Disney is offering a new ticket deal for discount admission to Disneyland and California Adventure in November and December 2024, the heart of the holiday season that is historically the busiest time of the year in the parks. Here are dates & details about the deal, plus our commentary.
Notably, this is the third “unprecedented” ticket deal at Disneyland for 2024, with a second round of the highly popular kids’ ticket deal on tap for 2025. This discount indirectly follows up on the hugely popular special offer that ran for the summer through September and was available to the general public as opposed to just Californians.
This new Christmas 2024 ticket deal also comes as the parks have been slower-than-expected since that deal ended. That doesn’t mean low crowds in absolute terms–although that has been the case on many days–just major year-over-year declines. October had become one of the busiest (and most expensive!) months to do Disneyland, so this year’s slowdown was noticeable.
Interestingly, the new discount comes on the heels of both price increases and the resumption of Magic Key Annual Pass sales. That latter have still yet to sell out, which is not necessarily unprecedented. But it is slightly surprising given how long sales had been paused and that they resumed right on the precipice of the popular Holiday Time at Disneyland. Then again, unless they stick with the Disney Vault strategy to create artificial scarcity, at some point, they’re going to just stay on sale.
A ticket deal right after increasing prices is far less noteworthy. We’ve remarked several times over the last decade-plus that Disney studied at the Kohl’s School of Business Management, which is to say that the sticker prices are almost meaningless due to discounts. As Kohl’s learned ages ago, if the base price is higher, it makes the discounted rate look like even more of a bargain!.
Anyway, let’s dig into the deals of this discount–here’s the announcement from Disney:
As part of the Disney+ Perks program launching today, current and new Disney+ subscribers in the U.S. and Canada can enjoy a limited-time holiday ticket offer for Disneyland Resort. Disney+ subscribers can purchase two days and get one day free at a Disneyland Resort theme park with a specially priced 3-Day, 1-Park per day ticket.
Make special holiday memories visiting Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park during the most magical time of the year! Ride favorite attractions, watch dazzling nighttime spectaculars and more.
Disney+ subscribers—get tickets now to take advantage of this special limited-time offer! Then, visit 3 days from November 18 through December 27, 2024. Park reservations are required and subject to availability.
3-Day Ticket with Admission to 1-Park Per Day: $330
- Tickets are valid November 18 through December 27, 2024, subject to restrictions and park reservation availability.
- This ticket is valid for 13 days after first use or on December 27, 2024, whichever comes first.
- Park Hopper ticket upgrade and Lightning Lane Multi Pass can be added for additional fees.
Before buying your tickets, be sure reservations are available for the dates you want to visit. Check available dates using the park reservation page. Park reservation availability can change until the park reservation selection is finalized.
While you can buy directly from Disneyland, this deal is also available via Get Away Today with even greater savings.
If the new 3-Day Disneyland Ticket Offer isn’t for you due to travel dates or because you need a longer duration than 3-day tickets, see our 2024 Discount Disneyland Ticket Buying Guide for additional recommendations.
These tickets are subject to the standard boilerplate terms & conditions, but here’s something that’s important to understand:
To enter a park, both a theme park reservation and a valid ticket for the same park on the same date are required. Theme park reservations for Disneyland Holiday Ticket holders are limited in number and subject to the availability of park reservations allocated to Disneyland Holiday Tickets as determined by Disney and theme park capacity.
Reservation availability for Disneyland Holiday Ticket holders is not guaranteed for any date, and reservations may be difficult to get for any particular date, especially as the ticket expiration date approaches. To ensure best availability, make reservations early. On any given date, park reservations may be available for general theme park tickets even though park reservations allocated to Disneyland Holiday Tickets are fully reserved.
Disneyland Holiday Ticket holders are not entitled to any reservations Disney makes available to others. Parks, attractions, entertainment, experiences, services and offerings may be modified, limited in availability or unavailable, and are subject to restrictions, and change or cancellation without notice. Park admission and offerings are not guaranteed.
What this means is that park reservations for the new Disneyland Holiday 3-Day Ticket Offer for Disney+ Subscribers will pull from a different “bucket” of theme park reservations than regular full-price park tickets. This is exactly how Magic Keys already work, or even regular single-day tickets versus Park Hoppers or multi-day tickets. So it’s really nothing new.
Nevertheless, it’s critically important to understand because this ticket deal is going to be pretty, pretty popular. We know that because the holiday season is pretty popular, which is why Disneyland doesn’t normally do ticket deals this time of year–not even for SoCal residents! We also know that because ticket deals are also always pretty popular, and that’s even when they’re just for California residents.
