How To Make Disneyland Park Reservations

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Gone are the days of just showing up to Disneyland, buying a ticket, and walking into either park. Now, Disneyland Resort requires park reservations. So how do you make park reservations? How early can you make them? And what happens if you need to cancel your Disneyland reservations? Here is your complete guide.

When Disneyland announced its reopening plans, they let everyone know that they would operate on a reservation system. Immediately, guests of Disneyland were left to wonder if they would be able to secure a reservation.

Disneyland Park Reservations

Disneyland Park Reservations are required when visiting the Disneyland Resort. If you show up to the gates and scan a ticket that does not have a reservation, you will kindly be turned away.

I once accidentally scanned the wrong ticket, one without a reservation, and got that “um, sorry, you can’t come in” line. Thankfully, I realized my mistake and scanned the correct ticket.

So this is an important step you do NOT want to skip.

FAQ About Disneyland Park Reservations

How far In Advance Can You Make Disneyland Park Reservations?

Park reservations orginally available 60 days in advance. As of May 26, 2021, when Disneyland announced out-of-state guests could return to Disneyland begining June 15, 2021, that changed. Park reservations are now available 120 days in advance or more.

Video of the Reservation Process

If you are a visual learner, here is a video of the reservation process in action. I still suggest reading through all of my tips as I think they will be very helpful for you.

Disneyland Reservations – What To Know Before Reservations Open

At this time, Disneyland Reservations are available on a rolling 120 day calendar. Here is what to know before your reservation window opens up.

1.You must have tickets purchased before making a reservation

This seems a bit backwards I know, but here is the deal, Disneyland wants to make sure that guests who have already spent money are able to visit the parks first, so the reservation system will require guests to already have tickets on hand in order to make a reservation.

What about tickets on layaway through Disney or Get Away Today?

While Get Away Today was able to sell tickets for a week or so after the original opening announcement, they are not able to sell tickets at this time for Disneyland. If you have already purchased tickets with them though, you are good to go.

They are being great about answering questions and helping people out so definitely reach out to them if you have questions about this.

YOU MUST HAVE PAID OFF YOUR LAYAWAY AND HAVE YOUR TICKET NUMBERS TO MAKE RESERVATIONS.

2. What about Legacy Passholders

Disneyland cancelled all Disneyland Annual Passes in early 2021.

They are not offering any special discounts or early ticket sales to Legacy Passholders (former passholders).

3. Multi-day Tickets

Disneyland has confirmed that multi-day tickets will be able to be used, but you will need to make a reservation for each day that you want to go to a park, day by day. For this reason, we will need to be flexible as to what days we attend which park, days off from the parks, etc.

During the reservation process, it is pretty quick to go back in and make your 2nd, 3rd, etc day of reservations.

Will I Be Able To Get A Disneyland Reservation? What Happens if I Can’t Get the Dates I Want?

This is the million dollar (or at least a few thousand dollars) question. How will you know if you can get the dates you need? What happens if you don’t lock in those dates, and now you have tickets you bought…

Deep breaths, it will be alright. Disney is trying to take care of everyone.

This is what I think most of us are worried about. Will we be able to get a reservation?

I think anybody who has purchased tickets will most likely be able to get a reservation. I am going out on a limb there, but I really do believe that.

That said, I think the first week will book up quickly, and the time around Avengers Campus opening (June 4, 2021) will also go quickly. So be ready to make your reservations ASAP.

UPDATE: We have seen that dates filled up for Disneyland park fairly quickly, but that there are still opening at California Adventure. However, we have found that Disneyland is adding reservations randomly as well. On May 5, 2021, Disneyland added several openings for May. So if the date you want is out, KEEP CHECKING BACK! Flexibility and consistent checking of the calendar will be key.

We have also seen from Walt Disney World that Disney will release reservations that have been cancelled for others to book. I think this is great news for locals that may want to visit on short notice.

Speaking of locals, a lot of the guests for Disneyland were local Annual Passholders. With the cancellation of Annual Passes, Disneyland is able to start fresh and take care of their guests holding onto tickets.

I really believe that Disney will be able to accommodate everyone who has already purchased tickets for their desired dates, or close to it.

