2026 Disneyland Resort trip packages and resort reservations are actually obtainable! With this, there are main modifications to the on-site visitor perks, together with the elimination of a pair resort advantages and addition of one other. Right here’s the whole lot it is advisable to know concerning the modifications. Plus, commentary concerning the good & unhealthy of recent and retired perks, and whether or not we would see Walt Disney World make related strikes down the highway.
Let’s begin with trip package deal fundamentals. Disneyland Resort room reservations for 2026 holidays are actually obtainable as of Wednesday, August 20, 2025. This consists of bookings for Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa, Pixar Place Resort, Disneyland Resort, the varied villas, and Good Neighbor Accommodations.
These packages are legitimate for arrivals January 1 by December 31, 2026. Please word holidays can’t be booked greater than 499 days sooner or later. Bookings could also be made on-line or by way of cellphone. For visitors trying to go to sooner, there are particular presents obtainable now for stays this fall. Take a look at these posts for full particulars: 2025 Low cost Disneyland Tickets and Resort Reductions for Halloween & Christmas 2025 at Disneyland Resort.
Right here’s a rundown of the modifications coming to Disneyland Resort subsequent 12 months. Except in any other case famous, these all take impact beginning January 5, 2026.
Non-public Entry to Theme Parks
Get pleasure from handy entry to theme park entrances while you keep at one of many Disneyland Resort inns. For theme park entry, legitimate theme park admission and a reservation for a similar park on the identical date is required for every Visitor.
To enter Disney California Journey Park, Visitors staying at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa can enter by the resort’s entry gate, whereas Pixar Place Resort Visitors can use a walkway throughout the road from their resort.
As well as, all Visitors can get pleasure from fast entry to the Disneyland Park entrance by way of the Downtown Disney District Monorail station. That is additionally an possibility for Visitors staying on the Disneyland Resort.
To make use of the resort direct entry entry gate to Disney California Journey Park at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa or Pixar Place Resort, an lively resort reservation at one of many Disneyland Resort inns can also be required.
The Pixar Place Resort entrance to Disney California Journey will shut completely in early 2026 as building begins on the Coco growth, with no intentions to reopen. Pixar Place Resort visitors (and presumably DLH visitors) will be capable to entry DCA by the Grand Californian Resort entrance.
There’s a gate to GCH throughout the road from PPH, kind of immediately adjoining to the prevailing walkway. Visitors will now undergo the GCH foyer maze and enter DCA by Large Marc (the big bear outdoors Grizzly River Run), Large Al, and their different bear homies round Grizzly Peak.
The elimination of this entrance isn’t massively stunning. The visitor load coming by the non-public entrance from Pixar Place Resort into DCA is minimal, to the purpose that they’ve already shortened working hours and diverted visitors to GCH on numerous events. It’s value noting that that is an occasion of historical past repeating itself, with this entrance initially being discontinued within the early 2000s shortly after DCA opened and subsequently flopped.
The doorway was introduced again post-reopening when Paradise Pier Resort was limping alongside and different visitor advantages had been slashed. The pondering on the time was presumably that PPH wanted to supply a compelling promoting level, particularly because it was a multi-year building zone in the course of the reimagining. Effectively, now the resort has emerged from that and is extra common than ever.
Disneyland doesn’t have to incentivize bookings at Pixar Place Resort, because it’s already probably the most in-demand of the trio of Accommodations at Disneyland Resort and is often excluded from reductions. It thus is sensible to now shut that entrance just a few years after bringing it again. Undoubtedly an enormous loss for PPH visitors and we actually want they might’ve discovered a option to make a take care of the Westin or accomplished one thing else to extend utilization, however the greater shock is that it lasted this lengthy on the second go-round.
We look ahead to reporting on this once more in 2037 when Pixar Place Resort is beginning to present its age (once more), Disneyland Resort is underneath new administration (once more), and a few chief asks, “Hey, what’s this entrance, and why is it by no means used? It’d be an awesome visitor perk!”
Early Entry Ending
At the moment, visitors who’re checked in and staying at one of many Disneyland Resort inns can make the most of 30-minute early entry to a chosen theme park on daily basis of their resort keep to get pleasure from choose points of interest, eating and purchasing areas. Every day, both Disneyland or Disney California Journey shall be open early. Test the theme park calendar for the schedule.
Legitimate theme park admission and a park reservation for a similar park on the identical date are additionally required for Visitors (ages 3+). Park reservations are restricted, topic to availability and never assured. A Disneyland Resort resort reservation doesn’t assure a theme park reservation or park admission.
Hyperlink theme park tickets or passes, theme park reservations and resort reservations to the Disneyland app to point out verification of those necessities. Tickets and passes may be considered by choosing “Tickets and Passes” and resort dates of keep may be considered by choosing “My Resort Reservation” within the Disneyland app.
Early Entry is ending completely as of January 5, 2026.
That is extra unsurprising information. We’ve accomplished Early Entry at Disneyland usually, and our expertise has been persistently nice at Disneyland. We will often “run the desk” on Fantasyland darkish rides, and even when there’s an attraction with the dreaded delayed opening, it doesn’t matter in Fantasyland as a result of there’s a lot to select up the slack.
All the things is shut collectively, nothing has a pre-show, and every journey is just a few minutes lengthy. It’s extremely simple to knock out the whole lot in fast succession. Beginning in Tomorrowland is far more of a combined bag (Area Mountain having a delayed opening is an even bigger deal), which is why we nearly by no means try this.
We’ve additionally observed that by the tip of Early Entry, it’s as if Fantasyland has “reset.” By this, we imply that few on-site visitors stay in traces for these points of interest–they’ve largely moved on to rope drop Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, cleansing the slate for a recent wave of standard rope drop visitors in Fantasyland. It’s an everybody wins situation.
