Disney is offering a new SoCal ticket deal for discounted admission to Disneyland and California Adventure in 2024. This post shares dates & details about the special offer for the new year, plus commentary and pent-up demand, Annual Pass sales, historical comparisons, and notable similarities & differences between this promo and past ones.
For a limited time, Southern California residents can visit the Disneyland Resort theme parks for as low as $75 per day on select days for a with the purchase of a special 3-day, 1-park per day weekday ticket. These multi-day tickets go on sale December 5, 2023 and are valid for visits starting January 2, 2024 and continuing through June 2, 2024–subject to theme park reservation availability.
Residents can upgrade to Park Hopper tickets or purchase the Disney Genie+ service for additional fees at the time of SoCal ticket purchase. As always, for buying these and all discount Disneyland tickets, our top recommendation is Get Away Today. If the Southern California resident tickets aren’t for you due to travel dates, weekend blockouts, or because you’re from out of state, see our 2024 Discount Disneyland Ticket Buying Guide for additional recommendations. We’ll also cover some of the out-of-state deals below in the commentary…
Unlike the summer and fall ticket deal that’s for all Californians, this Disneyland ticket discount is valid only for Southern California residents within ZIP codes 90000-93599. (It should also be available to Northern Baja California residents within ZIP codes 21000-22999, but the announcement doesn’t mention them.) Proof of eligible residency, including valid government-issued photo ID, is required for purchase and admission.
Tickets may be used on nonconsecutive days. Monday through Thursday tickets are blocked out every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday during the ticket validity period. Each day of use constitutes one full day of use. All unused days on these tickets expire on June 2, 2024.
Eligible residents may purchase up to 5 tickets per day with valid ID. Tickets are nonrefundable, may not be sold or transferred for commercial use and exclude activities/events separately priced. Offer may not be combined with other ticket discounts or promotions. This promotion is subject to restrictions, change and cancellation without notice. Sales may be paused from time to time or terminated at any time.
Other than that, we don’t know the full details and pricing yet because the offer hasn’t been officially released–just announced. For this year’s version of the same ticket deal the prices were as follows:
- 3-day, 1 park per day weekday ticket – $219
- 3-day Park Hopper weekday ticket – $279
- 3-day, 1 park per day weekday ticket with Disney Genie+ service – $294
- 3-day, Park Hopper weekday ticket with Disney Genie+ service – $354
Note that the first ticket on that list works out to $73 per day, which means there’s no year-over-year price increase–at least, for that ticket. This summer and fall’s ticket deal also did not increase in price YoY, whereas last year’s SoCal ticket deal was up as compared to 2022.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether the Park Hopper or Genie+ ticket prices go up. Our totally uneducated guess is that the Genie+ one will, but the Park Hopper won’t. But I guess we shall see!
Now let’s turn to how this Southern California ticket offer differs from past Disneyland deals. First, there are the Golden State ticket offers that were available each of the last three summers through early fall. As noted above, those are available for all California residents.
Frankly, I’m not really sure why. I’m sure there’s some reason for it, but I think Disneyland would probably be better off dividing the SoCal deal into two distinct discounts (timeframe-wise) or at least offering more ticket types with different blockout dates. Not to point out the obvious, but not all dates between January and June are equally crowded. There’s a huge difference between the doldrums of winter and the heart of spring break. That’ll likely be even truer in 2024 as pent-up demand continues to die down.
In any case, the summer and fall Californian tickets are more expensive than their SoCal counterparts and also offer a version that includes weekends. They’re also valid during summer, which is California’s peak tourist season, and the start of Halloween Time, which has become increasingly busy at Disneyland.
As intimated above, the other big historical difference is that the 2024 Southern California Resident Disneyland ticket discount is only valid on weekdays. This is now the third straight year of Disneyland doing this for the SoCal deal, so it’s not a “new” change per se, but it is as compared to the longstanding norm.
It’ll be interesting to see whether there’s a weekend option–the announcement sort of suggests so (a distinction is drawn between Monday through Thursday and other tickets, and the validity period is through June 2, 2024–which is a Sunday). Regardless, we’d expect that Saturdays and Sundays will once again be the slowest days of the week for much of the first half of 2024. (See our Best & Worst Days of the Week to Do Disneyland & Disney California Adventure.)