But… If you don’t get your reservations

You will most likely be able to make reservations far enough in advance that you will be able to cancel most travel plans. If you book your hotel via Get Away Today and purchase the Peace of Mind plan, you may cancel your hotel up to 5 days before travel and still get a full refund (minus the POM cost) on your booking. Or you can change it for a later date. My plan is to just reschedule for later on if I can’t get my reservation.

Tip: If booking a hotel for 2 or more nights through Get Away Today, use code CRAZYADVENTURE.

And those Disneyland tickets you bought? Well, you can hold on to those for a future vacation. Disney extended ticket expiration dates on their tickets.

Not ready to visit in 2021? Even tickets that expire will not lose their value. If you end up putting it off until 2022, and your ticket expired Dec 2021, you simply go to a ticket booth on your visit, with those tickets, and pay the difference to upgrade to the current ticket prices.

How To Make Disneyland Reservations

So here is the biggest question of all… how do we make Disneyland Reservations?

Checklist For Making Disneyland Reservations

• Make sure you have a Disney account – you can sign up via the Disneyland website or via the app (this is the same account you use to sign into Disney+)
• When you have your e-ticket, you will need to attach these tickets to your Disneyland account. Tickets will need to be entered in your account to make reservations. You can do this before hand, or have the ticket numbers ready. (I find it easier to link them during the reservation process.)
• Get familiar with the Disneyland website for reservations.
• Know all the details. Example: You will be able to add up to 5 people in a group, and then add an additional 5 people after that, etc. Max is 15 people per group. Groups must be limited to 3 households.
  

• Check the Disneyland one-day ticket calendar. Even if you have multi-day tickets, this helps you know which dates they expect more people to want reservations. (The higher the tier, the more people they think will want to be there.) If you are only going for one day, be sure to check out my tips for maximizing one day at Disneyland.
• If you already have tickets, make your hotel reservations (refundable or changeable with Get Away Today’s Peace of Mind Plan is my suggestion) now as prices are already going up.
• Mark your calendar to be prepared to make your reservations the first few days they are open. If planning to visit during a busy time (holidays, school breaks) plan on making them the day they open.
• Follow me on Facebook, and turn on live notifications so that you can get all the breaking news and updates to Disneyland Reservations.

Disneyland Reservation Tips & Step-by-Step Guide

1. Check the Disneyland Reservations availability calendar (on the Disneyland Website or my partners at Get Away Today have it on their site as well).
2. If you do not have tickets, purchase tickets. I suggest purchasing through my partners at Get Away Today to save a little money, plus their tickets are refundable (with Peace of Mind Plan or minus a cancellation fee)
3. Sign in to your Disneyland account.
4. Attach your tickets or do so during the reservation process. TIP: If you are going to add ticket numbers during the reservation process I suggest having a word document or notepad with all your ticket numbers to make it easy to copy and paste them over.
5. Assign names for each ticket.
6. Click “Make Reservations” (Be sure you watch the video towards the top of this post to get a feel for the site.)
7. Choose the tickets you wish to make a reservation for.
8. Using the Parks Reservation Calendar choose a date and which park you would like to attend on that date. You can only choose one date here. NOTE: If you have a Parkhopper, you are choosing your first park of the day. You may begin parkhopping after 1:00 pm each day.
9. If you have multi-day tickets repeat steps 7-8 for each day.
10. Check your email for your QR codes, and save those in a folder to find later. You can also access your QR codes via the reservation site.
11. When you show up at the park, have both your QR code for that day and your park ticket ready to scan. If attendance is limited to California Residents, also have ID available for each adult.

New Secret Waiting Room Hack

A Facebook member shared this hack with me and I think it is great when Disneyland utilizes a waiting room for reservations like we have seen on April 15th (seriously some people have been there for 12 hours or more!).

If you had multiple tabs open, and you got through on one, but your friend didn’t or maybe you want a break from watching the computer and someone else is going to take over, this hack is for you!

In the waiting room scroll down to the bottom of the screen where you will see a Queue ID. Click that number and a link will pop up. You can send it to someone else (or yourself if you want to switch devices but keep your spot). Once the other person or device opens the link, you can close your window.

Thank you Beckie for this great hack!

So what do you think? Will you be trying to get reservations to Disneyland when they are available? Or are you going to hold off until ticket sales resume and reservations are hopefully no longer needed?

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