friday ticket prices do not change. There are no floors that ticket holders must navigate.
Regular prices for Friday, one-park-per-day tickets in 2024 are:
- Two-day pass – $310
- Three-day pass — $390
- Four-day pass – $445
- 5-day pass — $480
Multi-day tickets are only valid for an additional 13 days after first use. This makes them a great option to reduce costs for those coming from out of town who want to visit the park for a few days. However, that also means they are less ideal for locals who want multiple visits over a longer period of time.
Disneyland ticket options and add-ons
Of course, there are additional options that increase the cost of park tickets for Disneyland guests. Some ticket add-ons include:
Hopper park
The most basic ticket at Disneyland allows entry to one park per day, but you can also purchase tickets Hopper park option for an additional fee. As the name suggests, Park Hopper tickets allow visitors to “hop” between Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure an unlimited number of times a day. Since the parks are only a few steps away from each other, getting around the parks is much easier than at Disney World.
How much does the Park Hopper feature increase ticket prices? It depends on the length of your visit.
- One day park hopper – $65
- Two-day park hopper – $65
- Three-day park hopper – $70
- Four-day park hopper – $70
- Five-day park hopper – $75
My family likes the flexibility of moving between parks if we find one park too crowded on a given day. Park hopping really has been a big part of our lives Strategies for avoiding lines at Disneyland over the years. I also generally recommend the Park Hopper pass to most of my friends, except for guests planning a two-day trip who want to spend a day in each park.
However, in the near future, park hopping will have another limitation that didn’t exist before: time constraints. Visitors cannot park until 11 a.m. or later, due to capacity limits. This additional limitation may not make the Park Hopper option as valuable as it once was.
Genie Disney+
When Disney Genie+ was introduced in December 2021, it quickly became a necessity for me during my visits to Disneyland. Disney Genie+ allows guests to skip the lines to get to shorter Lightning Lane at select Disneyland attractions and includes other perks like unlimited PhotoPass downloads during your visit.
At Disneyland, you can purchase Disney Genie+ as an add-on to your vacation package or on the day of your visit, but you’ll save money by purchasing in advance.
- Disney Genie+ pre-launch — $30
- Disney Genie+ dates — subject to change, starting at $30
Related: How I made the most of Disneyland’s Genie+ and played 26 attractions in one day
Most of Disneyland’s most popular attractions have Genie+, but you’ll still need to purchase an individual Lightning Lane admission ticket to enter Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland Park and Radiator Springs Racers at Disney California Adventure Park.
Disneyland reservation system
There’s one more wrinkle when it comes to Disneyland tickets: As of 2021, in addition to purchasing admission tickets, Disneyland now requires guests to make daily reservations for the theme park they want to enter each day.
If you purchase tickets directly with Disneyland, the reservation process is now integrated into the ticket purchase process. If you purchase your tickets elsewhere (usually to receive discounts and offers), you will have to make a reservation after purchasing the tickets and then have to add the tickets to your Disneyland account.
So, before thinking about buying tickets, you should check Disneyland’s reservation schedule for availability. It’s essential to ensure that the parks you want to visit can accommodate new bookings on the dates you want to visit.
Note that there are two different bookability schedules: One for one-park-per-day tickets and another for Park Hopper tickets. Be sure to click on the tab appropriate to the type of ticket you plan to purchase.
Disneyland ticket discounts and the best times to buy
Unfortunately, super deep ticket discounts for Disneyland are not realistic (and if you see them, they’re probably fraudulent, so stay away). However, there are still ways to save.
Discount single-day and multi-day Disneyland tickets
An easy way to save is to buy multi-day tickets to Disneyland through a legitimate ticket broker, such as Go today or secret travel.
These brokers frequently list tickets at least a few dollars below the official Disney price, and their tickets offer the same benefits and ease of use. Sometimes you can even find additional special offers like a free Thursday bonus, which will help reduce costs even further. Be sure to shop around as prices fluctuate frequently.
Disneyland rarely discounts one-day tickets, so don’t waste time looking for deals if you’re only going for one day. However, the easiest way to save on one-day tickets at Disneyland is Buy Discount Disney Gift Cards and pay for tickets directly with Disney using a gift card. If you can get a deep enough discount on a gift card, they will sometimes even beat the ticket brokers’ sixth-order pricing.
Of course, there are some other places to find discounts (Costco, AAA, grocery stores), but they are rarely higher than the prices offered by ticket brokers or when using the discount gift card trick of Disney.
Military discount
There are some other ticket discounts to keep in mind if you’re in the qualifying group. Historically, the best discounts are those given to military members and their spouses. These tickets can only be purchased at participating military bases. Limited blackout days apply. Military ticket prices at Disneyland in 2024 are:
- Three-day Park Hopper ticket: $268.50
- Four-day Park Hopper ticket: $314.25
Price increase
Finally, watch out for scary ticket price increases. The The most recent increase was in October 2023. It probably goes without saying that the best time to buy Disneyland tickets is right before the price increase occurs. Luckily, there is an alternative!
Even if a price increase occurs, discount ticket brokers may still sell tickets at the previous year’s price for a short period of time (usually about a week or two after announcement). Therefore, I highly recommend planning your Disneyland vacation now if you want to travel to Disneyland in late 2024 or 2025 to get these lower prices.
Disneyland annual passes – now called Magic Keys
Last but not least, annual passes are another option for discounted theme park admission at Disneyland. In the summer of 2021, Disneyland revamped its annual pass program, renaming the passes “Magic Keys.”
Guests planning to travel to Disneyland Resort may find the Magic Key a better value than purchasing two or more Friday tickets. Annual passes are also more valuable to many local Southern California residents.
The key (pun intended) is to do the math. Be sure to look into additional discounts on dining, shopping and parking at Magic Key for even more savings.
It’s essential to read the fine print and find out whether each pass has a blackout date that conflicts with your vacation schedule. Multi-day tickets have no blackout dates and will give you more flexibility to visit any day of the year.
It is also important to check the Magic Key reservation schedule. It has varying availability and often books faster than regular park admission schedules. If you can’t plan ahead, Magic Key can leave you confused if the date you want to visit is sold out.
Purchasing a Magic Key can sometimes be elusive. Disney temporarily suspended sales of Magic Keys on June 5 with no indication of when they might go back on sale.
See TPG Complete guide to Disneyland Magic Keys for all the details.
Bottom line
Tickets are definitely a big expense when it comes to Disneyland travel. However, with a little planning, analysis of the extras you need, and knowledge of available discounts, you can still save quite a bit.
If you’re planning a Disneyland vacation, check out these money- and time-saving tips:
