When Will Disneyland Resume Magic Key Annual Pass Sales in 2024?
“When will new Annual Pass sales resume at Disneyland?” and “will Magic Keys be available again?” are common reader questions. Many locals are eager to purchase passes, having waited too long to buy before sales were paused, forgetting to renew, etc. We’ll share the company’s official position and speculate as to when APs will return. (January 11, 2024.)
If you want the short and not-so-sweet of it, Disneyland is not currently selling Magic Keys. Annual Pass sales last resumed on January 10, 2024 and by the end of the business day, the Enchant Key, Believe Key and Inspire Key had sold out. The Imagine Key (for Southern California residents only) remained available for new purchases when sales resumed on the morning of January 11, 2024 but was gone within a few hours.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that, if history repeats itself, Disneyland will resume Magic Key sales again at least a couple of times in 2024. Since you’re reading this post, you’re presumably wondering when–this offers our best guesses based on past precedent. If all you’re looking for is official news or an announcement, we don’t have that–but would recommend you subscribe to our free email newsletter for updates. We’ll give you a heads up when sales are about to resume again.
Let’s start with basic background to bring you up to speed. During the closure, Disneyland ended the AP program and cancelled all outstanding passes. When Disneyland and Disney California Adventure reopened, Annual Passes remained unavailable through the summer, but unprecedented ticket deals were offered for California residents.
By the beginning of August, Disneyland introduced that membership program: Magic Keys. This was/is really just Annual Passes by a different name, higher prices, and required reservations for all tiers. Demand was high from the outset, with a virtual queue and all-day waits to purchase Magic Key Annual Passes on release day. (At this point, a multi-hour virtual queue is the rule, rather than the exception.)
Late in October 2021, Disneyland paused sales on the top level Dream Key. Then in November, the Believe Key also sold out, leaving only the Enchant Key and Imagine Key available for purchase. At the beginning of Summer 2022, both of these had their statuses change to “Currently Unavailable” on Disneyland.com.
In November 2022, Disneyland Resort resumed sales of select Magic Key Annual Passes just as the busy Christmas season started last year. The Inspire, Believe and Imagine APs all resumed new sales, with the Enchant pass remaining unavailable for new sales. This was incredibly short-lived. After only a couple days of sales–complete with a virtual queue to access the sales page with a wait time of 8 to 10 hours–Disneyland suspended all Magic Key sales.
Disneyland once again resumed Magic Key sales on two separate occasions in January and April 2023. Within a week (both times), pass sales had once again been paused on the Believe, Enchant and Imagine Keys. Last year in mid-September, sales of the Inspire Key were finally paused after several months of sales–the longest duration of availability for any Magic Key since APs returned.
The saga of sales resuming in January 2024 is already laid out above. This is the second-fastest that Magic Keys have ever sold out, right behind when they were offered ahead of the Christmas 2022 season. As of January 11, 2024, all tiers of Magic Keys are now sold out and “available for renewal only.”
Even with AP sales often paused, crowds have been absolutely bonkers at Disneyland for much of the last few years, especially during the Halloween and Christmas seasons. We visit the parks weekly, including on numerous days that historically would’ve been shoulder or off-season only to find heavy crowds.
Diminished reservation availability has been exacerbated by the fact that Disneyland Resort still isn’t operating at 100%. It may seem minor, but there’s missing entertainment, Fantasmic is gone again, and not every venue in the park is fully efficient due to staffing shortages. Even attraction capacity is reduced because there’s been more Cast Member turnover than normal, and new employees aren’t as good as experienced ones at dispatching ride vehicles efficiently. All minor in isolation, but it adds up in the grand scheme of things.
In short, there’s currently more demand for Disneyland than there is supply or capacity, and it’s most advantageous for the company to restrict Magic Key sales in favor of single and multi-day ticket purchases. As we’ve explained before, Annual Passholders are advantageous to Disneyland, but not in a constrained capacity environment at the expense of tourists.
Statistically speaking, per visit spending is significantly higher among infrequent visitors than APs. Or as Disney now-infamously put it, more Magic Keyholders in the parks results in an “unfavorable attendance mix.” It thus makes sense that Disneyland would want to prioritize those demographics and not fill the parks with Magic Key Passholders at the expense of more lucrative vacationers during busier seasons. (All of this may seem like irrelevant or excessive ‘backstory,’ but we’ll be circling back to all of it in the analysis.)