Alternatively, DCA may be type of a multitude, particularly if coming into from the Grand Californian. Safety is often understaffed and doesn’t open till shortly earlier than Early Entry formally begins. The method is tedious and time-consuming, particularly since Disneyland is steadfast in its refusal to modernize safety screenings.
It’s gotten to the purpose that we routinely undergo the principle entrance when doing Early Entry at DCA simply to keep away from the non-public entrance on the GCH, which is something however an unique visitor perk at that hour. Even when the stroll is longer and there’s a secondary checkpoint within the park, that is often sooner.
As soon as within the park, Early Entry at DCA is hit and miss. It’s much like Early Entry in Tomorrowland at Disneyland. It would work out awesomely, or it’d go awfully. We’ve run the desk on Avengers Campus headliners earlier than shifting on to Radiator Springs Racers, beating the rope drop rush. We’ve additionally acquired actually nothing accomplished, after which been behind the pack for normal rope drop.
Both manner, Disneyland eliminating Early Entry comes as precisely zero shock to me. They beforehand scaled it again from on daily basis at each parks to primarily each different day.
My hope had been that the subsequent step could be increasing eligibility to Good Neighbor Accommodations, purchasers of choose tickets, and so on. That is how the varied permutations of Early Entry beforehand labored, and it is sensible from a numbers perspective.
Disneyland solely has the three inns plus the DVC villas, so there isn’t almost as a lot demand as there’s for the perk as at Walt Disney World. Even the issues we recognized above aren’t the results of unsustainable demand–they’re about low capability or different points. Safety takes without end on the GCH when processing visitor counts within the dozens (perhaps 100?), whereas the full attraction capability in the course of the perk was a number of hundreds.
However, this has “we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of concepts” vitality. Early Entry was an awesome visitor perk for morning folks–particularly these touring from out of state and having the time zone benefit. There have been methods to make this work, so it’s unlucky they had been by no means examined. As an alternative, they’re going with another that may affect the day visitor expertise.
Free Lightning Lane
Lastly, as an oblique alternative for Early Entry, all visitors staying at one of many Accommodations of Disneyland Resort will obtain one complimentary anytime entry entry for a Lightning Lane Multi-Move attraction of their selection.
The Lightning Lane Multi-Move journey entry shall be obtainable to every visitor on the reservation with legitimate park admission and a park reservation. Disney Trip Membership members qualify, no matter whether or not utilizing factors or staying on money charges. Visitors at Good Neighbor Accommodations don’t qualify.
Word that this free Lightning Lane perk shall be restricted to 1 per visitor, per keep. It’s not each day like Early Entry.
Whether or not that is higher or worse than Early Entry goes to return all the way down to the visitor. For us, that is far worse in Fantasyland at Disneyland, the place we may actually do a half-dozen rides with next-to-no wait. That was our favourite Early Entry anyplace, and we at all times made a degree of getting Megatron off the bed and out the door for it. Whole gamechanger.
Additionally for us, that is really higher than Early Entry at DCA for all the causes above. In all probability no have to rehash these. I’ll fortunately commerce the stress of safety and hoping the delayed opening gods have smiled upon me for a free “anytime” Lightning Lane Multi-Move (presumably a Multi-Expertise Move pre-loaded into the Disneyland app).
My largest disappointment is that that is as soon as per keep versus as soon as per day. This incentivizes single night time stays, and it’s fairly simple to create synthetic 1-night stays with a purpose to qualify for this perk every day. I might think about there’s a pointy spike on this, as Disneyland visitors are typically savvy.
As for the oblique ramifications for different visitors because of the elevated Lightning Lane stock, I wouldn’t count on a lot. The overall variety of rooms in all three Accommodations of Disneyland Resort is pretty insignificant within the grand scheme of issues (therefore the dropping of Early Entry), so this ought to be a drop within the bucket.
The following query for a lot of followers will undoubtedly be whether or not Walt Disney World may undertake an analogous technique. We doubt it. If this had been to occur, it positively wouldn’t change in 2026. We all know this for positive as a result of Walt Disney World launched its trip packages a number of months in the past, and proactively said that Early Entry and Prolonged Night Hours would each proceed all through 2026.
Early Entry does have excessive utilization at Walt Disney World, the place it’s a preferred visitor perk. It’s not flawless, however we view it as higher than the choice. We’re definitely not going to advocate for the discount of hours, particularly provided that they’re already considerably shorter at WDW than DLR.
There have been requires Walt Disney World to incorporate Lightning Lane entry with on-site stays. Once more, the circumstances differ dramatically. In whole, there are slightly below 3,000 on-site resort rooms at Disneyland Resort (resort stock plus DVC).
Against this, there are roughly 40,000 rooms at Walt Disney World, which incorporates all the Disney-owned and operated properties plus the Disney Springs Resort Space, Bonnet Creek, Swan & Dolphin, Shades of Inexperienced.
These third celebration inns are included as a result of they’re technically on-site and, extra importantly, have contractual offers with Disney to supply sure visitor perks and facilities. Most significantly for our functions is Early Entry, which is the theoretical ‘swap’ for a free floating anytime Lightning Lane Multi-Move expertise.
What we may see taking place is Walt Disney World introducing a novel particular provide that gives free Lightning Lane Multi-Move. We’re already seeing Free Eating lose its luster because the flagship low cost at Walt Disney World, and that’s more likely to be doubly true in 2026 with the introduction of Youngsters Eat Free all 12 months lengthy.
With out different modifications, that new perk (which was the “one massive factor” of WDW’s 2026 product launch) will undercut the worth of Free Eating. If I had been Walt Disney World, I might need my marquee particular provide to be as interesting as attainable, particularly because it helps increase visitor spending metrics.
