Hiya, Carol!
Welcome to planDisney!
Oh boy! I love that you're going to be visiting The Happiest Place on Earth during such a
magical time of yEAR! The Holiday decorations will still be up in all of their glowing glory. And my favorite, the
Disney Festival of Holidays in Disney California Adventure Park, will still have many daily performances as well as
delicious global holiday treats to try.
I like to think on the positive side, and to a fault I tend to believe that anything is possible. However. Part of the pandemic reopening procedures is that Guests must now have a
date-based Theme Park Admission Ticket as well as a
Park Pass Reservation which tells Mickey and his pals which theme park you and your crew plan on playing in and on what day. Park Pass Reservations are available for booking up to 120 days in advance and tend to book up completely in the days, weeks, or even months before the most primo Disney days. So if you're really, REALLY set on this plan, my suggestion would be to purchase your tickets and make your park pass reservations for these dates now because I guarantee they will sell out and book up solid by early November.
Pro Tip: hEARs the
Park Pass Reservation Calendar so you can see what the current reservation situation looks like.
However. I also used to live in
Southern California and it once took me half an hour just to get out of the LAX parking lot. The good news is that if you're unable to make a previously scheduled Park Pass Reservation, you can try to reschedule. Do note that if you purchase a multi-day ticket (2-day, 3-day, etc), the remaining days are only valid for up to 13 days from the first day of use. (So say that your park days are planned for Dec 31, Jan 1, and Jan 2; if you end up not getting into the park on the 31st but you still use your ticket on Jan 1, your last possible day to try to make up your missed first admission would be Jan 14.) If you're only planning on purchasing a 1-day ticket, you can also reschedule its day of use and Park Pass Reservation, but again that will be based upon availability.
If this were me, I'd book a park-view room on the top floor of a
Disneyland Resort Hotel or a
Good Neighbor Hotel. This way you'd have a guaranteed place to see the show without paying for a park ticket that you'll only get an hour or two out of. Another idea is you could also plan to watch Fireworks from The Esplanade area, which is the walking path directly between the Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park entrances. The view is a little obstructed, but you'd still get all of the excitement for free.
I hope that this helped to clEAR your question up, Carol! Be sure to follow the
official planDisney Panel Instagram account for even more tips and tricks. And if you have any more Disneyland Resort vacation planning questions, We're All Ears!
~Kristen N.