Most dedicated theme park fans know that Disneyland has been requiring reservations to visit its theme parks since reopening in late April 2021. But many Southern California locals and visitors still might not realize that they need to make Disneyland reservations well in advance of visiting the parks.
So allow me to remind everyone out there searching for information about visiting Disneyland that you should not wait until the day - or even the week - before you want to visit to get your tickets and make a reservation to visit the parks.
Especially if you want to visit on a Friday, Saturday, holiday, or holiday week, book your tickets and reservations as soon as you can. At the very least, try to book more than a week in advance, but ideally, book at least a month out if you want what's going to be a popular date. Disneyland currently makes reservations available up to four months in advance.
Too many times in the past months, I have gotten notes from friends online asking how they can into Disneyland, after finding no reservation availability for the day they wanted to visit. At that point, your best bet is to keep checking, since annual passholders will need to cancel their reservations if they are not going to use them and don't want to lose their ability to make future reservations. That sometimes creates "last-minute" openings the night before.
If you don't want to chance that, plan ahead. Always make your park reservations before making restaurant, hotel, or tour reservations, since having those will not help you get into the parks.
You can find current reservation availability for Disneyland and Disney California Adventure on Disneyland's website. Availability differs for people using One-Park-Per-Day or Park Hopper tickets. We're in a relatively slow season for the parks now, but once the Halloween Time and Holidays at Disneyland Resort seasons start in early September, availability will get tight throughout the week.
Local residents can save $160 on three-day tickets to the Disneyland theme parks right now with a deal from our travel partner, while visitors from outside the area can save up to $36 on multi-day tickets. Visit their Disneyland tickets page to book, then once you get your confirmation, head to the Disneyland website to make your reservations.
Disneyland all this year will be celebrating The Walt Disney Company's 100th anniversary, and it just opened a new ride and two new nighttime spectaculars. Here are some upcoming important dates to keep in mind for 2023 at the Disneyland Resort, if you are planning a trip:
At some point soon, we should be getting word about the opening of Adventureland Treehouse inspired by Walt Disney's Swiss Family Robinson and a closing date for Splash Mountain.
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Solid advice with one caveat: beware scheduling a trip for September or October before they've released the schedule for the Halloween parties, or you could end up having a day where they kick you out of the park in the afternoon, i.e., your ticket is only good for part of the day, and you have to pay more to stay into the evening.
I had this happen two years ago, and when I called to complain, they told me "well, the disclaimer says the park hours are open to change," and I'm like, yeah, but you all baited and switched on me, selling me what I thought was a full-day ticket only later to tell me it was good for only part of the day.
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Thanks for this, my sister has been planning a trip for a while set for early March and I'll be going with. Tickets are set, just need to figure out logistics of the rides and any reservations.