Despite this, one popular fan theory is that the company is embracing the “Disney Vault” strategy of creating demand through scarcity, or rather, perceived scarcity. It’s possible that Disneyland has survey data showing a high dissatisfaction rating among Magic Key purchasers and low intent to renew or purchase because reservations have been frustrating and prices have increased. However, if these same fans believe they might not be able to simply purchase passes at their leisure down the road, they might err on the side of caution and renew when their time comes.
There might be some truth to this, but the simplest explanation is that the same underlying issue is causing all of this: crowds. More demand for admission and reservations to Disneyland than there is available capacity or supply. New Magic Key sales are suspended due to concerns about Disneyland’s ability to meet demand for regular tickets once Annual Passes are available again. It’s entirely possible that renewals help Disneyland fill the parks and meet attendance targets, but that internal projections show that ongoing new Magic Key sales would “break” the reservation system and lead to reservation shortfalls yet again.
Which brings us to the present question: when will Disneyland start selling new Magic Key annual passes?
Our expectation is that Annual Pass sales will resume at some point in April 2024. This is likely to occur after Los Angeles and Orange County schools go back into session following their Spring Breaks, and following the peak weeks around Easter. In other words, once the shoulder season between Spring Break and summer tourist season starts.
This year, Easter arrives early–on March 31, 2024–and many school districts have breaks earlier in March, with fewer in April 2024 as a result. We wouldn’t expect Magic Key sales to resume immediately after that, as it’s still the heart of Spring Break season.
Sometime around Tax Day (April 15, 2024) makes more sense. A week earlier or later really wouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Last year, the resumption occurred on April 11, and that was with Easter occuring later–so we’d be inclined to bet on Magic Key sales resuming in the first half of April 2024, not the second half.
Not to get too conspiratorial on you or anything, but I find it slightly suspicious that three tiers of Magic Keys sold out simultaneously right at the end of the business day on January 10. It would be a pretty big coincidence if Disneyland just so happened to run out of that trio at the exact same time at the conclusion of the normal 9 to 5 day.
It seems almost like a decision was made in advance to sell three tiers of Magic Keys for one business day, and then suspend sales again. It’s certainly frustrating for fans and those who spent hours in a virtual queue only to come up empty handed, but it’s also a strategy that creates a false sense of scarcity.
Regardless, we should have a pretty good idea based on how soon and how long Magic Keys are on sale again. If it’s in only a couple of months and sales remain open much longer, that would seem to corroborate this. If it’s further down the road and they sell out quickly again, we’re probably wrong.
I’m skeptical for a few reasons. Pent-up demand has largely exhausted itself, and the general economic environment has taken a turn for the worse with consumer spending starting to slow. Spending on travel and leisure is only likely to decrease in the coming months. If I were in charge at Disneyland, I’d want to resume Magic Key sales in 2024 to capture as much of that consumer spending now, rather than waiting and being hit harder by a recession or economic slowdown.
As economic conditions continue to normalize–the labor market, household savings, and staffing shortages–there could be less of an issue with reservations being unavailable. By then, it’s also entirely possible that the non-stop price increases and cash grabs alienate enough locals and tourists that Disneyland is once again in a position of needing to lure back locals. It’s entirely possible that this actually occurs sooner, perhaps during the second half of summer season (which is how things actually played out last year).
In any case, it’s safe to say that new Magic Key sales will resume at some point, and will not enter the “Disney Vault” for years. In normal times, Disneyland is dependent upon locals during the off-season when tourism to Southern California is low because the weather is colder or school is in session (or both).
Although Disney has tried to make Disneyland Resort a standalone vacation destination (and moved it in that direction since the debut of Cars Land), it is still reliant upon Californians and not tourists for much of the year. While those same locals cause attendance problems, Disneyland has not shown that it can subsist on travelers to the same degree as Walt Disney World.
The challenge is in finding a balance. Disneyland is a Southern California institution, but it’s also becoming a popular destination for families on the West Coast. While most Disneyland Resort guests come from somewhere in California, people travel from other states, more and more.
Utah and Nevada are chief among these, with Oregon, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Washington also heavily represented. For the last several years, we’ve observed crowd spikes when major districts in those states (especially Utah and Nevada) have breaks.
Disneyland also has a huge local population, with a high degree of disposable income. The collective population of Los Angeles and Orange Counties is nearly 14 million, which is higher (by millions) than the local population near Walt Disney World.
