Hiya, Kristy! Welcome to planDisney! I can see that you are hoping to visit the Disneyland Resort in just a few days, so I'm going to send this note with a little extra pixie dust in the hopes that it arrives in time to be helpful! Let's make like Ariel and jump right in!
First, let's break down what you are looking at on the Disneyland website. As part of the return to the magic, Guests are required to have both a theme park ticket as well as a
theme park reservation to enter the parks. While they are connected, I think it's easiest to think of the two separately as reservations can be canceled and rescheduled, subject to availability. The reservation essentially holds a spot for you in a particular park on a particular day and helps Mickey and Minnie know how many Guests to expect. When you go to purchase a ticket on the website, making a reservation is part of the process so it can sometimes seem like tickets are "sold out" when it is just the date you are selecting has no reservations currently available.
Here is the good news - Guests are constantly modifying their plans so reservations can (and often do!) open up! You just have to hang on to some faith, trust, and ... you guessed ... pixie-dusted patience! When I open up the
theme park reservation calendar right now, I see that there is availability for a One Park Per Day ticket on April 19th for Disneyland Park. While I cannot guarantee that it will be the same for you by the time you check again, I can tell you that the calendar is updated live and if you continue to refresh as you get closer to your date, you may see some options open up to you!
When it comes to the different kinds of tickets available, you can purchase either a One Park Per Day ticket or a Park Hopper ticket. The One Park Per Day tickets are priced in tiers 1 - 6, which you have discovered, based on the day of the week and time of year. When you purchase a Tier 4 ticket, you are able to use it on any dates included within this tier, which means there will be some black-out dates if you needed to reschedule to a different date other than April 19th. The
Disneyland website has a clear breakdown to show which dates a Tier 4 ticket is valid or blacked out. If for some reason you need to reschedule to a date that is in Tier 5 or 6, you can upgrade your ticket. I would give the
Guest Services team a call in this case. When purchasing your One Park Per Day ticket, you'll notice that you will be asked to select a park where you will spend your day - either Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park, depending on availability. Park Hopper tickets do not have tiered pricing. If you purchase a Park Hopper, once you get to the reservation part of the process, you will be asked to select a park where you will spend your morning, with hopping between the two available to you after 1 p.m. So, if you see on the reservation calendar that only a Park Hopper to Disney California Adventure Park is available for your date, you would still be able to hop to Disneyland Park after 1 p.m. and enjoy everything Disneyland Resort has to offer! At this time, Disney Military Promotional Tickets are only available at participating U.S. base ticket offices and not sold on Disneyland property.
Kristy, I know this was a lot to take in! If you have any follow-up questions, feel free to reach out to me directly so I can get back to you quickly! I have to say that your upcoming visit is perfectly timed as character hugs are BACK as of April 18th! So be sure to make some time for Mickey!
Magic awaits!
Tara