“When will new Annual Pass sales resume at Disneyland?” and “will Magic Keys be available again?” are common reader questions. Many locals are eager to purchase passes, having waited too long to buy before sales were paused, forgetting to renew, etc. We’ll share the company’s official position and speculate as to when APs will return. (September 10, 2024.)
If you want the short and not-so-sweet of it, Disneyland is not currently selling Magic Keys. Annual Pass sales last resumed from March 5 to June 5, 2024. By the latter date, the Enchant Key, Believe Key, Inspire Key, and Imagine Key had all sold out. Prior to that, sales resumed on January 10, 2024 and by the end of the business day, three of the four passes had sold out; the final one sold out quickly the next morning.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that, if history repeats itself, Disneyland will resume Magic Key sales again at least once more in 2024 and again in early 2025. Since you’re reading this post, you’re presumably wondering when–this offers our best guesses based on past precedent. If all you’re looking for is official news or an announcement, we don’t have that–but would recommend you subscribe to our free email newsletter for updates. We’ll give you a heads up when sales are about to resume again.
Let’s start with basic background to bring you up to speed. During the closure, Disneyland ended the AP program and cancelled all outstanding passes. When Disneyland and Disney California Adventure reopened, Annual Passes remained unavailable through the summer, but unprecedented ticket deals were offered for California residents.
By the beginning of August, Disneyland introduced that membership program: Magic Keys. This was/is really just Annual Passes by a different name, higher prices, and required reservations for all tiers. Demand was high from the outset, with a virtual queue and all-day waits to purchase Magic Key Annual Passes on release day. (At this point, a multi-hour virtual queue is the rule, rather than the exception.)
Since then, Disneyland has paused and resumed sales on several occasions. Notably, this has included each of the last several summers–meaning the Summer 2024 pause is typical, and not the least bit surprising. When these passes are not for sale, you’ll see their statuses change to “Currently Unavailable” or “Available for Renewal” on Disneyland.com.
Even with AP sales often paused, crowds have been absolutely bonkers at Disneyland for much of the last few years, especially during the Halloween and Christmas seasons. We visit the parks weekly, including on numerous days that historically would’ve been shoulder or off-season only to find moderate or higher crowds.
In short, there’s currently more demand for Disneyland than there is supply or capacity, and it’s most advantageous for the company to restrict Magic Key sales in favor of single and multi-day ticket purchases. As we’ve explained before, Annual Passholders are advantageous to Disneyland, but not in a constrained capacity environment at the expense of tourists.
Statistically speaking, per visit spending is significantly higher among infrequent visitors than APs. Or as Disney now-infamously put it, more Magic Keyholders in the parks results in an “unfavorable attendance mix.” It thus makes sense that Disneyland would want to prioritize those demographics and not fill the parks with Magic Key Passholders at the expense of more lucrative vacationers during busier seasons. (All of this may seem like irrelevant or excessive ‘backstory,’ but we’ll be circling back to all of it in the analysis.)
Despite this, one popular fan theory is that the company is embracing the “Disney Vault” strategy of creating demand through scarcity, or rather, perceived scarcity. It’s possible that Disneyland has survey data showing a high dissatisfaction rating among Magic Key purchasers and low intent to renew or purchase because reservations have been frustrating and prices have increased. However, if these same fans believe they might not be able to simply purchase passes at their leisure down the road, they might err on the side of caution and renew when their time comes.
It’s our view that there’s some truth to this. Using the “Disney Vault” to stimulate demand, FOMO, or the perception of scarcity is a savvy strategy. But the thing is, this only works when crowds are sufficiently high. If it’s plainly obvious to everyone that the parks are “dead” or that there’s actually no demand for APs and Disneyland is just trying to ‘fake it until they make it,’ so to speak, the approach wouldn’t work. To the contrary, it would be counterproductive, as Disney would be leaving money on the table from people who would otherwise buy Magic Keys.
In other words, it’s both the “Disney Vault” approach and crowds. The parks are sufficiently busy and attendance is high without APs. This isn’t to say business is booming. In fact, it isn’t. Disney has acknowledged that pent-up demand is exhausted and Disneyland’s numbers are down year-over-year. However, Disney is still in a strong position relative to 2019, and other ticket deals are effective at incentivizing visits.
Which brings us to the present question: when will Disneyland start selling new Magic Key annual passes?
Our expectation is that Annual Pass sales will resume at some point in October or November 2024.
In the past, we would’ve been inclined to predict that Magic Key sales would resume right about now, in September. However, there’s currently a 3-Day Discount Disneyland Ticket Deal that is available to everyone–meaning the general public, as opposed to just Californians. This deeply discounted ticket deal runs through September 26, 2024.
In all likelihood, this is a substitute for Magic Key sales over the summer and into the early fall. It’s a savvy strategy, as summer is no longer peak season at Disneyland and September is never really all that busy. (The last 1-2 weeks of that deal will be, though, since it’s a “use it or lose it” offer–meaning unused days expire on September 26.)
By contrast, the final three months of the year are increasingly busy at Disneyland, as they’re the heart of Halloween followed by the holiday season. These are the two busiest times of year at Disneyland, which makes the likelihood of a ticket deal very low.
