DL tickets and reservations - April 15!

[StarTrekFan]

I'm honestly surprised at how much availability is left, especially for mid to late June. By then:

(1) Everyone in California over 16 should have had the opportunity to be at least partially vaccinated;
(2) Kids will be out of school; and
(3) Avengers campus will be open.

Even if the Governor does "open the state" on June 15th, I wouldn't expect Disney to immediately lift any capacity constraints, but to proceed more incrementally as they have in Florida.

Maybe it was just all of the hype about "pent up demand" and the need to cancel annual passes to avoid being overwhelmed, but so far the availability isn't changing as quickly as I thought.

We weren't planning to back until September but decided on Saturday to book at trip for late May since we have some Southwest travel funds expiring June 4. It was easy by then to get in to the Disneyland website buy the tickets and make reservations. Since my kids are still in distance learning, I don't have any qualms about "pulling them out" of school for two days. I'm hoping the weekdays won't be that crowded.

June is an eon away and many things can change in 6 weeks. May though is only 11 days away and after the initial weekend, Disney has an issue. Not even the 1day theme park tickets are selling out in the 2nd week of operations.

Let's just guess -- this : 50% of tickets are designated 1-park/1-day while 40% designated hopper and 10% hotel (GCH) bucket. That's a lot of tickets left out there mid-week 2nd week of operations.

Fastest and surest way to tap into the market -- offer multiday non-13day expiring passes. Locals will take that up. We have in the past so a known lever to pull to fill up the first two weeks . Can even be selective about it. 3 day pass for any midweek visits tu-th

 

[SoCalDisneyFan2708]

I'm honestly surprised at how much availability is left, especially for mid to late June. By then:

(1) Everyone in California over 16 should have had the opportunity to be at least partially vaccinated;
(2) Kids will be out of school; and
(3) Avengers campus will be open.

Even if the Governor does "open the state" on June 15th, I wouldn't expect Disney to immediately lift any capacity constraints, but to proceed more incrementally as they have in Florida.

Maybe it was just all of the hype about "pent up demand" and the need to cancel annual passes to avoid being overwhelmed, but so far the availability isn't changing as quickly as I thought.

We weren't planning to back until September but decided on Saturday to book at trip for late May since we have some Southwest travel funds expiring June 4. It was easy by then to get in to the Disneyland website buy the tickets and make reservations. Since my kids are still in distance learning, I don't have any qualms about "pulling them out" of school for two days. I'm hoping the weekdays won't be that crowded.

Can't fill up the reservations with only Californians? Open it up to everyone else please. I'm dying to go back!

 

[KPeterso]

Can't fill up the reservations with only Californians? Open it up to everyone else please. I'm dying to go back!

Remember, the no out of state is from the state of CA. Disney did not choose to only open to CA residents. The state mandated that as part of their opening restrictions.

 

[evilmommie]

I know plenty of locals that are just waiting to see how the next two weeks play out. They have the money to go, but want to see how things evolve at DLR as well as the state restrictions. They are in it for the long haul and don't need the rush of opening day/weeks.

 

[kristensideaoffun]

I know plenty of locals that are just waiting to see how the next two weeks play out. They have the money to go, but want to see how things evolve at DLR and as well as the state restrictions. They are in it for the long haul and don't need the rush of opening day/weeks.

I was thinking the same thing. I don’t this Disney is bothered by the first two weeks of reservations not being filled. They are probably happy to have the time to examine the flow of traffic and crowd behavior. I can imagine them looking for ways to fill the calendar in June when school is out.

 

[brightlined]

Fastest and surest way to tap into the market -- offer multiday non-13day expiring passes. Locals will take that up. We have in the past so a known lever to pull to fill up the first two weeks . Can even be selective about it. 3 day pass for any midweek visits tu-th

The thing to keep in mind here - just because days haven't sold yet doesn't mean they won't eventually. I think they'll do something eventually (probably memberships of some kind), but they don't need to be in any hurry.

I would bet that most locals don't plan a Disneyland trip a month ahead of time. Also, once Avengers Campus opens, and people find out that it's awesome (assuming it is), you'll see a lot of those June days fill up. You'll also see some people who visit the parks in the first couple of weeks pick up tickets for days in June later - they're not going to buy those tickets right away.

Disney can really afford to wait this out - sell as many tickets as they can at this price, then fill it in if they absolutely need to.

(The SoCal pass is kind of lousy optics, too - the overwhelming majority of people going to the parks would qualify for a SoCal pass, and I think it'd feel like a bit of a bait-and-switch if they announced something like that before the park had been open for a minute. I cannot imagine they would do that in the first two weeks - I think they'd prefer leaving those days being unsold versus throwing people into the park.)

 

[Bigmace]

(The SoCal pass is kind of lousy optics, too - the overwhelming majority of people going to the parks would qualify for a SoCal pass, and I think it'd feel like a bit of a bait-and-switch if they announced something like that before the park had been open for a minute. I cannot imagine they would do that in the first two weeks - I think they'd prefer leaving those days being unsold versus throwing people into the park.)

Even if Disney did bring back the SoCal pass or something similar they would be blacked out most of the summer. So safe to assume even if they do bring back passes (which I assume they will) the SoCal passes wouldn't be beneficial until the later summer / fall.