The good news here is that the Disneyland Holiday 3-Day Ticket Offer for Disney+ Subscribers is, as the name suggests, only available to Disney+ subscribers. While anyone reading this is smart enough to quickly do the math and come to the conclusion that one person in their party signing up for a month of the streaming service will pay for itself many times over, the general public is not full of math whizzes.
Trust us on that. We’ve seen countless discounts at Walt Disney World in the last couple of years for Disney+ subscribers that would (quite literally) offer thousands of dollars in savings for some guests. Somewhat shockingly, these deals are relatively unpopular because households without Disney+ memberships largely do not take advantage of them.
This is despite the fact that they could easily just…become subscribers? It’s not like a streaming service is some insurmountable barrier to entry or layer of friction–it’s nothing like California residency in that regard. Anyone can sign up for a month of Disney+ for seven bucks or whatever it currently costs (and you’ve gotta figure that there will be a Black Friday deal). It’s weird, but I guess the average guest just doesn’t think this stuff through?
With that said, it’s also entirely possible–if not probable–that the core audience for the Disneyland Holiday 3-Day Ticket Offer for Disney+ Subscribers will be different than a Walt Disney World vacation package deal. I’d hazard a guess that this is going to appeal to a lot of ex-Annual Passholders or Disneyland diehards who live on the West Coast and want to get their Christmas fix. This is presumably a higher knowledge demographic, and one that largely already has Disney+ subscriptions.
It thus stands to reason that this deal will be bought by a higher percentage of guests, meaning more people in this “pool” competing for the same reservations. That means that, as Disney warns, some dates are going to be difficult to book–even when availability is wide open for other ticket types. The good news is that Disneyland does reallocate reservation availability as demand dictates; the bad news is that they aren’t very good at it, and it can be very hit or miss (requiring a strong refresh game). The other bad news, again, is that this deal encompasses one of the busiest seasons of the year.
Anyway, just bringing this to your attention because we know some people gloss over the terms and conditions, viewing that as CYA legal language that has no real bearing on the deal. Here, that’s only partially true. The way this new Disneyland Holiday 3-Day Ticket Offer for Disney+ Subscribers works with park reservations is a typical legal disclaimer to avoid (another) lawsuit, but it’s also crucial for you to understand so you don’t end up with tickets you can’t use. Plan ahead and you’ll be fine!
As discussed in countless other posts, pent-up demand is starting to fizzle out and “revenge travel” among tourists is declining. This ticket deal–like the few before it–is obviously another move being made as a response to that. This is Disney pulling a “lever” to entice tourists and locals and avoid a decrease in crowds.
It’s not the first time in 2024 that this has happened–it’s the third this year. Fourth if you count 2025, as the hugely-popular Kids’ Ticket Discount at Disneyland that offers spectacular savings for families has already returned. This year, that helped buoyed bookings during the winter “off-season” and period leading up to spring break. It’ll likely do the same again in early 2025.
My guess would be that this Disney+ subscriber discount increases the odds of the annual winter and spring ticket deal that’s normally just for Southern California residents to be expanded beyond that. Whether it’s for the general public, Disney+ subscribers, or all Californians remains to be seen.
But it seems unlikely that Disneyland would offer this during the holiday season and then revert to something more restrictive in early 2025. About the only way that happens is if the Disneyland 70th Anniversary Celebration and Paint the Night Parade debut earlier than expected. We should know sometime within the next month, as Disneyland typically releases details of the deal during the holiday shopping season.
Ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see how popular these tickets end up being. My guess is very popular. Christmas is an incredibly popular time to visit among locals and Disneyland diehards, and there’s a not insignificant pool of ex-Annual Passholders within driving distance of Disneyland who have otherwise been priced out in the last few years. This is basically their opportunity to plan a long weekend getaway or multiple days in the parks over the next two months or so.
It probably goes without saying, but this should almost instantly put an end to those lower crowds. It was a fun ride while it lasted. While it remains to be seen how attendance increases at Disneyland during the new 3-Day Disneyland Disney+ Discount Ticket Offer for Christmas 2024, it’s safe to say it’ll go up. The question is really a matter of by how much, and since this is an unprecedented deal, it’s impossible to say. My money is on “a lot.” We’ll keep you posted!
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
Will you be taking advantage of the new Disneyland 3-Day Ticket Offer for Disney+ Subscribers during Christmas 2024? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? 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!