However, these are also the three most expensive months of the year. October is actually #1 overall, and it manages to surpass November and December–despite both having higher highs–by virtue of consistently expensive dates. As we’ve seen recently, many Disneyland visitors have reached their breaking point on prices, so it’s possible there will be a slowdown in the final few months of 2024 as compared to last year.
Additionally, October 1 is the start of the new fiscal year. Disney loves to bring in as much revenue as possible at the start of new fiscal years, and there are few better ways to “juice the stats” than by selling new Annual Passes. Conversely, this is also why they’d refrain from resuming sales in September–the company prefers that revenue at the start of the new fiscal year rather than the end of the previous one.
Along similar lines, Disneyland typically increases price–almost across the board–in mid-October. For each of the last two years, this occurred on October 11. There’s nothing necessarily special about that day–it could just as easily occur a few days earlier or later–it’s just the general trend that prices go up after the new fiscal year starts.
This has included Magic Keys in the past, and past precedent suggests that Disneyland prefers to raise the price on those when they aren’t even available for sale. (Think about it–less of a backlash when the price goes up on something you can’t buy, anyway!)
For all of these reasons, we anticipate a resumption of Magic Key sales sometime in October or November. Narrowing that timeframe further, my guess would be after fall break but before Thanksgiving. So between mid-to-late October and mid-November. If I had to pinpoint a specific date, I’d go with October 22, 2024. That’s purely a guess and is based simple on picking a sweet spot that’s between two higher attendance timeframes.
With that said, it’s entirely possible that Disneyland won’t resume Magic Key sales again until mid-January 2025. I’m skeptical of that. Pent-up demand has largely exhausted itself, and the general economic environment has taken a turn for the worse with consumer spending starting to slow. Spending on travel and leisure is only likely to decrease going forward. If I were in charge at Disneyland, I’d want to resume Magic Key sales in 2024 to capture as much of that consumer spending now, rather than waiting and being hit harder by a recession or economic slowdown.
As economic conditions continue to normalize–the labor market, household savings, and staffing shortages–there could be less of an issue with reservations being unavailable. By then, it’s also entirely possible that the non-stop price increases and cash grabs alienate enough locals and tourists that Disneyland is once again in a position of needing to lure back locals. It’s entirely possible that this actually occurs sooner, perhaps during the second half of summer season (which is how things actually played out last year).
In any case, it’s safe to say that new Magic Key sales will resume at some point, and will not enter the “Disney Vault” for years. In normal times, Disneyland is dependent upon locals during the off-season when tourism to Southern California is low because the weather is colder or school is in session (or both).
Although Disney has tried to make Disneyland Resort a standalone vacation destination (and moved it in that direction since the debut of Cars Land), it is still reliant upon Californians and not tourists for much of the year. While those same locals cause attendance problems, Disneyland has not shown that it can subsist on travelers to the same degree as Walt Disney World.
The challenge is in finding a balance. Disneyland is a Southern California institution, but it’s also becoming a popular destination for families on the West Coast. While most Disneyland Resort guests come from somewhere in California, people travel from other states, more and more.
Utah and Nevada are chief among these, with Oregon, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Washington also heavily represented. For the last several years, we’ve observed crowd spikes when major districts in those states (especially Utah and Nevada) have breaks.
Disneyland also has a huge local population, with a high degree of disposable income. The collective population of Los Angeles and Orange Counties is nearly 14 million, which is higher (by millions) than the local population near Walt Disney World.
Once you throw San Diego and other areas into the mix within a reasonable driving distance of Disneyland, you have around 20 million potential guests that can easily do day trips to Disneyland. And Disneyland only has two parks.
Ultimately, our prediction is that Disneyland Resort does not resume new Magic Key sales again until mid-to-late October 2024 or early November 2024. Given the popularity of the Halloween and Christmas seasons, we’d expect sales to be extremely short-lived. Disneyland won’t want to oversell APs, so you’ll want to buy ASAP if at all.
Regardless of what happens with Magic Key sales in late 2024, it’s inevitable that they’ll resume again in early 2025. The most likely date for a resumption then is January 14, 2025. It won’t necessarily be that precise date, but that’s enough of a buffer after the holiday season for Disneyland to see lower crowds and how sales of the inevitable SoCal resident ticket deal for 2025 are performing.
Personally, I think there’s a good chance that when Magic Key sales resume in early 2025, it’s the last time they go on sale–meaning that Annual Passes perpetually available throughout the remainder of 2025, 2026 and beyond. At some point very soon, things will normalize. Staffing shortages will be fully resolved, pent-up demand will fizzle out, and consumer spending will fall back to normal levels. Of course, that’s just our guess from the outside looking in. So we shall see what happens next!
Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places!
YOUR THOUGHTS
When do you expect Disneyland to start selling new Magic Keys? Think sometime in mid-October to early November 2024 is a safe bet for AP sales? Think we might not see new Annual Passes until January 2025 to ensure there’s ample capacity for more lucrative tourists during Halloween and Christmas vacation? Would you purchase a Magic Key right now if you could? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