Once you throw San Diego and other areas into the mix within a reasonable driving distance of Disneyland, you have around 20 million potential guests that can easily do day trips to Disneyland. And Disneyland only has two parks.
Ultimately, our prediction is that Disneyland Resort does not resume new Magic Key sales again until mid-April 2024. Personally, I think there’s a good chance that the next time Magic Key sales resume is the last time they resume, with Annual Passes perpetually available throughout the remainder of 2024 and 2025.
At some point very soon, things will normalize. Staffing shortages will be fully resolved, pent-up demand will fizzle out, and consumer spending will fall back to normal levels. Walt Disney World is already seeing softer bookings, so the same might soon prove to be true at Disneyland. Of course, that’s just our guess from the outside looking in. So we shall see what happens next!
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
When do you expect Disneyland to start selling new Magic Keys? Think sometime in mid-April 2024 is a safe bet for AP sales? Think we might not see new Annual Passes until September 2024 to ensure there’s ample capacity for more lucrative tourists during spring break and summer vacation? Would you purchase a Magic Key right now if you could? Any questions we can help you answer? 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!
I am a longtime pass holder, almost to the beginning of their offering. I recently let my pass lapse without renewing. I do miss Disneyland, but am set on waiting for the park to fix its problems. This is not about the crowds, but rather staffing and cost. I did not buy the So Cal special deal for the same reason. While the current cast members work very hard to create the magic, they are hampered by a shortage of trained employees. They need time to up their experience and, hopefully, the cast numbers. This is integral to the Disney magic experience, since this personal touch is what makes Disneyland more than just an amusement park, but a magical home. The cost is just a personal decision, since we are still in saving mode after changes from the pandemic. Unfortunately, Disneyland is the same as many restaurants now, charging more for less food, sometimes less quality. We will be back to enjoy everything, despite crowds some day. Until then, we have passes to Knotts and are enjoying exploring our beautiful state outside the park.
As of today, the only Magic Key Pass that is available is the Inspire for $1599. Is there any risk in purchasing this? It’s a lot of money obviously, but I’m looking at it for my wifes birthday. We are in SoCal and would make multiple trips with different sets of grandkids throughout the year. In the past, we’ve always had APs and loved it…obviously times have changed and it’s more complex. But thinking it’s time to start going back to Disneyland. Thoughts? Thank you
Great write up and informative. Thanks for this!
we are probably the ideal magic key holders from a disney perspective… the reservation calendar works out great for us… we are from phx area, so we plan our trips in advance… take about 4 to 5 trips out there during the course of the pass… since we aren’t near home, we eat all most all our meals at disney restaurants for the long weekend we’re there… we only go when it isn’t busy… we buy beer and treats and clothes and souvenir and even special event tickets… we are basically like ppl buying 4 day park hoppers 4 to 5 times a year… super touristy… the more I think about it, disney should prolly be giving us annual passes for free… unfortunately, we have always bought our passes right before a trip (or sometimes even converted park hoppers to passes at the end of our first trip) and then let our passes expire until the next slow season… so these last passes we had, we bought in oct 21 (and went to oogie boogie) went then, again in jan, again in mid march, again in sept 22 and finally in oct 22… then our plan was to let it expire and wait til spring 23 or fall 23 before we buy them again… it feels to me that disney should take advantage of our kind of passholder by having a pass that is the opposite of the “inspire” key… only for ppl living outside the so cal area… these are the ppl that are gonna go to the park just like a regular single day ticker holder and spend just like a regular single day ticket holder…
Great write up.
Disney could lessen the crowds and increase revenue by building more theme parks. Several years ago there were rumors that Disney was going to build Disneyland North in the Northern California area near Sacramento (Tracy, Ca). That never materialized. A few more parks in strategic areas may help the overcrowding and lessen the travel for families to get to them. Just my .02.
Disneyland, is the place where family memories are made. I have fantastic memories of when I was a child with my siblings from 45 plus years ago. when I thought the Disney Characters where real.
so I hope that Disney can figure out a way to expand the tradition that bring families together and keep inviting people, friends, friends for generations. maybe add a third park in order to spread out the inflow of visitors. and start new traditions for future generations.
with love
Disney Fan
I think you did an amazing job with your in-depth analysis and I appreciate it! It really helps in my attempt to strategize when to reengage with Disney. To the person who accused you of writing regurgitated out of date information – I haven’t found your point of view anywhere else – So I really don’t know what they’re talking about. Maybe they just found your intelligence offputting!
