When can you buy Disneyland tickets for 2023?

We hope your Disneyland vacation will be the best one yet. We’ve gathered a few other resources to help you plan and prep.

Disney Genie+ is your pass to skipping the wait! The previous FastPass System has been retired and we now use the Disney Genie+ system, read all about it here.

Early Theme Park Entry perks for Guests of Disneyland Resort hotels. Extra Magic Hours have been discontinued and replaced with a new program. This new program includes Early Theme Park Entry every day to either Disneyland Resort theme park:

• Disneyland Park, Daily
• Disney California Adventure Park, Daily

Guests of Disneyland Resort hotels will be able to enter their reserved Disneyland Resort theme park 30 minutes prior to the park’s opening to the general public.

MagicBands are coming to Disneyland! Soon you’ll be able to customize and purchase your MagicBand+ any time before or during your vacation.

MagicBands are typically synced to the Disneyland app. This allows you to remain hands-free and less tied to your cell phone during your trip.

When you connect the Disneyland app to your MagicBand+ you will have access to:

• Theme park tickets, simply tap in at the gate
• Theme park reservations, linked to your ticket
• Lightning lane and virtual queue entrances
• Restaurant reservations
• Disneyland Resort hotel room, tap to unlock your room
• Payment information, just tap to pay

We’re excited to welcome MagicBand+ to Disneyland Resort.

Park Hopping at Disneyland looks a little different in 2023. If you haven’t been back in a while, it’s important to know that all guests with a park hopper ticket can begin park hopping at 1:00 p.m.

Park hopping tickets are still an excellent value, allowing you to visit both theme parks every day your tickets are valid.

There’s no need (or even an option to make a reservation for your second theme park. Once park hopping opens for the day, you can hop back and forth as many times as you wish.

This guide to discount Disneyland & Disney California Adventure tickets offers money-saving tips & recommended sellers of park admission and where not to buy to avoid scams. We cover potential price increases, deals at grocery stores or from AAA, and pros & cons of Park Hoppers. (Updated November 24, 2022.)

If all you want to know is the cheapest, best, and safest place to buy Disneyland tickets, our top recommendation is Get Away Today. These Disneyland tickets are delivered via email immediately after buying and can be used right after you receive them. So no delay whatsoever. These are “tier-less tickets,” which means they can be used on any date.

This is one an authorized seller of Disneyland tickets that we recommend due to their exceptional customer service and flexibility, both of which are superior to what Disney offers directly (call centers are currently short-staffed, making speaking with a person at Disney “challenging” to say the least). These low prices coupled with Get Away Today’s “Best Price Guarantee” makes them our recommended ticket seller.

November 24, 2022 Update:  Get Away Today is running its popular Adults at Kids’ Prices promotion on all 3-Day and longer Disneyland Resort tickets. This Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale is running now through November 30, 2022. Click here to purchase discounted tickets via the Black Friday 2022 promo.

All Disneyland tickets are valid for travel now through December 31, 2024. The additional upside to this if you aren’t traveling soon is that you can lock-in current prices and avoid future price increases that occur in February/October 2023 (or 2024, if you’re not visiting for a while). Even if you don’t take advantage of this Black Friday/Cyber Monday deal, we still strongly recommend buying tickets sooner rather than later to safeguard against the inevitable price increases (see below).

As previously predicted, Disneyland ticket prices increased substantially in mid-October. This impacted single-day and multi-day tickets, with regular and Park Hoppers all increasing. On average, prices were up by about 8-9% per ticket, with several multi-day tickets up by $35 each. The Genie+ ticket add-on now costs $25 per day, which is up from the previous cost of $20 per day.

If you know you’re going to go to Disneyland between now and 2024, we highly recommend purchasing your tickets now. Purchasing now will “future proof” against additional price increases in the next year-plus. Typically, Disneyland increases prices in October or February–sometimes both. With Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opening and the 100 Years of Wonder Celebration at Disneyland Resort starting at the end of January 2023, another price increase could occur in February 2023.

Disney leadership has said repeatedly that more price increases are likely, boasting about sky-high demand and the brand’s pricing power. This is unquestionably true thus far this holiday season, increasing the likelihood of another price increase in Winter 2023. The flip side of that is growing recession fears, which might make Disneyland less likely to raise prices yet again, and so soon. Either way, buying tickets now is a hedge against future increases.

Crowds have been insane at Disneyland for most of the year, and that’s with Magic Key Annual Pass sales mostly paused. There’s so much pent-up demand and Disney has been aggressive in trying to boost revenue to offset the lengthy closure of the parks. Another price increase in February 2023 wouldn’t surprise us in the least.

As such, it’s smart to buy tickets now to lock-in current pricing. If you’re visiting between now and Christmas 2023, you could be beating two price increases! If you’re visiting in Summer 2024, it could be three price increases you avoid.

