2023 Southern California Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal

Disneyland is offering a new multi-day ticket deal for Southern California residents in 2023 for the start of the Disney 100th Anniversary Celebration up until the summer tourist season. This post shares info & details about the limited-time offer for the new year, plus commentary about the intersection of this promo and returning entertainment, and historical comparisons.

For a limited time, Southern California residents can visit the Disneyland Resort theme parks for as low as $73 per day with the purchase of a special 3-day, 1-park per day weekday ticket for $219. Visit 3 times on weekdays from January 9, 2023 through May 25, 2023–subject to theme park reservation availability.

Residents can upgrade to Park Hopper tickets or purchase the Disney Genie+ service for additional fees at the time of SoCal ticket purchase. As always, for buying these and all discount Disneyland tickets, our top recommendation is Get Away Today. If the Southern California resident tickets aren’t for you due to travel dates, weekend blockouts, or because you’re from out of state, see our 2023 Discount Disneyland Ticket Buying Guide for additional recommendations.

This Disneyland ticket discount is valid only for Southern California residents within ZIP codes 90000-93599 and Northern Baja California residents within ZIP codes 21000-22999. Proof of eligible residency, including valid government-issued photo ID, is required for purchase and admission.

As these are not valid on weekends, the following blockout dates apply to the 2023 Southern California resident Disneyland ticket deal: January 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, 29; February 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26; March 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26; April 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30; May 6, 7, 13, 14, 20 and 21. (Unless I’m mistaken, these are all Saturdays and Sundays, so this is really just restating that the tickets aren’t valid on weekends.)

Eligible residents may purchase up to 5 tickets per day with valid ID. Tickets are nonrefundable, may not be sold or transferred for commercial use and exclude activities/events separately priced. Offer may not be combined with other ticket discounts or promotions. This promotion is subject to restrictions, change and cancellation without notice. Sales may be paused from time to time or terminated at any time.

Now let’s turn to how this Southern California ticket offer differs from past Disneyland deals. First, there are the Golden State ticket offers that were available each of the last two summers through early fall. That was available for all California residents.

Those tickets were more expensive, but they were also sold during what’s normally a busier timeframe. Summer is California’s peak tourist season. Although September used to be off-season, last year there was the D23 Expo and the start of Halloween Time has become increasingly busy at Disneyland. By contrast, winter is still the off-season (to the extent there is one), with crowds picking up for stretches of spring, but still lower than summer.

Second, the other big historical difference is that the 2023 Southern California Resident Disneyland ticket discount is only valid on weekdays. This started last year, so it’s not a change year-over-year, but it is as compared to the longstanding norm.

In the past, Disneyland had instead used blockout dates applying to spring break for Los Angeles and Orange County school districts, the week of Easter, and other peak season dates. I’m a bit surprised they didn’t do the weekend blockout plus that this year, while also excluding the start of Disney’s 100th Anniversary celebration, debut of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and reopening of Mickey’s Toontown.

Third, the 2023 Southern California Disneyland ticket deal is being offered earlier than normal. It’s typically announced and released simultaneously, or close to it. This usually happens the first week of January, with the validity period within a few days or even the exact same day. Since I’ve been following the deal, I don’t recall it ever being released in December.

Honestly, this makes a ton of sense and I’m surprised it hasn’t happened before. Moving the release date into December but maintaining the same eligibility window is all upside for Disney, as it gives locals the ability to purchase these tickets during the holiday gift giving season. I can’t imagine there’s much opportunity cost to this–I doubt locals would’ve otherwise bought full price tickets for Christmas presents instead, knowing this deal is released annually.

