Disney is offering a new ticket deal for discount admission to Disneyland and California Adventure in Summer 2024 and, unlike normal special offers on admission, this is available to everyone and NOT just SoCal residents. Here are dates & details about the deal, plus recommendations for when to use the ticket deal to avoid crowds, historical comparisons, and notable similarities & differences between this promo and past ones.
There’s a new 3-Day Disneyland Ticket Offer that’ll soon be available to everyone! You, your family and friends can visit again and again to enjoy the magic of Disneyland or DCA for as little as $50 per child, per day (ages 3-9) and $83 per adult from Mondays through Thursdays, for a limited time with the purchase of a three-day, one-park per day ticket.
These tickets go on sale May 29, 2024 and are valid for visits from June 10 through September 26, 2024. The new 3-Day Disneyland Discount Ticket Offer requires a park reservation for each day of your visit, but This park days can be spread out over separate dates during the season. Options for upgrades such as weekend visits, Park Hopper tickets, or adding the Disney Genie+ service will also available at the time of purchase once ticket sales start at the end of May!
As always, for buying these and all discount Disneyland tickets, our top recommendation is Get Away Today. 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.
There are a lot of details about the new 3-Day Disneyland Discount Ticket Offer, but for reference, upgrading from Monday through Thursday to “admission any day” (meaning Fridays through Sundays) typically costs an extra $50 with these ticket deals. The Park Hopper option is usually an extra $70 for either the weekday or weekend version of the ticket. Adding Genie+ is typically $30 per day, or $90 for the duration of the ticket.
It’s possible those amounts could change for the new 3-Day Disneyland Ticket Offer–especially since this is for the general public and past deals we’ve seen have been for California residents–but the add-on costs for locals have been pretty consistent. So we’d expect costs to be identical or very close to those prices.
Tickets may be used on nonconsecutive days. Monday through Thursday tickets are blocked out every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday during the ticket validity period. The “any day admission” tickets have no blockouts–but still require reservations. Each day of use constitutes one full day of use. All unused days on these tickets expire on September 26, 2024.
Tickets are nonrefundable, and may not be sold or transferred for commercial use and exclude activities/events separately priced. However, you may purchase up to 15 tickets per eligible person per day. (Not sure how you reconcile those two rules, but whatever!)
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.
All of this is basically 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 is required. Theme park reservations for 3-Day Disneyland Ticket Offer holders are limited in number and subject to the availability of park reservations allocated to the 3-Day Disneyland Ticket Offer as determined by Disney, applicable blockout dates, and theme park capacity.”
“Reservation availability for 3-Day Disneyland Ticket Offer 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 the 3-Day Disneyland Ticket Offer are fully reserved. 3-Day Disneyland Ticket Offer holders are not entitled to any reservations Disney makes available to others.” (Emphasis added.)
What this means is that park reservations for the new 3-Day Disneyland Ticket Offer 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 very, very popular. We know that because ticket deals are always popular, and that’s even when they’re just for California residents. This has no such limitation, and doesn’t cost that much more than the SoCal ticket deal from earlier this year.
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).
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 3-Day Disneyland Discount Ticket Offer 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!
Now let’s turn to how this Southern California ticket offer differs from past Disneyland deals. In a normal year, there are two main types of ticket deals. There’s the winter and spring special offer–which is currently available and runs until June 2, 2024–that’s only available to Southern California residents. Disneyland has done this consistently for at least the last decade, and it’s gotten progressively longer. What used to be a “winter” off-season deal now bleeds into early June.
After that, there have been the Golden State ticket offers for summer through early fall. Those are available to all California residents. This is a newer deal that has appeared in the post-reopening era, and has only been released for the last 3 years. It’s usually slightly more expensive than the winter/spring deal, but eligibility is greater and it’s occurring during California’s tourist season and summer vacation.
This new 3-Day Disneyland Ticket Offer is basically the Golden State deal from last year, minus the residency requirement. Unless there’s some last minute twist, it’ll be nearly identical in dates and pricing. That’s actually really positive news, as I would’ve expected removing residency entirely (plus another year of inflation) would’ve caused even more of a price increase–but that does not appear to be the case. That’s what the backside of pent-up demand looks like!
Suffice to say, these are some exceptional deals on Disneyland. It’s completely unprecedented for non-locals to get resident pricing. Even at Walt Disney World, the Summer 2024 ticket deal for Floridians is better than the 4-Park Magic Ticket. (Arguably not an apples to apples comparison.) If you want to choose the best dates for your trip, check out 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 special offer ticket prices from the last several years so you can see how things have changed…
2024 SoCal Resident Winter & Spring Ticket Deal Prices:
- 3-Day (Monday-Thursday), 1-Park Per Day Ticket – $225
- 3-Day (Monday to Sunday), 1-Park Per Day Ticket – $275
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
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
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
As discussed in countless other posts, 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 Summer 2024 on par with Walt Disney World. Or rather, that Disneyland would have seen a slowdown but for this general public ticket deal. 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. Earlier this year, there was the Kids’ Ticket Discount at Disneyland that offered spectacular savings for families. That also buoyed bookings during the winter “off-season” and period leading up to spring break. It’s also how you explain the return of special events like Pixar Fest and Season of the Force–that’s Disneyland trying to lure people to the parks.
If what we’ve seen and experienced in the first few months of the year (minus the last couple weeks of April and May 2024 thus far) 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. According to Disney executives, California’s slower reopening than Florida has resulted in pent-up demand at Disneyland lagging Walt Disney World by roughly one year. If the latter is any indication, Disneyland is likewise going to hit a wall sometime in mid-2024, and will need to pull its own “levers” to entice back locals and tourists. Or maybe not. Maybe they’ve learned from Walt Disney World’s slowdown and are being more proactive. This deal is a good example of that!
This ticket deal will likely last through the start of Halloween (see our Guide to Halloween Time at Disneyland), which begins on August 23, 2024. No offense to Pixar Fest or Season of the Force, but Halloween at Disneyland is way better than either of those offerings.
Not only that, but the first few weeks of Halloween Season–after the initial rush that first weekend–should feature relatively low crowds. If I were looking to take advantage of this new 3-Day Disneyland Discount Ticket Offer for Summer 2024, I’d visit between roughly August 14 and September 13, 2024 (excluding August 23-25).
That’s after the D23 Expo and schools start going back into session, but before the promo expires on September 26, which always results in a window during which guests are rushing to use their tickets before they expire. September also always gets progressively busier later in the month as the actual date of Halloween approaches and people want to enjoy fall in the parks.
Ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see how popular these tickets end up being with the general public. Blocking out weekends for at least some tickets is a good move, and not doing so would’ve angered many passholders. This should also work better with a general public ticket deal, as tourists aren’t as sensitive to weekdays vs. weekends (they’re on vacation–days of the week are less meaningful than to locals who have work).
It’ll also be fascinating to see how crowds play out at Disneyland during the new 3-Day Disneyland Discount Ticket Offer for Summer 2024. One thing we’d caution against is drawing comparisons to last year and trying to surmise too much. It was just such a different scenario with different kinds of deals and Disney100 starting at the beginning of the year versus Pixar Fest just beginning after spring break season ended.
We also don’t know what else, if anything, Disneyland is going to do to lure back guests. Personally, my hope is that this won’t be quite enough and Disney will scramble to bring back Paint the Night Parade for a ‘second wave’ of Pixar Fest in June or July 2024. That’s probably wishful thinking at this point, as this deal should be enough to entice a sufficient amount of demand. So perhaps Paint the Night in 2025!
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 3-Day Disneyland Discount Ticket Offer for Summer 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!