I agree that Disney is going to focus mainly on selling tickets for now and not even announce passes until a portion of reservations are not being booked by ticket holders. But traditionally I would assume most of the ticket purchases come from people who do not have a SoCal zip code. But die hards will come, we live in Oregon and booked a trip (all refundable / dates can be changed) for the end of June on the hope that out state guests will be allowed by then.

 

[StarTrekFan]

The thing to keep in mind here - just because days haven't sold yet doesn't mean they won't eventually. I think they'll do something eventually (probably memberships of some kind), but they don't need to be in any hurry.

I would bet that most locals don't plan a Disneyland trip a month ahead of time. Also, once Avengers Campus opens, and people find out that it's awesome (assuming it is), you'll see a lot of those June days fill up. You'll also see some people who visit the parks in the first couple of weeks pick up tickets for days in June later - they're not going to buy those tickets right away.

Disney can really afford to wait this out - sell as many tickets as they can at this price, then fill it in if they absolutely need to.

(The SoCal pass is kind of lousy optics, too - the overwhelming majority of people going to the parks would qualify for a SoCal pass, and I think it'd feel like a bit of a bait-and-switch if they announced something like that before the park had been open for a minute. I cannot imagine they would do that in the first two weeks - I think they'd prefer leaving those days being unsold versus throwing people into the park.)

They may just wait it out. It's not unlike Disney to do that too. At the same time, they were the ones creating this issue by making the first two weeks Tier 5 tickets with truncated hours. That's pretty lousy optics too as well as 1/2 filled mid-week parks with the price point of tickets x2 of Universal.

I wouldn't do SoCal only --just using that as the example of a lever Disney has pulled to tap a market to fill in attendance during a projected low period. --

My offer would be: Release a limited time offer of multi-use mid-week ticket that's good until June 30th. That'll fill in a lot of space and offer locals a bargain piece to balance the loss of AP

 

[Bigmace]

My offer would be: Release a limited time offer of multi-use mid-week ticket that's good until June 30th. That'll fill in a lot of space and offer locals a bargain piece to balance the loss of AP

There is still almost two weeks until there isn't a SOLD out day at DLR on the calendar. I am sure they will announce something if week days aren't being filled in May and June. They had similar offers for Florida residents at WDW. I also doubt that DCA will sell out until Avengers campus opens.

 

[wideeyedwonder]

Remember, the no out of state is from the state of CA. Disney did not choose to only open to CA residents. The state mandated that as part of their opening restrictions.

However, that can easily change, especially in the next month or two.

 

[707MickeyGirl]

That's pretty lousy optics too as well as 1/2 filled mid-week parks with the price point of tickets x2 of Universal.

I've seen several people complain that Disney cost 2x Universal. We went to Universal two years ago and were done with it in one day. Literally done with everything. I don't think Universal compares to Disney at all.

 

[Bigmace]

I think its also worth noting that as of writing this there are only 6 days available to make a reservation at DLR in May and they are only weekdays in early May. All days for DCA available.

 

[StarTrekFan]

I think its also worth noting that as of writing this there are only 6 days available to make a reservation at DLR in May and they are only weekdays in early May. All days for DCA available.

Which hasn't changed since Sunday. The point is those 6 days fall first two weeks of operations, mid-week, and Tier 5 tickets -- there's a reason those days haven't sold out even at DL while later May has seen mid-week go out with expanded hours and value tickets/tier 3 playing a clear role in those.

Disney miscalculated the first two weeks -- probably banking on ToD enthusiasm/sellout hype. Different beast trying to sell daily 20k tickets at full fare mid-week than a weekend.

 

[coaches24]

Has anyone accidentally bought kids tickets instead of adult tickets? Apparently I did that last week. I emailed guest services from the DL website and tried calling but was on hold and cant wait on the phone because I'm at work. I'm hoping its an easy fix of paying the difference but am wondering if anyone has experience with this situation and how they resolved it? I'm hoping it doesn't screw up our reservations for early June. I'm glad I noticed it now so I can hopefully have time to fix it. Would have been awful to not realize until we were at the gates .

 

[coaches24]

I've seen several people complain that Disney cost 2x Universal. We went to Universal two years ago and were done with it in one day. Literally done with everything. I don't think Universal compares to Disney at all.

I completely agree. We did three days at Universal a couple years ago and after the first day I wished we were done and knew we had made a mistake not doing DL that trip. We got a good price on the 3 days at universal and DD had a great time and wants to go back to Universal, but us adults were all in agreement that DL is MUCH better.

 

[Bigmace]

Thanks for the all Universal studios tips, we are going to DL in mid August and have one day pegged to rent a car and go to Universal, sounds like 1 day will be plenty.

 

[707MickeyGirl]

Thanks for the all Universal studios tips, we are going to DL in mid August and have one day pegged to rent a car and go to Universal, sounds like 1 day will be plenty.

One day is just right. We flew down from northern California for two days and really regretted that 2nd day. If we had driven, we could have done something else. Lesson learned.

 

[lily_belle]

For any locals planning staycations look like area hotels are offering some promos! https://www.visitanaheim.org/hotel-spring-promotions/

 

[StarTrekFan]

Universal is definitely a 1 day adventure. Same for all other theme parks not named Disney. The CityPass for SoCal is actually a pretty good deal to use if you're theme/zoo oriented family.

 

[SoCalGoofy]

HI all... I have 3 day SoCal tickets and reserved two park days at the end of May... when I look at the tickets on the app there is a "blockout calendar" below the barcodes. It's showing me blocked out for the next 90 days... anyone else see this? What gives?