Hi there, Arianna!
To secure a Disneyland Resort
theme park reservation, a
theme park ticket,
Magic Key pass, or
Disneyland Resort Vacation Package must first be linked to a Disneyland Resort account. In the case of tickets, the theme park admission needs to be fully paid for. The same thing goes for Magic Key passes, except for eligible California residents who opt for an available monthly payment plan. Vacation Packages may be booked several months in advance, at which time only a small deposit is required. A Vacation Package only needs to be paid off 30 days before arrival. With a Vacation Package booking, theme park reservations may be made as many as 120 days in advance, even though the travel ePackage with
Disney eTickets doesn’t arrive until four days before arrival.
It is often possible to purchase theme park tickets and book corresponding park reservations on the same day of a visit. It is important to be aware that the number of park reservations is limited. So it is possible that reservations may run out for a given day. I recommend keeping an eye on the
theme park reservation availability calendar to get a feel for whether it looks like a particular date may be running out of reservations. For example, one-park-per-day reservations often run out before
Park Hopper reservations.
Tony’s Tip: Guests may have various reasons for delaying a ticket purchase, any of which are naturally valid for the circumstances of those Guests. One common reason for waiting to purchase park tickets is intending to pay for them using cash. For Guests with this need, my recommendation is to purchase
Disney Gift Cards with cash and then use the gift cards to purchase tickets in advance of their visit to the Disneyland Resort.
I sometimes purchase Disney Gift Cards from our local Target store here in Utah, which happens to be one of the
first to feature a Disney store inside. I have also purchased gift cards from a nearby wholesale warehouse store, where I can purchase them at a discount. When I purchase multiple gift cards, I use my account on the
Disney Gift Card website to combine them into fewer cards, up to $1000 per consolidated card. This helps simplify purchases of tickets on the Disneyland Resort website, which can only accept one gift card per transaction.
I hope you have a magical time at the Disneyland Resort, Arianna. My family and I will also be traveling down I-15 soon to enjoy things like the
Disney100 Celebration and the
Disney California Adventure Food & Wine Festival. We can’t wait!
~Tony