Utterly speculative, however maybe the reply is bundling “free” Lightning Lane Multi-Move with that to create an “final” “all-inclusive” package deal. (Three units of separate air quotes, for these preserving rating at dwelling.) I’m not precisely positive the way it’d work, however it may work.
In any other case, I wouldn’t count on Walt Disney World to supply free Lightning Lanes to on-site visitors. Not primarily due to the full room depend—that alone isn’t an insurmountable impediment since they beforehand supplied free FastPass to everybody.
Extra importantly, the income implications. Lightning Lane gross sales are primarily a free income stream, and a extremely profitable one. Messing with that in any respect may have main unanticipated downstream results on gross sales.
No manner they mess with that until completely needed. Possibly it’s a “break glass in case of emergency” factor for 2027, however my intestine is that getting Disney’s Magical Categorical again is way extra probably.
Something is feasible at Walt Disney World within the long-term, particularly if visitor satisfaction–and extra importantly, habits and visitation tendencies–takes sufficient of a success and administration is pressured to do one thing. Possibly an financial downturn would change the equation, or maybe Epic Universe will entice a ample variety of resort stays and cut back occupancy.
Based mostly on what we’ve seen within the second half of the 12 months, Walt Disney World’s massive reply to each is elevated discounting, so it follows that any reply involving Lightning Lanes would come with them as a part of a particular provide. We will see, although!
Planning a Southern California trip? For park admission offers, learn Suggestions for Saving Cash on Disneyland Tickets. Find out about on-site and off-site inns in our Anaheim Resort Critiques & Rankings. For the place to eat, take a look at our Disneyland Restaurant Critiques. For distinctive concepts of issues that’ll enhance your journey, take a look at What to Pack for Disney. For complete recommendation, seek the advice of our Disneyland Trip Planning Information. Lastly, for guides past Disney, take a look at our Southern California Itineraries for day journeys to Los Angeles, Laguna Seaside, and tons of different locations!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider Disneyland ending Early Entry and changing it with a free floating FastPass? What about eliminating the Pixar Place Resort entrance into DCA? Will you be reserving a 2026 Disneyland trip package deal? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments right here? Any questions we will help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even while you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
2026 Disneyland Resort trip packages and resort reservations are actually obtainable! With this, there are main modifications to the on-site visitor perks, together with the elimination of a pair resort advantages and addition of one other. Right here’s the whole lot it is advisable to know concerning the modifications. Plus, commentary concerning the good & unhealthy of recent and retired perks, and whether or not we would see Walt Disney World make related strikes down the highway.
Let’s begin with trip package deal fundamentals. Disneyland Resort room reservations for 2026 holidays are actually obtainable as of Wednesday, August 20, 2025. This consists of bookings for Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa, Pixar Place Resort, Disneyland Resort, the varied villas, and Good Neighbor Accommodations.
These packages are legitimate for arrivals January 1 by December 31, 2026. Please word holidays can’t be booked greater than 499 days sooner or later. Bookings could also be made on-line or by way of cellphone. For visitors trying to go to sooner, there are particular presents obtainable now for stays this fall. Take a look at these posts for full particulars: 2025 Low cost Disneyland Tickets and Resort Reductions for Halloween & Christmas 2025 at Disneyland Resort.
Right here’s a rundown of the modifications coming to Disneyland Resort subsequent 12 months. Except in any other case famous, these all take impact beginning January 5, 2026.
Non-public Entry to Theme Parks
Get pleasure from handy entry to theme park entrances while you keep at one of many Disneyland Resort inns. For theme park entry, legitimate theme park admission and a reservation for a similar park on the identical date is required for every Visitor.
To enter Disney California Journey Park, Visitors staying at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa can enter by the resort’s entry gate, whereas Pixar Place Resort Visitors can use a walkway throughout the road from their resort.
As well as, all Visitors can get pleasure from fast entry to the Disneyland Park entrance by way of the Downtown Disney District Monorail station. That is additionally an possibility for Visitors staying on the Disneyland Resort.
To make use of the resort direct entry entry gate to Disney California Journey Park at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa or Pixar Place Resort, an lively resort reservation at one of many Disneyland Resort inns can also be required.
The Pixar Place Resort entrance to Disney California Journey will shut completely in early 2026 as building begins on the Coco growth, with no intentions to reopen. Pixar Place Resort visitors (and presumably DLH visitors) will be capable to entry DCA by the Grand Californian Resort entrance.
There’s a gate to GCH throughout the road from PPH, kind of immediately adjoining to the prevailing walkway. Visitors will now undergo the GCH foyer maze and enter DCA by Large Marc (the big bear outdoors Grizzly River Run), Large Al, and their different bear homies round Grizzly Peak.
The elimination of this entrance isn’t massively stunning. The visitor load coming by the non-public entrance from Pixar Place Resort into DCA is minimal, to the purpose that they’ve already shortened working hours and diverted visitors to GCH on numerous events. It’s value noting that that is an occasion of historical past repeating itself, with this entrance initially being discontinued within the early 2000s shortly after DCA opened and subsequently flopped.
The doorway was introduced again post-reopening when Paradise Pier Resort was limping alongside and different visitor advantages had been slashed. The pondering on the time was presumably that PPH wanted to supply a compelling promoting level, particularly because it was a multi-year building zone in the course of the reimagining. Effectively, now the resort has emerged from that and is extra common than ever.