Finally, there’s the matter of price. Here’s how the 2023 discount compares to Southern California resident ticket prices from the last 7 years. As you can see, it’s a $20 increase over the same special offer last year, which is more or less consistent with price increases since:

2022 California Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal Prices:

  • 3-Day (Monday-Thursday), 1-Park Per Day Ticket – $249
  • 3-Day (Monday-Sunday), 1-Park Per Day Ticket – $299

2022 SoCal Resident Winter & Spring Ticket Deal Prices: 

  • 3-Day, 1-Park Per Day Ticket — $199
  • 3 Day, 1-Park Per Day Ticket with Disney Genie+ Service — $259
  • 3-Day Park Hopper Ticket — $259
  • 3-Day Park Hopper Ticket with Disney Genie+ Service — $319

2021 California Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal Prices:

  • 3-day, 1-park ticket for $249
  • 3-day Park Hopper ticket for $304

2021 California Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal Prices:

  • 3-day, 1-park ticket for $249
  • 3-day Park Hopper ticket for $304

2020 SoCal Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal Prices:

  • 3-day, 1-park per day ticket for $201
  • 3-day Park Hopper ticket for $254

2019 SoCal Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal Prices:

  • 3-day, 1-park per day ticket for $179
  • 3-day Park Hopper ticket for $234

2018 SoCal Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal Prices:

  • 2-day ticket with choice of one park per day for $159
  • 2-day Park Hopper ticket for $204
  • 3-day ticket with choice of one park per day for $199
  • 3-day Park Hopper ticket for $244

2017 SoCal Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal Prices:

  • 3-day ticket with choice of one park per day for $149
  • 3-day Park Hopper ticket for $189

(These prices are accurate–that year was bonkers due to the bonus day plus the return of Main Street Electrical Parade.)

2016 SoCal Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal Prices:

  • 2-day ticket with choice of one park per day for $149
  • 2-day Park Hopper ticket for $189
  • 3-day ticket with choice of one park per day for $179
  • 3-day Park Hopper ticket for $219.

Note that Southern California Resident tickets from previous years also included one Magic Morning early entry to Disneyland, which provided an extra hour on select days before the park opens to the general public. That’s not the case with this deal as Magic Mornings have been replaced with Early Entry for on-site hotel guests.

I’m very curious how this plays out with the crowd dynamic at Disneyland as the Disney100 celebration begins, new nighttime spectaculars launch, and new/reimagined Toontown offerings debut. Locals tend to love these types of things, but all of this is also during what’s historically the off-season.

Then there are recent crowd trends to take into consideration. After parts of late September and October being ridiculously crowded, Disneyland has not been terrible this holiday season, minus Thanksgiving. The non-holiday weeks have had significantly lower wait times than we forecast, catching us by surprise. Of course, Christmas and New Year’s Eve are right around the corner, but Magic Keys have incredibly aggressive blockouts for peak season dates, so our expectation is that these weeks won’t be quite as bad as normal.

As for Winter 2023, I’ll once again revisit when Disney got ahead of itself with aggressive promotions released in tandem with the return of the Main Street Electrical Parade several years back, resulting in bonkers attendance during the off-season. Thankfully, we almost certainly won’t see a repeat of that due to a mixture of park reservations, weekend blockouts, and this ticket deal being inferior to that.

However, Fridays could end up being shockingly busy (I’d wager that it’ll consistently be the worst day of the week for crowds during the winter off-season) and even weekdays that previously weren’t as bad might be busier in January and February.

Ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see how popular these tickets end up being with locals. Blocking out weekends is a good move, and not doing so would’ve angered many Magic Key passholders. There are otherwise no restrictions for Presidents Day and MLK Day long weekends, spring break or Easter, or any of the aforementioned stuff that’s debuting in early 2023.

It’ll be interesting to see how crowds play out at Disneyland during the non-weekend portion of those windows. One thing we’d caution against is drawing comparisons to this year and trying to surmise too much. Keep in mind that a lot of entertainment and nighttime spectaculars had not yet returned this winter, and staffing shortages were still a significant problem.

The latter remains true to some degree, but not even remotely like this year. Even with the kickoff of the Disney100 celebration and everything else that’s debuting this winter, our guess is that “feels like” crowds will be better, not worse. (Obligatory asterisk: Disneyland crowds remain very difficult to predict, and as such, we could end up being very wrong!)

Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places!

Your Thoughts

Will you be taking advantage of Disneyland’s California Resident Ticket Offer for 2023? Disappointed by this deal? Thoughts on the weekends being blocked out? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!

2 Responses to “2023 Southern California Resident Disneyland Ticket Deal”
  1. Sandra December 31, 2022
  2. Heather K December 14, 2022

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