In the past, Disneyland has also used blockout dates applying to spring break for Los Angeles and Orange County school districts, the week of Easter, and other peak season dates. It remains to be seen whether that’s the case this year. For the sake of all involved, we hope so!
Third, the 2023 Southern California Disneyland ticket deal is being offered earlier than normal. Again, this is not a change year-over-year. Last year, the deal was announced on December 1, so it’s only creeped forward by a few days. That’s pretty consistent with Disney’s approach during the post-revenge travel period–having a greater sense of urgency and moving forward special offer release dates as a result.
Historically, this SoCal ticket deal was typically announced and released simultaneously, or close to it. This usually happens the first week of January, with the validity period within a few days or even the exact same day. Prior to 2021, I don’t recall Disneyland ever announcing this prior to the deal starting.
Honestly, this change makes a ton of sense and I’m surprised it hasn’t happened before. Moving the announcement into Cyber Week (it’s technically “Travel Tuesday,” so good timing!) into November and the release date into December, but maintaining the same eligibility window is a good move for both Disney and consumers.
This approach gives locals the ability to purchase these tickets during the holiday gift giving season. I can’t imagine there’s much opportunity cost to this–I doubt locals would’ve otherwise bought full price tickets for Christmas presents instead, knowing this deal is released annually.
Finally, it’s interesting to me that the eligibility on this runs through June 2, 2024 instead of the normal pre-Memorial Day weekend end date. In and of itself, this would not be a big thing. Memorial Day actually isn’t that busy of a holiday. That’s doubly true when the ticket deal ends right before it and guests who purchased it race to use remaining days before expiration.
As a result, we’ve seen the week-plus leading up to the end of the promo period being busier than the holiday weekend many years. That’ll once again be the case in 2024–we’d be willing to bet that May 20, 2024 through June 2, 2024 is busier than the two weeks that follow.
Regardless, this is not “in and of itself.” Fantasmic returns on May 24, 2024. Given that, I’m honestly surprised that the ticket deal didn’t end May 23. That last week is going to be chaos as a result, and that’ll be doubly true if (as expected) Disneyland announces more entertainment debuting around the time of Fantasmic’s return.
Notably, this is not the only Disneyland ticket deal that’s currently available. Through November 29, you can take advantage of the popular Adults at Kids’ Prices Disneyland ticket promo, which is valid on all 3-day and longer Disneyland tickets. That Cyber Week deal is a great option for those who aren’t SoCal residents or locals who want to visit after this ticket deal ends–anytime through the end of 2025!
In addition to this, there’s also the Kids’ Ticket Discount at Disneyland for 2024. That deal is even better for eligible families, offering admission to children ages 3 to 9 for only $50 per day during visit dates from January 8 through March 10, 2024. That’s a shockingly good deal, amounting to a discount of around $150 to $200 on multi-day tickets!
For those wondering, you can pair these discounts together, buying kids’ tickets for $50/day for your children and the adults in your party the discounted SoCal tickets or the Adults at Kids’ prices. (You cannot, however, pricematch the adults to the promo kids ticket prices–the Adults at Kids’ prices deal is based on normal kids’ prices!)
Suffice to say, there are some exceptional deals on Disneyland tickets right now, especially for family’s traveling during that sweet spot in Winter 2024. We’d also add that this same stretch of dates ranks highly on our Cheapest Times to Do Disneyland, which also accounts for hotels and more. So you could do an inexpensive (by Disneyland standards) trip during these travel dates!