Disneyland doesn’t have to incentivize bookings at Pixar Place Resort, because it’s already probably the most in-demand of the trio of Accommodations at Disneyland Resort and is often excluded from reductions. It thus is sensible to now shut that entrance just a few years after bringing it again. Undoubtedly an enormous loss for PPH visitors and we actually want they might’ve discovered a option to make a take care of the Westin or accomplished one thing else to extend utilization, however the greater shock is that it lasted this lengthy on the second go-round.
We look ahead to reporting on this once more in 2037 when Pixar Place Resort is beginning to present its age (once more), Disneyland Resort is underneath new administration (once more), and a few chief asks, “Hey, what’s this entrance, and why is it by no means used? It’d be an awesome visitor perk!”
Early Entry Ending
At the moment, visitors who’re checked in and staying at one of many Disneyland Resort inns can make the most of 30-minute early entry to a chosen theme park on daily basis of their resort keep to get pleasure from choose points of interest, eating and purchasing areas. Every day, both Disneyland or Disney California Journey shall be open early. Test the theme park calendar for the schedule.
Legitimate theme park admission and a park reservation for a similar park on the identical date are additionally required for Visitors (ages 3+). Park reservations are restricted, topic to availability and never assured. A Disneyland Resort resort reservation doesn’t assure a theme park reservation or park admission.
Hyperlink theme park tickets or passes, theme park reservations and resort reservations to the Disneyland app to point out verification of those necessities. Tickets and passes may be considered by choosing “Tickets and Passes” and resort dates of keep may be considered by choosing “My Resort Reservation” within the Disneyland app.
Early Entry is ending completely as of January 5, 2026.
That is extra unsurprising information. We’ve accomplished Early Entry at Disneyland usually, and our expertise has been persistently nice at Disneyland. We will often “run the desk” on Fantasyland darkish rides, and even when there’s an attraction with the dreaded delayed opening, it doesn’t matter in Fantasyland as a result of there’s a lot to select up the slack.
All the things is shut collectively, nothing has a pre-show, and every journey is just a few minutes lengthy. It’s extremely simple to knock out the whole lot in fast succession. Beginning in Tomorrowland is far more of a combined bag (Area Mountain having a delayed opening is an even bigger deal), which is why we nearly by no means try this.
We’ve additionally observed that by the tip of Early Entry, it’s as if Fantasyland has “reset.” By this, we imply that few on-site visitors stay in traces for these points of interest–they’ve largely moved on to rope drop Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, cleansing the slate for a recent wave of standard rope drop visitors in Fantasyland. It’s an everybody wins situation.
Alternatively, DCA may be type of a multitude, particularly if coming into from the Grand Californian. Safety is often understaffed and doesn’t open till shortly earlier than Early Entry formally begins. The method is tedious and time-consuming, particularly since Disneyland is steadfast in its refusal to modernize safety screenings.
It’s gotten to the purpose that we routinely undergo the principle entrance when doing Early Entry at DCA simply to keep away from the non-public entrance on the GCH, which is something however an unique visitor perk at that hour. Even when the stroll is longer and there’s a secondary checkpoint within the park, that is often sooner.
As soon as within the park, Early Entry at DCA is hit and miss. It’s much like Early Entry in Tomorrowland at Disneyland. It would work out awesomely, or it’d go awfully. We’ve run the desk on Avengers Campus headliners earlier than shifting on to Radiator Springs Racers, beating the rope drop rush. We’ve additionally acquired actually nothing accomplished, after which been behind the pack for normal rope drop.
Both manner, Disneyland eliminating Early Entry comes as precisely zero shock to me. They beforehand scaled it again from on daily basis at each parks to primarily each different day.
My hope had been that the subsequent step could be increasing eligibility to Good Neighbor Accommodations, purchasers of choose tickets, and so on. That is how the varied permutations of Early Entry beforehand labored, and it is sensible from a numbers perspective.
Disneyland solely has the three inns plus the DVC villas, so there isn’t almost as a lot demand as there’s for the perk as at Walt Disney World. Even the issues we recognized above aren’t the results of unsustainable demand–they’re about low capability or different points. Safety takes without end on the GCH when processing visitor counts within the dozens (perhaps 100?), whereas the full attraction capability in the course of the perk was a number of hundreds.
However, this has “we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of concepts” vitality. Early Entry was an awesome visitor perk for morning folks–particularly these touring from out of state and having the time zone benefit. There have been methods to make this work, so it’s unlucky they had been by no means examined. As an alternative, they’re going with another that may affect the day visitor expertise.
Free Lightning Lane
Lastly, as an oblique alternative for Early Entry, all visitors staying at one of many Accommodations of Disneyland Resort will obtain one complimentary anytime entry entry for a Lightning Lane Multi-Move attraction of their selection.
The Lightning Lane Multi-Move journey entry shall be obtainable to every visitor on the reservation with legitimate park admission and a park reservation. Disney Trip Membership members qualify, no matter whether or not utilizing factors or staying on money charges. Visitors at Good Neighbor Accommodations don’t qualify.
Word that this free Lightning Lane perk shall be restricted to 1 per visitor, per keep. It’s not each day like Early Entry.
Whether or not that is higher or worse than Early Entry goes to return all the way down to the visitor. For us, that is far worse in Fantasyland at Disneyland, the place we may actually do a half-dozen rides with next-to-no wait. That was our favourite Early Entry anyplace, and we at all times made a degree of getting Megatron off the bed and out the door for it. Whole gamechanger.
Additionally for us, that is really higher than Early Entry at DCA for all the causes above. In all probability no have to rehash these. I’ll fortunately commerce the stress of safety and hoping the delayed opening gods have smiled upon me for a free “anytime” Lightning Lane Multi-Move (presumably a Multi-Expertise Move pre-loaded into the Disneyland app).
