Hello Doris!
Welcome to planDisney! As the mother of four, we too have begun to focus our gift-giving more on experiences than on things. For example, my youngest son is getting tickets to a musical for Christmas (shhh, don’t tell!), so I love the idea of gifting a ticket to Disneyland to your granddaughter.
As it sounds like you have discovered,
tickets to the Disneyland Resort are now purchased on a tier system, with
some park days costing more or less than other park days. In addition to the paid theme park ticket, Guests also need a complimentary but required Theme Park Reservation to enter a theme park on that specific day. If you knew for sure what day your granddaughter would be visiting, I would say you should purchase the ticket for that exact day. But since you aren’t sure, I have an alternate recommendation. How about purchasing a
Disney Gift Card in the amount of the ticket price? You can purchase a Disney Gift Card online and have it mailed to you, or emailed to you or her. You can also purchase them in $25 increments at major US retailers such as Target or Walmart. You could send the gift card to her in a holiday card with an explanation that it is to cover her park ticket. I would purchase the gift card in an amount that was enough to cover a Tier 5 ticket so she could visit on whichever day worked best for her. Any additional money left on the gift card should she visit on a lower-tiered day she could then use for a treat or souvenir!
If you truly prefer to purchase an actual park ticket, you can still do that. You would purchase the ticket online and then give her the ticket number to link to her Disneyland Account. The concern would be if she decided to go on a different date than the one you purchased the ticket for. This can be changed but would require a phone call. Currently, phone hold times can be significant, and Guests sometimes cannot get through and are given a message to call back in the future. This can be time-consuming, which is why I would just go with the Disney Gift Card option.
I hope this is helpful, Doris. Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas!
- Kate