Speaking of pricing, here are California resident ticket prices from the last several years so you can see how things have changed…
2023 California Resident Summer & Fall Ticket Deal Prices:
- 3-Day (Monday-Thursday), 1-Park Per Day Ticket – $249
- 3-Day (Monday to Sunday), 1-Park Per Day Ticket – $299
2023 SoCal Resident Winter & Spring Ticket Deal Prices:
- 3-day, 1 park per day weekday ticket – $219
- 3-day Park Hopper weekday ticket – $279
- 3-day, 1 park per day weekday ticket with Disney Genie+ service – $294
- 3-day, Park Hopper weekday ticket with Disney Genie+ service – $354
2022 California Resident Summer & Fall Ticket Deal Prices:
- 3-Day (Monday-Thursday), 1-Park Per Day Ticket – $249
- 3-Day (Monday-Sunday), 1-Park Per Day Ticket – $299
2022 SoCal Resident Winter & Spring Ticket Deal Prices:
- 3-Day, 1-Park Per Day Ticket — $199
- 3 Day, 1-Park Per Day Ticket with Disney Genie+ Service — $259
- 3-Day Park Hopper Ticket — $259
- 3-Day Park Hopper Ticket with Disney Genie+ Service — $319
2021 California Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal Prices:
- 3-day, 1-park ticket for $249
- 3-day Park Hopper ticket for $304
No weekend vs. weekday distinction.
2020 SoCal Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal Prices:
- 3-day, 1-park per day ticket for $201
- 3-day Park Hopper ticket for $254
2019 SoCal Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal Prices:
- 3-day, 1-park per day ticket for $179
- 3-day Park Hopper ticket for $234
2018 SoCal Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal Prices:
- 2-day ticket with choice of one park per day for $159
- 2-day Park Hopper ticket for $204
- 3-day ticket with choice of one park per day for $199
- 3-day Park Hopper ticket for $244
2017 SoCal Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal Prices:
- 3-day ticket with choice of one park per day for $149
- 3-day Park Hopper ticket for $189
(These prices are accurate–that year was bonkers due to the bonus day plus the return of Main Street Electrical Parade.)
2016 SoCal Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal Prices:
- 2-day ticket with choice of one park per day for $149
- 2-day Park Hopper ticket for $189
- 3-day ticket with choice of one park per day for $179
- 3-day Park Hopper ticket for $219.
Note that resident tickets from previous years also included one Magic Morning early entry to Disneyland, which provided an extra hour on select days before the park opens to the general public.
Magic Mornings have since been replaced by Early Entry, which is not offered to Good Neighbor Hotels or certain ticket types. That’s actually somewhat surprising, as the perk has plenty of excess capacity–although probably not enough for everyone who buys this California resident ticket. (See our Guide to Early Entry at Disneyland for what you need to know about this pre-park opening access to Disneyland and DCA.)
As discussed elsewhere, pent-up demand is starting to fizzle out and “revenge travel” among tourists is declining. It seems increasingly likely that Disneyland is going to experience a slowdown in 2024 on par with Walt Disney World. With that said, if what we’ve seen and experienced recently is any indication, Disneyland is not currently hurting for attendance. Crowds over the course of the last few months have been far worse at Disneyland than Walt Disney World.
This is to be expected, for now at least. Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro has said that Walt Disney World is already seeing a moderation in demand, while claiming that Disneyland will continue to “perform exceptionally well.” This echoed earlier earnings call comments from former CFO Christine McCarthy, who braced investors for a slowdown at Walt Disney World but not Disneyland.
According to Disney executives, this is due to California’s slower reopening than Florida. As a result, pent-up demand at Disneyland has lagged Walt Disney World. But if the latter is any indication, Disneyland is likewise going to hit a wall in early 2024, and will need to pull its own “levers” to entice back locals and tourists. Resuming Magic Key sales and offer more AP appreciation is probably one way of achieving that. For more specific predictions, see When Will Disneyland Resume Magic Key Annual Pass Sales?
Ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see how popular these tickets end up being with locals. Blocking out weekends for at least some tickets is a good move, and not doing so would’ve angered many passholders and tourists. Here’s hoping that there are also blockouts around the weeks of Presidents Day and MLK Day, as well as Spring Break and Easter.
It’ll also be fascinating to see how crowds play out at Disneyland during the non-weekend portion of those windows. One thing we’d caution against is drawing comparisons to this year and trying to surmise too much. Keep in mind that this year saw the Disney100 celebration start, and there was a lot more pent-up demand (presumably) than will be the case in early 2024. We also don’t know what else, if anything, Disneyland is going to do in the new year to lure back guests. There’s likely some sort of plan for entertainment that just has yet to be announced. We’ll be watching to see how things play out.
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 Disneyland’s Southern California Resident Ticket Offer for Winter & Spring 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!
