Hey there Ann,
Welcome to planDisney and thank you for this fantastic question. The Cheshire Cat-like cryptic short answer is that both sentences of your question are correct.
The actually helpful planDisney full answer is that Guests do need both a valid
theme park ticket and a
theme park reservation for each day they plan to visit the Disneyland Resort. When you purchase your ticket through the Disneyland Resort website, it also walks you through making your park reservations as part of the purchase process.
However, there are times where Guests will purchase tickets through some other avenue - like 3rd party vendors, for example, where a theme park reservation is not made, but they only purchase their tickets. Therefore, in those cases, the Guest would need to then make their park reservations through the
My Plans hub on the Disneyland Resort website.
Speaking of which, that is a great place to check your park reservation and all the other details of any upcoming trips you might have. Additionally, park reservations are fairly flexible and can be changed depending on capacity, so if you change your mind and want to switch one day to Disney California Adventure Park instead of Disneyland Park then the My Plans hub is my favorite place to manage that.
I hope that helps, Ann! Thanks again for your question and have a fantastic time on your visit to the Disneyland Resort later this summer.
Have a Magical Day,
Greg