I have kicked myself so many times for not purchasing the magic key when they came out. I had figured it was going to be hard to get one for my daughter once she turned 3yr. If I had known what I know now, I would’ve purchased. Now I just wish they bring it back so we could go.
I wonder if Disney has ever considered limiting the amount of times a Magic Key holder can attend per month. I imagine this would be unpopular, but would surely help the crowds. I personally would rather be limited in this way, as opposed to dealing with the crowds as of late.
Tom, If I wanted to be watching for the New Magic key card holders date when it opens… Where to you suggest I watch? Is there a insider website? Which Instagram/ Facebook site is Best? I’m ready to get My Husband & I a Magic Key pass after the Amazing Day we just had!!! We LOVE The Magic Kingdom in the Fall
Tom, you obviously visit Disneyland a lot to create this blog. What will your strategy be once your MagicPass expires if you can’t renew? Will you have to start paying full whack for tickets every time you visit? Would that affect your blog output?
I am a Magic Key holder from out of state. we love it because when we want to go we are able to. yes there are days we might have to use a regular ticket but that is okay. we try to go when available. Needing to fly, get a hotel and we have kids and a grandson that we spend plenty on in the park so they are still getting lots of my money. as for food we don’t want to carry items so we purchase what we need. Again just because we are Magic Key holders doesn’t mean we don’t spend money. It gives us the freedom to go 4-5 times a year and get our pins, clothes and other items we like. yes I could just order the items but being there is just so much better. Not all Magic Key holders are bad.
So are you saying if my AP expires in February 2023, I should have renewed in August 2022?
How successful was Disneyland in using “California resident ticket deals” to replace APs in terms of getting people into the park during its slower periods in the past year?
I let my magic key expire. I don’t miss it yet. Disneyland has been so crowded that they certainly don’t miss me. The crowds and sky high prices were motivation for me to take a break. If the keys never go on sale again, I’ll be okay with that too. My family became Knott’s passholders a few years ago. We’ve also added Universal. I kinda feel like they appreciate passholders more than Disneyland. So I will continue to give them my money instead. Not to mention a family of five can probably go to Hawaii for week, all for less than what magic keys cost.
I am so glad to hear your honest response about Magic Keys. We typically go twice a year so the magic keys aren’t necessarily worth it for us. However, I have always felt a little left out considering I don’t even have the option right now to buy one if I wanted to. I appreciate knowing that you don’t miss it. I get a discount on merchandise because I have a Disney Visa Card, so that takes care of that perk. You have given me much to think about if the keys become available again. I may decide not get them in the end because I agree. I would rather stick to visiting Disneyland once or twice a year and then using my money to take other kinds of Family vacations. Those who only go to Disneyland and no where else have issues. (just kidding).
The snowman in the article thumbnail is creepy lol
All the info in this article is spot-on, up to date and accurate and the article provides a great review of the large amount of background info that is necessary to understand where things currently stand with the “AP” situation in Disneyland. As someone who also closely tracks these things, Bricker’s predictions seem spot-on (as much as anything like that can be.) _IF_ any form of AP will go on sale in the future (a big if considering all the factors covered well in the article) next April or more likely next fall seem the _very soonest_ possible dates, even if Disney were to get new leadership today (unfortunately not likely . . . ).
The information in this article is dated and regurgitated…. The writer is trying to sound too educated which THUS takes away from the article and ADEQUATELY gives me enough reason to stay away from future posts from this blog.
Aside from the recap about past Magic Key sales and pauses (which is the foundation of the predictions), what about this is dated? This article was written yesterday.
As for being too educated…I readily admit to having no inside info. The very first paragraph says this is speculation. Elsewhere, I concede having been wrong about Magic Keys in the past.
You are very correct about crowds. They are bonkers! We went in the “off season” last week in Sept. So, so crowded. As far as mobile order, it was faster to leave and go to subway, then come back. Disneyland does not seem to need the AP. I can only imagine how horrible the crowds would be if they did. Looking forward to old off season days again. Fingers crossed. Thank you for keeping us updated on Disneyland. We visit both CA and FL parks. I visit your site daily to get my fix. Thank you
You make a great case for the date you picked. If they resume sales, that seems like the soonest it would likely occur.