Hi there Kelly,
Welcome back to planDisney! It's always great to help out a fellow Arizonan with planning a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth.
This is a great question! I've found it helpful to think of tickets and park reservations as two completely separate systems.
For
theme park tickets, you can purchase them at any time and just need to use them by their expiration date, which is typically pretty far out. For example, if you purchase multi-day tickets today then you would have until January 12, 2026 until they expired. However, even if they do expire, you can still apply what you paid for your standard theme park tickets toward the purchase of new tickets of equal or greater value.
Theme park reservations need to be made for each day you plan to visit and the window to do so currently is available about six months out from the current date, which you can see on the
Theme Park Reservation Availability Calendar. It's also very easy to change these reservations pretty much at any time through the
My Plans hub if done before the actual date of the reservation. If you're needing to change them on or after the date of a previously booked theme park reservation then you might need to
call a Cast Member at the Guest Information line for additional help.
Therefore, the theme park tickets that you purchase - with your credit card points or whichever payment method you choose - will be valid until their expiration date. Then you'll need to apply theme park reservations to those tickets for your upcoming trip but can change those reservation dates whenever you need through the My Plans hub that I linked above.
I hope that's helpful! Thanks again for your question, Kelly, and enjoy your upcoming trip to the Happiest Place on Earth.
Have a Magical Day,
Greg