Once you purchase tickets, you’ll need to make a theme park reservation when visiting through 2023. For step-by-step details of the process, see our post: How to Make Disneyland Park Reservations. This is a relatively simple and straightforward process, but it’s important to check the availability calendar before buying tickets.

Both parks still have excellent availability for this month and December 2022…for now. Nevertheless, we’d strongly recommend making Christmas-time reservations ASAP, as many dates will book up at some point.

The other big news is that the new paid line-skipping system that replaces free FastPass has now launched at Disneyland. We cover everything you need to know in our Guide to Genie+ at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure & Lightning Lane FAQ. This should be fairly familiar to MaxPass users, but it does have some unique wrinkles.

You can either purchase Genie+ each day after entering the parks, or buy it in advance as a length-of-ticket add-on (our recommendation if you can still lock-in the old pricing). Unlike at Walt Disney World (where we only recommend it for Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios), we’d advise buying Genie+ for both parks in California. Whether you should buy it in advance or each day really depends upon the duration of your trip and budget.

If you can afford it, we’d recommend most visitors buy Genie+ in advance and for every day of their trip. With that said, Genie+ is not strictly necessary at Disneyland, and you can still accomplish a lot without it and with savvy strategy. It just enables you to re-ride popular attractions and get a lot more bang for your buck.

If you need more info and advice to figure out which ticket options are right for you or how many days you should spend in the parks, the rest of this post is for you. We’ve analyzed the different options before buying Disneyland tickets, and thought we’d share some of what we’ve learned beyond that in this post, starting with where to buy–and where NOT to buy–discount Disneyland tickets…

Where to Buy Discount Disneyland Tickets

As for where to buy, purchasing online in advance is best idea to save the most money. Again, we recommend Get Away Today as a safe (you’ll see why we keep emphasizing this below) option for discounted tickets. These are the same as what you’d purchase directly from Disneyland, with all of the same “features.”

Want to book a hotel in addition to park tickets? That’s perfect, as there are great deals on Disneyland ticket & hotel bundle discounts. In fact, this is where the big savings come into play. We recommend looking for hotels that offer the “4th night free” special. Currently, these are the best discounts you’ll find on a Disneyland Resort or Southern California vacation.

The hotel packages save much more than individual discounts on tickets and hotels, so it’s a great option if you need to book both. Consult our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankingspost for our favorite hotels in the area–we’ve stayed in and reviewed ~50 hotels near Disneyland.

For buying Disneyland tickets, another great option is Undercover Tourist. If you’re in a pinch or buying in person, Target and Sam’s Club stores can also be decent options. If you’re a REDcard holder, Target stores are a more appealing option, although the prices and availability does vary. Same goes for Sam’s Club, which is obviously membership-only.

Target and Sam’s Club stores are definitely your best in-person options, though. When comparing prices, always be sure to factor fees–some sites don’t show these until the order confirmation page. There is no sales tax charged on theme park tickets in California, so that’s not relevant.

If you’re located in Southern California, there are other in-person options in addition to Target and Sam’s Club, but the discounts are not as good. These include Disneyland Good Neighbor Hotels in Anaheim, most of which are authorized sellers. Other options are AAA, Safeway, and Costco stores in Southern California. Note that these stores don’t always carry Disneyland tickets, and even when they do, sometimes the discounts are quite minimal.

Where NOT to Buy Disneyland Tickets

Now that you now where to buy discount Disneyland tickets, let’s cover where you should not purchase tickets. Do not buy Disneyland tickets on eBay, Craigslist, or roadside stands in and around Anaheim. Ticket “rental” or buying partially used tickets is a scam, and you will be throwing your money away.

The reason these won’t work is because Disneyland now takes your photo at the turnstiles the first time you use a ticket. Each time thereafter that you reenter the park, that photo pops up on the screen, and Cast Members verify your appearance against that photo.

Unless you have a really compelling Face/Off kind of story, you’ll be denied entry. Cast Members will not have any sympathy if you’re caught with “rental” tickets; you will have to purchase new tickets at the gate, at full price. We have heard horror stories about this; it’s not a fun way to start a vacation, and instead of “saving” $40 or so, you’ll be losing hundreds of dollars.

Another place you should not purchase Disneyland tickets is DisneyWorld.com. Remember, this guide is for Disneyland Resort, encompassing Disneyland (park) and Disney California Adventure in Southern California. If you’re visiting Walt Disney World in Florida, check out our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post.

You might laugh, but guests arriving with tickets purchased for the wrong coast is a daily occurrence. While this is a problem with which they can assist you, it’s time-consuming, cumbersome, and embarrassing, so don’t make this mistake.

Next, our thoughts on how many days to do Disneyland, and which type of tickets you should purchase…

How Many Days at Disneyland?

