Theme Park Scope

I would love to tell you I opened the new Disneyland price chart like a calm, collected professional.

Instead, I stared at a grid of colored squares for about twenty minutes and started whispering things like “Tier 4, you rascal.” (My family has stopped asking questions.)

Here is the news. Disneyland Resort has revealed price changes, with the increases focused on some one-day tickets. To understand the pricing structure easiest, let’s tackle Disneyland’s date-based pricing for tickets in tiers ranging from 0 (the cheapest) to 6 (the highest). One-day ticket prices go up by $5 in Tiers 1 through 4. The cheapest one-day ticket stays at $104, and the highest-priced ticket stays at $224 a day. Multi-day tickets, all Magic Key prices, and parking are unchanged.

The new one-day ticket prices

• Tier 0 stays at $104.
• Tier 1 goes from $129 to $134.
• Tier 2 goes from $149 to $154.
• Tier 3 goes from $169 to $174.
• Tier 4 goes from $184 to $189.
• Tier 5 stays at $199.
• Tier 6 stays at $224.

Lightning Lane Multi Pass goes up by $1. Pre-arrival pricing moves from $34 to $35, and day-of pricing starts at $38, up from $37.

What is not changing

Magic Key prices are exactly where they were: Inspire at $1,899, Believe at $1,474, Enchant at $974, and Imagine at $599. Parking is unchanged too, at $40 for a car or motorcycle, $45 for an oversized vehicle, $50 for a bus or tractor, and $60 for preferred parking. If you read our post earlier this week about Walt Disney World raising Annual Pass prices, that is a pretty interesting contrast. Disneyland’s passholder products held steady while its one-day tickets moved.

Now for the part I enjoyed way too much: the calendar. The new tier calendar covers October 2026 through June 2027, which is 273 days. I counted every square, so here is how it breaks down. Tier 0 has 43 days, Tier 1 has 30, Tier 2 has 35, Tier 3 has 51, Tier 4 has 62, Tier 5 has 31, and Tier 6 has 21. Add up the four tiers that just went up by $5, Tiers 1 through 4, and you get 178 days, which is about 65 percent of the calendar. The days with unchanged prices, Tiers 0, 5, and 6, make up the remaining 95. So a $5 increase sounds small, but most of the calendar landed in the tiers where it applies.

If you want to find the $104 days, look for Monday through Thursday in these windows: November 2 to 5 and November 9 to 12, which are the two weeks before Thanksgiving week. In January, look at January 7, January 11 to 14, January 19 to 21, and January 25 to 28. February is a gold mine, with Tier 0 days on February 1 to 4, 9 to 11, 16 to 18, and 22 to 25. March 1 to 4 is also Tier 0, and in June you will find June 1 to 3 and June 8 and 9. It is a pattern worth noticing: the cheapest days are almost all early-week days, and they cluster after the holidays and before spring break.

Tier 6, the $224 days, is only 21 days across the whole calendar, and they are exactly what you would expect. Thanksgiving week, November 22 to 28, is Tier 6. So is almost all of the stretch from December 19 through January 2. There is one curious exception. Monday, December 21 is listed as Tier 5, at $199, sitting between gold Tier 6 days on either side of it. If that is correct, it is a $25 savings on what is otherwise the most expensive week of the year, which makes it the sneakiest bargain on the whole chart.

A few more small details are worth knowing. The Saturdays in October are Tier 5. Halloween, October 31, is Tier 5 as well. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 18, is Tier 3, and Valentine’s Day weekend lands in Tier 5 on February 13 and 14, with Presidents Day on February 15 in Tier 3.

Disney CFO Hugh Johnston said at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia and Technology Conference on September 9 that the company prices when it delivers more value, adding, “Price is what you pay, value is what you get.” He also pointed to the hours of rides, entertainment, and shows guests get for their money. That is the same conference, and the same approach, we covered in our earlier post about Disney’s new attractions and pricing.

I will be honest, this is about as gentle as a price increase gets. The cheapest and most expensive tickets stay put, Magic Keys and parking are frozen, and multi-day tickets are unchanged. The most useful thing you can do with this news is open the calendar, pick your dates carefully, and aim for a weekday.

If you want help comparing dates, tickets, and hotel options for your trip, a travel agent through Adventure Awaits Travel Company can walk you through it at no cost to you.

We will keep tracking every Disneyland price change as it happens, so check back with Theme Park Scope before you book your next park day.