My largest disappointment is that that is as soon as per keep versus as soon as per day. This incentivizes single night time stays, and it’s fairly simple to create synthetic 1-night stays with a purpose to qualify for this perk every day. I might think about there’s a pointy spike on this, as Disneyland visitors are typically savvy.
As for the oblique ramifications for different visitors because of the elevated Lightning Lane stock, I wouldn’t count on a lot. The overall variety of rooms in all three Accommodations of Disneyland Resort is pretty insignificant within the grand scheme of issues (therefore the dropping of Early Entry), so this ought to be a drop within the bucket.
The following query for a lot of followers will undoubtedly be whether or not Walt Disney World may undertake an analogous technique. We doubt it. If this had been to occur, it positively wouldn’t change in 2026. We all know this for positive as a result of Walt Disney World launched its trip packages a number of months in the past, and proactively said that Early Entry and Prolonged Night Hours would each proceed all through 2026.
Early Entry does have excessive utilization at Walt Disney World, the place it’s a preferred visitor perk. It’s not flawless, however we view it as higher than the choice. We’re definitely not going to advocate for the discount of hours, particularly provided that they’re already considerably shorter at WDW than DLR.
There have been requires Walt Disney World to incorporate Lightning Lane entry with on-site stays. Once more, the circumstances differ dramatically. In whole, there are slightly below 3,000 on-site resort rooms at Disneyland Resort (resort stock plus DVC).
Against this, there are roughly 40,000 rooms at Walt Disney World, which incorporates all the Disney-owned and operated properties plus the Disney Springs Resort Space, Bonnet Creek, Swan & Dolphin, Shades of Inexperienced.
These third celebration inns are included as a result of they’re technically on-site and, extra importantly, have contractual offers with Disney to supply sure visitor perks and facilities. Most significantly for our functions is Early Entry, which is the theoretical ‘swap’ for a free floating anytime Lightning Lane Multi-Move expertise.
What we may see taking place is Walt Disney World introducing a novel particular provide that gives free Lightning Lane Multi-Move. We’re already seeing Free Eating lose its luster because the flagship low cost at Walt Disney World, and that’s more likely to be doubly true in 2026 with the introduction of Youngsters Eat Free all 12 months lengthy.
With out different modifications, that new perk (which was the “one massive factor” of WDW’s 2026 product launch) will undercut the worth of Free Eating. If I had been Walt Disney World, I might need my marquee particular provide to be as interesting as attainable, particularly because it helps increase visitor spending metrics.
Utterly speculative, however maybe the reply is bundling “free” Lightning Lane Multi-Move with that to create an “final” “all-inclusive” package deal. (Three units of separate air quotes, for these preserving rating at dwelling.) I’m not precisely positive the way it’d work, however it may work.
In any other case, I wouldn’t count on Walt Disney World to supply free Lightning Lanes to on-site visitors. Not primarily due to the full room depend—that alone isn’t an insurmountable impediment since they beforehand supplied free FastPass to everybody.
Extra importantly, the income implications. Lightning Lane gross sales are primarily a free income stream, and a extremely profitable one. Messing with that in any respect may have main unanticipated downstream results on gross sales.
No manner they mess with that until completely needed. Possibly it’s a “break glass in case of emergency” factor for 2027, however my intestine is that getting Disney’s Magical Categorical again is way extra probably.
Something is feasible at Walt Disney World within the long-term, particularly if visitor satisfaction–and extra importantly, habits and visitation tendencies–takes sufficient of a success and administration is pressured to do one thing. Possibly an financial downturn would change the equation, or maybe Epic Universe will entice a ample variety of resort stays and cut back occupancy.
Based mostly on what we’ve seen within the second half of the 12 months, Walt Disney World’s massive reply to each is elevated discounting, so it follows that any reply involving Lightning Lanes would come with them as a part of a particular provide. We will see, although!
Planning a Southern California trip? For park admission offers, learn Suggestions for Saving Cash on Disneyland Tickets. Find out about on-site and off-site inns in our Anaheim Resort Critiques & Rankings. For the place to eat, take a look at our Disneyland Restaurant Critiques. For distinctive concepts of issues that’ll enhance your journey, take a look at What to Pack for Disney. For complete recommendation, seek the advice of our Disneyland Trip Planning Information. Lastly, for guides past Disney, take a look at our Southern California Itineraries for day journeys to Los Angeles, Laguna Seaside, and tons of different locations!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider Disneyland ending Early Entry and changing it with a free floating FastPass? What about eliminating the Pixar Place Resort entrance into DCA? Will you be reserving a 2026 Disneyland trip package deal? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments right here? Any questions we will help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even while you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
2026 Disneyland Resort trip packages and resort reservations are actually obtainable! With this, there are main modifications to the on-site visitor perks, together with the elimination of a pair resort advantages and addition of one other. Right here’s the whole lot it is advisable to know concerning the modifications. Plus, commentary concerning the good & unhealthy of recent and retired perks, and whether or not we would see Walt Disney World make related strikes down the highway.
Let’s begin with trip package deal fundamentals. Disneyland Resort room reservations for 2026 holidays are actually obtainable as of Wednesday, August 20, 2025. This consists of bookings for Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa, Pixar Place Resort, Disneyland Resort, the varied villas, and Good Neighbor Accommodations.
These packages are legitimate for arrivals January 1 by December 31, 2026. Please word holidays can’t be booked greater than 499 days sooner or later. Bookings could also be made on-line or by way of cellphone. For visitors trying to go to sooner, there are particular presents obtainable now for stays this fall. Take a look at these posts for full particulars: 2025 Low cost Disneyland Tickets and Resort Reductions for Halloween & Christmas 2025 at Disneyland Resort.
