But I wondering what So. Cal residents do when they take out-of-town family members to
Disneyland? Do they buy cheap tickets for themselves and make their relatives pay full price? Or do they figure it's still okay to buy discounted admission for everyone since there's a So. Cal resident in the group?
My brother lives in San Diego and qualifies for the discount. He and his wife go to a ticket counter and buy their tickets. Hubby son and I go to a ticket counter and get our tickets. They get a discount, we don't. I don't know if brother/SIL want to get us the discounted tickets, but it hasn't come up, because we aren't eligible.
OP, any ticket over a one day ticket is a hopper (meaning you can "hop" back and forth from park to park). A one-day one-park ticket is for either DL or DCA. So unless you're getting the one-day one-park (or one of the special southern CA 2-fer tickets), a ticket for DL is a ticket for DCA and vice versa.
If you'er getting the one-day one-park, you will just buy it at the ticket booths. Ifyou're getting a hopper or a longer ticket, you can buy it on disneyland.com. They generally have pre-purchase deals you won't find at the gates. If you choose the e-ticket option, it's sent to you by email. You print out the e-ticket, then take that straight to the turnstiles, where they will scan it and give you a proper ticket.
There are other sites to buy tickets from...GetAwayToday dot com, Ares Travel, to name two.
AAA offices also have tickets, though each office has their own policies and their own stock of tickets, so deals and number of days on the tickets will vary.