We highly recommend spending more than a single day at Disneyland, but then again, we’re hardcore Disney dorks who spend way too much time in the parks. So your mileage may vary if you’re traveling to California and want to spend the majority of your time exploring Los Angeles, San Diego, and the beach cities.

Unfortunately, no authorized ticket sellers offer discounts on 1-day tickets. None. You’re better off purchasing those directly from Disney. There are almost no exceptions to this, so if you see somewhere advertising discounts on 1-day Disneyland tickets, it’s probably not legit. If you really only want to do a single day and you can’t be convinced otherwise, we highly recommend doing the Park Hopper tickets and bouncing between the two parks to see as much as possible.

Those on a tight budget might consider forgoing the Park Hopper option, in which case you should only do Disneyland, rather than Disney California Adventure. Keep in mind that if do that, you won’t be able to visit the awesome Cars Land, Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout, Incredicoaster, and more. Also know that it’s impossible to do everything in one day.

If you’re willing to commit to two days at Disneyland, the good news is that this is where discounts start to be offered via authorized sellers. The bad news is that these discounts are fairly minimal. You’re looking at ~$5 off per ticket at best–but every little bit of savings helps!

As with the 1-day ticket, we recommend purchasing the Park Hopper option. This allows you a day for each park, as well as the ability to bounce back and forth between the two parks during your visit. That offers some strategic advantages, including be able to book Genie+ Lightning Lane reservations in both parks.

If you’re doing 3 days or more, that’s where you’ll start finding the best discounts on Disneyland tickets. The incremental cost of each day beyond 2 is progressively lower, meaning you pay significantly less per day for Disneyland and Disney California Adventure visits that are 4 days long than you do for a single day. This huge cost difference is one of the big reasons we recommend doing a few days at Disneyland if you can. As Disney says, “the longer you play, the less you pay per day.” Cheesy, but accurate.

Cutting to the chase, this is why we recommend the average family spend 3-4 days at Disneyland Resort. There’s enough to do at the parks to justify a 4 day visit, especially if you go at a normal pace, take a midday break, or do table service meals. Four days is the point when the per day cost drops below $100, and with 4-day tickets, you can also not purchase the Park Hopper option to save even more money. (Without Park Hopper, the per day cost is $74.)

Of course, not everyone is going to want to spend 4 days at Disneyland, so it’s not for everyone. There’s a ton to do in Southern California, so you might be better suited with only 2-3 days and spending time at the beach, in Los Angeles, or other theme parks like Universal Studios Hollywood.

Park Hopper v. One Park Per Day

We’ve already answered this question for single and 2-day tickets, but we also recommend the Park Hopper option for longer stays if your budget allows. The reason for this is simple: Disneyland and Disney California Adventure are literally less than a football field apart. It’s easy to jump from one to the other, and we do on every single visit. This allows you to hit Radiator Springs Racers first thing every morning of our trip, and then either continue the day at Disney California Adventure, or head over to Disneyland.

If you do continue the day at Disney California Adventure, having the hopper allows you to go to Disneyland late at night for the fireworks, or to head over to Disneyland to end the day, because it’s usually open later. There’s a lot of nighttime entertainment to see, and it’s tough to see it all in one night.

You can also bounce back and forth between the parks, making for more efficient touring. This is incredibly helpful during busier seasons like summer, spring break, and Christmas. You don’t waste time commuting between the Disneyland Resort parks like you do at Walt Disney World, so it’s really good from a strategic and ‘most bang for your buck’ perspective, the Park Hopper is it.

On the other hand, if you have small children who won’t stay up late or aren’t concerned about having the most efficient day possible, opting for Park Hopper might be a waste of your money. As always, there’s really no one size fits all answer. While we love the Park Hopper option and leverage it to its full advantage, others might take a more laid back approach.

Finally, some other ticket options that might be appealing to some readers, but are more ‘niche’ options…

Costco, Safeway & Other Grocery Stores

If you are reading this at the last-minute while already on vacation in California, and are just looking for quick–but not the best–savings, local grocery stores can be an option. Sometimes Safeway, Vons, Albertsons, Ralphs, and Costco have small discounts.

We would not recommend going out of your way to find one of these stores, as these tickets aren’t always available, and usually amount to around $2 per ticket. It’s really not worth your limited vacation time for what’s potentially a wild goose chase. (We have never seen discounted Disneyland tickets at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, so don’t even bother with those.)

The only ticket deals we’ve spotted at grocery stores in Orange County this year have been for the Southern California Resident Ticket Deal (see below for more info). Redeeming this at Disneyland requires proof of SoCal residency, so do NOT buy if you aren’t a local!

There are also modest savings available at AAA stores, which obviously are not grocery stores, but the AAA discount is the same idea. Note that AAA and Disney ended their partnership, so the savings there are no longer as good. More importantly, they no longer offer free parking, which was a really big deal.