Right here’s a rundown of the modifications coming to Disneyland Resort subsequent 12 months. Except in any other case famous, these all take impact beginning January 5, 2026.
Non-public Entry to Theme Parks
Get pleasure from handy entry to theme park entrances while you keep at one of many Disneyland Resort inns. For theme park entry, legitimate theme park admission and a reservation for a similar park on the identical date is required for every Visitor.
To enter Disney California Journey Park, Visitors staying at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa can enter by the resort’s entry gate, whereas Pixar Place Resort Visitors can use a walkway throughout the road from their resort.
As well as, all Visitors can get pleasure from fast entry to the Disneyland Park entrance by way of the Downtown Disney District Monorail station. That is additionally an possibility for Visitors staying on the Disneyland Resort.
To make use of the resort direct entry entry gate to Disney California Journey Park at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa or Pixar Place Resort, an lively resort reservation at one of many Disneyland Resort inns can also be required.
The Pixar Place Resort entrance to Disney California Journey will shut completely in early 2026 as building begins on the Coco growth, with no intentions to reopen. Pixar Place Resort visitors (and presumably DLH visitors) will be capable to entry DCA by the Grand Californian Resort entrance.
There’s a gate to GCH throughout the road from PPH, kind of immediately adjoining to the prevailing walkway. Visitors will now undergo the GCH foyer maze and enter DCA by Large Marc (the big bear outdoors Grizzly River Run), Large Al, and their different bear homies round Grizzly Peak.
The elimination of this entrance isn’t massively stunning. The visitor load coming by the non-public entrance from Pixar Place Resort into DCA is minimal, to the purpose that they’ve already shortened working hours and diverted visitors to GCH on numerous events. It’s value noting that that is an occasion of historical past repeating itself, with this entrance initially being discontinued within the early 2000s shortly after DCA opened and subsequently flopped.
The doorway was introduced again post-reopening when Paradise Pier Resort was limping alongside and different visitor advantages had been slashed. The pondering on the time was presumably that PPH wanted to supply a compelling promoting level, particularly because it was a multi-year building zone in the course of the reimagining. Effectively, now the resort has emerged from that and is extra common than ever.
Disneyland doesn’t have to incentivize bookings at Pixar Place Resort, because it’s already probably the most in-demand of the trio of Accommodations at Disneyland Resort and is often excluded from reductions. It thus is sensible to now shut that entrance just a few years after bringing it again. Undoubtedly an enormous loss for PPH visitors and we actually want they might’ve discovered a option to make a take care of the Westin or accomplished one thing else to extend utilization, however the greater shock is that it lasted this lengthy on the second go-round.
We look ahead to reporting on this once more in 2037 when Pixar Place Resort is beginning to present its age (once more), Disneyland Resort is underneath new administration (once more), and a few chief asks, “Hey, what’s this entrance, and why is it by no means used? It’d be an awesome visitor perk!”
Early Entry Ending
At the moment, visitors who’re checked in and staying at one of many Disneyland Resort inns can make the most of 30-minute early entry to a chosen theme park on daily basis of their resort keep to get pleasure from choose points of interest, eating and purchasing areas. Every day, both Disneyland or Disney California Journey shall be open early. Test the theme park calendar for the schedule.
Legitimate theme park admission and a park reservation for a similar park on the identical date are additionally required for Visitors (ages 3+). Park reservations are restricted, topic to availability and never assured. A Disneyland Resort resort reservation doesn’t assure a theme park reservation or park admission.
Hyperlink theme park tickets or passes, theme park reservations and resort reservations to the Disneyland app to point out verification of those necessities. Tickets and passes may be considered by choosing “Tickets and Passes” and resort dates of keep may be considered by choosing “My Resort Reservation” within the Disneyland app.
Early Entry is ending completely as of January 5, 2026.
That is extra unsurprising information. We’ve accomplished Early Entry at Disneyland usually, and our expertise has been persistently nice at Disneyland. We will often “run the desk” on Fantasyland darkish rides, and even when there’s an attraction with the dreaded delayed opening, it doesn’t matter in Fantasyland as a result of there’s a lot to select up the slack.
All the things is shut collectively, nothing has a pre-show, and every journey is just a few minutes lengthy. It’s extremely simple to knock out the whole lot in fast succession. Beginning in Tomorrowland is far more of a combined bag (Area Mountain having a delayed opening is an even bigger deal), which is why we nearly by no means try this.
We’ve additionally observed that by the tip of Early Entry, it’s as if Fantasyland has “reset.” By this, we imply that few on-site visitors stay in traces for these points of interest–they’ve largely moved on to rope drop Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, cleansing the slate for a recent wave of standard rope drop visitors in Fantasyland. It’s an everybody wins situation.
Alternatively, DCA may be type of a multitude, particularly if coming into from the Grand Californian. Safety is often understaffed and doesn’t open till shortly earlier than Early Entry formally begins. The method is tedious and time-consuming, particularly since Disneyland is steadfast in its refusal to modernize safety screenings.
It’s gotten to the purpose that we routinely undergo the principle entrance when doing Early Entry at DCA simply to keep away from the non-public entrance on the GCH, which is something however an unique visitor perk at that hour. Even when the stroll is longer and there’s a secondary checkpoint within the park, that is often sooner.
As soon as within the park, Early Entry at DCA is hit and miss. It’s much like Early Entry in Tomorrowland at Disneyland. It would work out awesomely, or it’d go awfully. We’ve run the desk on Avengers Campus headliners earlier than shifting on to Radiator Springs Racers, beating the rope drop rush. We’ve additionally acquired actually nothing accomplished, after which been behind the pack for normal rope drop.
Both manner, Disneyland eliminating Early Entry comes as precisely zero shock to me. They beforehand scaled it again from on daily basis at each parks to primarily each different day.
