Disneyland announced today that it will resume sales of its Magic Key annual passes next week.
Magic Key passes are available for purchase only during a few select times of the year, and the passes tend to sell out within hours of their release. The next batch of Magic Key passes will go on sale on Wednesday, January 10, starting no earlier than 9am Pacific Time. Here's the link to get into the queue at that time.
All four levels of Magic Key will be available for purchase. However, not all levels may be available when your turn in the virtual queue comes up and you can purchase your pass. The prices are unchanged from last October.
All passes are subject to blockout dates, with fewer blockout dates for higher-priced passes. Higher priced passes also are allowed more simultaneous park reservations and get bigger discounts on food, merchandise and parking. Only the highest priced, Enchant Key gets free parking. You can see each passes' availability calendar on Disneyland's website.
Magic Key sales have become a bit of a revenue cushion for the Disneyland Resort and Disney's Experiences segment. There's no need for the resort to put these big-ticket passes on sale when the parks are filled and the money is rolling in during the holiday season. But when the holidays are over the parks naturally face an attendance and revenue dip, that's when Magic Keys become available again.
Even so, Disneyland limits the number of Magic Keys that it will sell at each drop, as it continues to try to manage the number of guests visiting the park each day, without ever having to turn away anyone at the gate. Instead, you potentially get turned away when trying to make a required advance reservation to use your Magic Key or other admission ticket. Restricting the number of Magic Keys sold helps keep the availability of advance park reservations somewhat reasonable for those annual pass holders.
If you are interested in visiting Disneyland in 2024, but are not convinced that a Magic Key is right for you, please check out the available deals on our partner's Disneyland tickets page. There are a wide variety of discounts now available, including kids' tickets starting at $50 and discounts on multi-day tickets for Southern California residents.
For our guides to the parks, including what's new for 2024, please visit our Disneyland and Disney California Adventure pages.
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I don't know why Disney bothers with this charade. They should just create a running waiting list where prospective Magic Key buyers put down a deposit and are either selected based on when they made their initial deposit or a random lottery of everyone in the queue. When Magic Keys become available at the requested level, guests are notified, and would have a certain amount of time to respond (48 hours or similar) and pay the remaining balance for the product (or set up a payment plan).
Forcing guests to login and sit in a virtual queue on a specific day with random technical issues and glitches is not very efficient or customer friendly. Disney sought to improve the AP situation in Disneyland with Magic Key, yet this new system just creates more headaches.