In the past, Costco stores on the West Coast offered a gift card with purchase, but this has not happened for over 5 years. Basically, if you read about an excellent grocery store ticket offer, read the publication date, as all of these discounts have dried up. These grocery store discounts were available at a time when Disneyland’s attendance was much lower and they’re unlikely to return.

Whatever you do, do not just stop at a random roadside store in Anaheim or Los Angeles and buy tickets. Those are most likely scams.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RESIDENT DISCOUNTS

If you live in Southern California (and have proof of residence), there are often discount Disneyland and Disney California Adventure ticket offers from January until May and August through September each year during a time when attendance is historically light and attraction closures are common for refurbishments. For SoCal residents, these are the best deals of the year–better than anything else on this list.

Currently, there are not ticket discounts for Southern California residents. The last of these offered California residents the ability to visit the Disneyland Resort theme parks for as little as $83 per day with the purchase of a 3-day, 1-park per day ticket for admission on Mondays through Thursdays. However, this expired in mid-September.

It is highly unlikely that another discount is offered before January 2023. Even then, it’s possible that no new deals are released right away, as there’s new entertainment is debuting for the 100 Years of Wonder Celebration and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is opening on January 27, 2023. As such, Disneyland might wait until February 2023 or later to release another resident ticket deal.

When available, these deals can be purchased directly from Disneyland, or via Get Away Today for even greater savings. These offers are usually valid only for California residents within ZIP codes 90000-96199 and Northern Baja California residents within ZIP codes 21000-22999. Each Guest (age 18+) using a California Resident ticket must show proof of eligible residency for purchase and admission. A valid government-issued photo ID showing an address within a valid ZIP code is required for entry into the park.

Disneyland Magic Key Annual Passes

Even under the new Magic Key Annual Pass program, it’s still really tough to justify buying a Disneyland Annual Passport for a single trip if you live out of state. This might conflict with other information you’ve heard or read, but that’s probably outdated.

It used to be a great option to purchase an Annual Pass, but in the last 5 years, Disneyland Annual Passes have more than doubled in price. (You read that correctly.) Annual Passes are particularly attractive if you have a flexible schedule and will be in the parks more than two weeks per year.

Conversely, if you live in Northern California, Utah, Nevada, etc. and will visit Disneyland multiple times per year, the Magic Key pass might make a lot of sense. In fact, depending on when you plan to visit, you might be able to get away with the “Enchant” Magic Key, which would move the breakeven point down to only a few separate long weekend trips.

As of Late 2022, Annual Passes are only available for renewal–there are no new sales. See When Will Magic Key Annual Pass Sales Resume? for our predictions as to when you can expect to be able to purchase new APs again in 2023.

Other SoCal Theme Parks

If you are wanting to visit other theme parks as part of your Southern California vacation, there are a ton of options. The two we recommend are Knott’s Berry Farm and Universal Studios Hollywood, neither of which are available via CityPass. Knott’s is less than 15 minutes away, and Universal Studios Hollywood is under an hour away from Disneyland.

There’s also both SeaWorld San Diego and LEGOLAND California, which are both over 2 hours south of Disneyland Resort by car. If you are thinking about doing any of these other parks, check out Get Away Today’s discounts and ticket bundles.

Okay, so that’s all a lot to digest. What are the key takeaways?

• Always buy your Disneyland tickets in advance, from an authorized third party ticket broker. Get Away Today has the best prices on Disneyland tickets. If you want to do more than just Disneyland, their Disneyland + Universal Studios Hollywood bundle is a great option.
• If you are doing a vacation that is focused on Disneyland Resort, we recommend doing a 4-day or 5-day ticket for the most value. (Pro tip: break up your visit with a relaxing beach day in the middle.)
• If you want to a balanced vacation that allows you to do the highlights of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, but also spend a lot of time in Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California, our recommendation is the 4-Day Park Hopper Ticket to drop the per day cost of visiting Disneyland to under $100.
• Regardless of when you’re visiting Disneyland, we recommend purchasing your tickets now to lock-in current prices.
• We don’t recommend a 1-day ticket, but if you’re going to buy it, do so directly from Disney–no third parties discount this ticket.
• Magic Key Passes (AP replacement) might be a great option for Californians and those in nearby states who make a few trips per year. Anyone making one trip or even two shorter ones will not benefit from the Magic Key program.

We also have tons of other posts to help you plan, including our look at Disneyland Area Hotel Reviews & Rankings, our Unique Packing List for Disney Trips, an index of our Disneyland Resort Restaurant Reviews, and a number of other things in our comprehensive Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide!

Your Thoughts…

Where do you typically purchase your Disneyland tickets? Have any questions about Disneyland tickets or places to buy them? Wondering about the latest Disneyland ticket price increase rumors? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!

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