My hope had been that the subsequent step could be increasing eligibility to Good Neighbor Accommodations, purchasers of choose tickets, and so on. That is how the varied permutations of Early Entry beforehand labored, and it is sensible from a numbers perspective.
Disneyland solely has the three inns plus the DVC villas, so there isn’t almost as a lot demand as there’s for the perk as at Walt Disney World. Even the issues we recognized above aren’t the results of unsustainable demand–they’re about low capability or different points. Safety takes without end on the GCH when processing visitor counts within the dozens (perhaps 100?), whereas the full attraction capability in the course of the perk was a number of hundreds.
However, this has “we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of concepts” vitality. Early Entry was an awesome visitor perk for morning folks–particularly these touring from out of state and having the time zone benefit. There have been methods to make this work, so it’s unlucky they had been by no means examined. As an alternative, they’re going with another that may affect the day visitor expertise.
Free Lightning Lane
Lastly, as an oblique alternative for Early Entry, all visitors staying at one of many Accommodations of Disneyland Resort will obtain one complimentary anytime entry entry for a Lightning Lane Multi-Move attraction of their selection.
The Lightning Lane Multi-Move journey entry shall be obtainable to every visitor on the reservation with legitimate park admission and a park reservation. Disney Trip Membership members qualify, no matter whether or not utilizing factors or staying on money charges. Visitors at Good Neighbor Accommodations don’t qualify.
Word that this free Lightning Lane perk shall be restricted to 1 per visitor, per keep. It’s not each day like Early Entry.
Whether or not that is higher or worse than Early Entry goes to return all the way down to the visitor. For us, that is far worse in Fantasyland at Disneyland, the place we may actually do a half-dozen rides with next-to-no wait. That was our favourite Early Entry anyplace, and we at all times made a degree of getting Megatron off the bed and out the door for it. Whole gamechanger.
Additionally for us, that is really higher than Early Entry at DCA for all the causes above. In all probability no have to rehash these. I’ll fortunately commerce the stress of safety and hoping the delayed opening gods have smiled upon me for a free “anytime” Lightning Lane Multi-Move (presumably a Multi-Expertise Move pre-loaded into the Disneyland app).
My largest disappointment is that that is as soon as per keep versus as soon as per day. This incentivizes single night time stays, and it’s fairly simple to create synthetic 1-night stays with a purpose to qualify for this perk every day. I might think about there’s a pointy spike on this, as Disneyland visitors are typically savvy.
As for the oblique ramifications for different visitors because of the elevated Lightning Lane stock, I wouldn’t count on a lot. The overall variety of rooms in all three Accommodations of Disneyland Resort is pretty insignificant within the grand scheme of issues (therefore the dropping of Early Entry), so this ought to be a drop within the bucket.
The following query for a lot of followers will undoubtedly be whether or not Walt Disney World may undertake an analogous technique. We doubt it. If this had been to occur, it positively wouldn’t change in 2026. We all know this for positive as a result of Walt Disney World launched its trip packages a number of months in the past, and proactively said that Early Entry and Prolonged Night Hours would each proceed all through 2026.
Early Entry does have excessive utilization at Walt Disney World, the place it’s a preferred visitor perk. It’s not flawless, however we view it as higher than the choice. We’re definitely not going to advocate for the discount of hours, particularly provided that they’re already considerably shorter at WDW than DLR.
There have been requires Walt Disney World to incorporate Lightning Lane entry with on-site stays. Once more, the circumstances differ dramatically. In whole, there are slightly below 3,000 on-site resort rooms at Disneyland Resort (resort stock plus DVC).
Against this, there are roughly 40,000 rooms at Walt Disney World, which incorporates all the Disney-owned and operated properties plus the Disney Springs Resort Space, Bonnet Creek, Swan & Dolphin, Shades of Inexperienced.
These third celebration inns are included as a result of they’re technically on-site and, extra importantly, have contractual offers with Disney to supply sure visitor perks and facilities. Most significantly for our functions is Early Entry, which is the theoretical ‘swap’ for a free floating anytime Lightning Lane Multi-Move expertise.
What we may see taking place is Walt Disney World introducing a novel particular provide that gives free Lightning Lane Multi-Move. We’re already seeing Free Eating lose its luster because the flagship low cost at Walt Disney World, and that’s more likely to be doubly true in 2026 with the introduction of Youngsters Eat Free all 12 months lengthy.
With out different modifications, that new perk (which was the “one massive factor” of WDW’s 2026 product launch) will undercut the worth of Free Eating. If I had been Walt Disney World, I might need my marquee particular provide to be as interesting as attainable, particularly because it helps increase visitor spending metrics.
Utterly speculative, however maybe the reply is bundling “free” Lightning Lane Multi-Move with that to create an “final” “all-inclusive” package deal. (Three units of separate air quotes, for these preserving rating at dwelling.) I’m not precisely positive the way it’d work, however it may work.
In any other case, I wouldn’t count on Walt Disney World to supply free Lightning Lanes to on-site visitors. Not primarily due to the full room depend—that alone isn’t an insurmountable impediment since they beforehand supplied free FastPass to everybody.
Extra importantly, the income implications. Lightning Lane gross sales are primarily a free income stream, and a extremely profitable one. Messing with that in any respect may have main unanticipated downstream results on gross sales.
No manner they mess with that until completely needed. Possibly it’s a “break glass in case of emergency” factor for 2027, however my intestine is that getting Disney’s Magical Categorical again is way extra probably.
Something is feasible at Walt Disney World within the long-term, particularly if visitor satisfaction–and extra importantly, habits and visitation tendencies–takes sufficient of a success and administration is pressured to do one thing. Possibly an financial downturn would change the equation, or maybe Epic Universe will entice a ample variety of resort stays and cut back occupancy.
