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 for guests with a park ticket.

Guests with a Disneyland Magic Key (the new Annual Pass program) may make reservations 90 days in advance.

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 Park Reservations Need To Know

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. Purchase Get Away Today Tickets before making a reservation

This seems a bit backward I know, but here is the deal, you can save money on tickets by purchasing through my partners at Get Away Today. They have offers like 5th day free, discount tickets with Genie+, and more.

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

While Get Away Today has a convenient layaway plan, you will not be able to make park reservations with tickets on layaway until you have paid that off. My suggestion is to purchase tickets outright and only use the layaway plan for hotel if you are close to your reservation period.

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

2. Buying Ticket Directly From Disneyland

If you are purchasing your tickets directly from Disneyland, the park reservation system is part of the purchasing process.

While this may seem like a big bonus, I personally find it is not that hard to make a reservation after receiving my Disneyland ticket information via email from Get Away Today and it is definitely worth the savings.

To help you make the decision, I have included a price chart below of current ticket prices. Remember that one-day tickets are only available from Disneyland directly.

Once you start having multiple people going, I think the savings and the fact that Get Away Today‘s tickets are refundable make purchasing through them worth the extra step of making your park reservation after purchase.

Get Away Today is great about answering questions and helping people out so definitely reach out to them if you have questions about this.

3. Magic Key Holders

Disneyland canceled all Legacy Disneyland Annual Passes in early 2021.

Magic Key Holders can make their reservations 90 days in advance, according to the terms of their Magic Key Tier.

To make a reservation with your Magic Key, simply open the Disneyland App and tap the plus button. Then tap “make park reservations.” This will open up the website for you to sign in and make park reservations.

4. Multi-day Tickets Through Get Away Today

Disneyland offers multi-day tickets. When you purchase with Get Away Today you will need to reserve for each day that you want to go to a park, day by day.

It sounds more tedious than it really is. Once you make the first park reservation, you will simply click “reserve another day” and continue making your reservations.

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

5. Multi-Day Tickets Purchased through Disneyland

When you purchase multi-day tickets through Disneyland, you will choose all park dates and make your reservations during the purchase process.

While this may make purchasing direct seem like it is worth it despite the Get Away Today savings, I still prefer to utilize Get Away Today, because Disneyland does not offer refunds on their park tickets.

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.

You can easily check the reservation availability before purchasing tickets.

In general, reservations are pretty open if you are planning at least 30 days in advance. However, as your vacation gets closer, you will need to make sure you book your reservations as soon as possible to lock in your preferred park.

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

How To Make Disneyland Reservations

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

Checklist For Making Disneyland Reservations With Tickets From Get Away Today

• 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 beforehand, 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.
• 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.

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 park 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. When it says “all day” that means the park you have access to all day long. It DOES NOT mean you won’t be parkhopping.
   
9. If you have multi-day tickets repeat steps 7-8 for each day.
10. When you show up at the park, have your park tickets ready and make sure you are at the correct park for your reservation.

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