PSA on buying SoCal Tickets with a Giftcard and a ?

[goodeats]

Just an FYI to others that may have been trying to do the same thing. I am a SoCal resident and am planning on purchasing the SoCal ticket with Maxpass. I've been accumulating gift cards at Ralphs for the fuel rewards and with my cash back Amex to save a little money. I transferred all the gift cards to one card with $750 on it, which I tried to use on the DL website today to purchase the tickets. For maybe obvious reasons you have to put some portion of the charge on a credit card with a SoCal billing address and not use a gift card. If I knew ahead of time I would have managed to put $671 on one gift card and used that for the purchase and $1 on my CC. Unfortunately, the website does not let you allocate payments by amount and there's no way on the Disney GC website to transfer a partial balance.

So, my options are:
* Drive down to Anaheim this week and purchase the cards at the ticket window prior to our visit next Friday
* Purchase over the phone for a $5 charge and still have to go to the ticket window when we visit it the first time
* Get to the park extra early and buy the tickets the first day we visit

If we go with the last option, how much of a headache will it be? It's a 9am opening at DL and no early entry. Most people probably don't buy the tickets in person anymore right? Will the maxpass work right away?

 

[starry_solo]

Ticket booths typically open one hour prior to the parks opening (as do the parking lots). I don't recall if there is a drop-off on Harbor anymore, but if there is, I would drop off the members of your party there, have them go through security and buy the tickets while you go park the car.

 

[Disney_Alli]

Ticket booths typically open one hour prior to the parks opening (as do the parking lots). I don't recall if there is a drop-off on Harbor anymore, but if there is, I would drop off the members of your party there, have them go through security and buy the tickets while you go park the car.

The only part I can help you with is to tell you there's still a drop off on Harbor

 

[goodeats]

I figured out another option - I can prepurchase my parking passes for the three days with the giftcard for $75 (oof!). I would still need to spend $10 or so at shopdisney or the disneystore though.

I'm going with my two daughters, so I can't really drop them off to buy the tickets. I may just drive down (or up as the case may be) to Anaheim and take care of it.

 

[pharmama]

I’m not sure when you’re going but WoC is back for reservations. If you want to do the dessert party (which is fabulous) you do have to prepay that so that might be an option to pay down the gc balance.

 

[starry_solo]

I figured out another option - I can prepurchase my parking passes for the three days with the giftcard for $75 (oof!). I would still need to spend $10 or so at shopdisney or the disneystore though.

I'm going with my two daughters, so I can't really drop them off to buy the tickets. I may just drive down (or up as the case may be) to Anaheim and take care of it.

Pre-purchase parking? I didn't think you could do that...

Go with option #3, get to the parks extra early (right when the parking booth opens), park, then go to the ticket booths to purchase your tickets

 

[goodeats]

Pre-purchase parking? I didn't think you could do that...

Yes, it's on the website
https://disneyland.disney.go.com/tickets/parking/