Hello Rachel,
Thanks for bringing your question to planDisney! We love getting a chance to share tips and ideas from our own Disney vacations, so if you're looking for recommendations as you make your plans, just ask us here.
Guests who wish to visit the Disneyland Resort theme parks need two things:
a valid theme park admission and a valid theme park reservation. The theme park admission and theme park reservation must be valid for the same date for the same theme park.
Until recently, to get their theme park admission and theme park reservations, Guests would purchase their tickets, and then use the
Theme Park Reservations system to make reservations. It was a two-step, two-system process. The
Theme Park Reservation Availability calendar helped here, because Guests could check to see if the theme park they wanted to visit had reservations available for the days they wanted to visit.
You can imagine you would be disappointed, though, if you purchased theme park tickets, only to sadly discover that the theme parks did not have available reservations for when you wanted to visit.
Around mid-May, Disneyland Resort upgraded its Theme Park Reservations system with a more convenient process that lets
Guests purchase theme park tickets and make theme park reservations all in the same easy step. With this new approach, Guests can quickly take care of buying tickets and making reservations in one step.
As I see it, this new process is so much more convenient, and it takes some guesswork out of the planning process. While the new approach does mean that Guests can no longer purchase standalone theme park tickets without a theme park reservation, I think it helps simplify the whole process to take care of the two things you need as a Guest -- a ticket and a reservation -- all at once. The new approach also works for those Guests who had previously purchased tickets and not yet made their theme park reservations. If you already have your tickets, you can make a reservation. If you're buying new tickets, you can buy them and make a reservation at the same time.
Rachel, I hope this information and context help you see why the new approach that brings together ticket buying and reservation making is super helpful for Guests looking forward to the magic of the Disneyland Resort.
And here's wishing you lots of Disney magic in your day today!
Jerry