Based mostly on what we’ve seen within the second half of the 12 months, Walt Disney World’s massive reply to each is elevated discounting, so it follows that any reply involving Lightning Lanes would come with them as a part of a particular provide. We will see, although!
Planning a Southern California trip? For park admission offers, learn Suggestions for Saving Cash on Disneyland Tickets. Find out about on-site and off-site inns in our Anaheim Resort Critiques & Rankings. For the place to eat, take a look at our Disneyland Restaurant Critiques. For distinctive concepts of issues that’ll enhance your journey, take a look at What to Pack for Disney. For complete recommendation, seek the advice of our Disneyland Trip Planning Information. Lastly, for guides past Disney, take a look at our Southern California Itineraries for day journeys to Los Angeles, Laguna Seaside, and tons of different locations!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider Disneyland ending Early Entry and changing it with a free floating FastPass? What about eliminating the Pixar Place Resort entrance into DCA? Will you be reserving a 2026 Disneyland trip package deal? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments right here? Any questions we will help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even while you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
2026 Disneyland Resort trip packages and resort reservations are actually obtainable! With this, there are main modifications to the on-site visitor perks, together with the elimination of a pair resort advantages and addition of one other. Right here’s the whole lot it is advisable to know concerning the modifications. Plus, commentary concerning the good & unhealthy of recent and retired perks, and whether or not we would see Walt Disney World make related strikes down the highway.
Let’s begin with trip package deal fundamentals. Disneyland Resort room reservations for 2026 holidays are actually obtainable as of Wednesday, August 20, 2025. This consists of bookings for Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa, Pixar Place Resort, Disneyland Resort, the varied villas, and Good Neighbor Accommodations.
These packages are legitimate for arrivals January 1 by December 31, 2026. Please word holidays can’t be booked greater than 499 days sooner or later. Bookings could also be made on-line or by way of cellphone. For visitors trying to go to sooner, there are particular presents obtainable now for stays this fall. Take a look at these posts for full particulars: 2025 Low cost Disneyland Tickets and Resort Reductions for Halloween & Christmas 2025 at Disneyland Resort.
Right here’s a rundown of the modifications coming to Disneyland Resort subsequent 12 months. Except in any other case famous, these all take impact beginning January 5, 2026.
Non-public Entry to Theme Parks
Get pleasure from handy entry to theme park entrances while you keep at one of many Disneyland Resort inns. For theme park entry, legitimate theme park admission and a reservation for a similar park on the identical date is required for every Visitor.
To enter Disney California Journey Park, Visitors staying at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa can enter by the resort’s entry gate, whereas Pixar Place Resort Visitors can use a walkway throughout the road from their resort.
As well as, all Visitors can get pleasure from fast entry to the Disneyland Park entrance by way of the Downtown Disney District Monorail station. That is additionally an possibility for Visitors staying on the Disneyland Resort.
To make use of the resort direct entry entry gate to Disney California Journey Park at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa or Pixar Place Resort, an lively resort reservation at one of many Disneyland Resort inns can also be required.
The Pixar Place Resort entrance to Disney California Journey will shut completely in early 2026 as building begins on the Coco growth, with no intentions to reopen. Pixar Place Resort visitors (and presumably DLH visitors) will be capable to entry DCA by the Grand Californian Resort entrance.
There’s a gate to GCH throughout the road from PPH, kind of immediately adjoining to the prevailing walkway. Visitors will now undergo the GCH foyer maze and enter DCA by Large Marc (the big bear outdoors Grizzly River Run), Large Al, and their different bear homies round Grizzly Peak.
The elimination of this entrance isn’t massively stunning. The visitor load coming by the non-public entrance from Pixar Place Resort into DCA is minimal, to the purpose that they’ve already shortened working hours and diverted visitors to GCH on numerous events. It’s value noting that that is an occasion of historical past repeating itself, with this entrance initially being discontinued within the early 2000s shortly after DCA opened and subsequently flopped.
The doorway was introduced again post-reopening when Paradise Pier Resort was limping alongside and different visitor advantages had been slashed. The pondering on the time was presumably that PPH wanted to supply a compelling promoting level, particularly because it was a multi-year building zone in the course of the reimagining. Effectively, now the resort has emerged from that and is extra common than ever.
Disneyland doesn’t have to incentivize bookings at Pixar Place Resort, because it’s already probably the most in-demand of the trio of Accommodations at Disneyland Resort and is often excluded from reductions. It thus is sensible to now shut that entrance just a few years after bringing it again. Undoubtedly an enormous loss for PPH visitors and we actually want they might’ve discovered a option to make a take care of the Westin or accomplished one thing else to extend utilization, however the greater shock is that it lasted this lengthy on the second go-round.
We look ahead to reporting on this once more in 2037 when Pixar Place Resort is beginning to present its age (once more), Disneyland Resort is underneath new administration (once more), and a few chief asks, “Hey, what’s this entrance, and why is it by no means used? It’d be an awesome visitor perk!”
Early Entry Ending
At the moment, visitors who’re checked in and staying at one of many Disneyland Resort inns can make the most of 30-minute early entry to a chosen theme park on daily basis of their resort keep to get pleasure from choose points of interest, eating and purchasing areas. Every day, both Disneyland or Disney California Journey shall be open early. Test the theme park calendar for the schedule.
Legitimate theme park admission and a park reservation for a similar park on the identical date are additionally required for Visitors (ages 3+). Park reservations are restricted, topic to availability and never assured. A Disneyland Resort resort reservation doesn’t assure a theme park reservation or park admission.
Hyperlink theme park tickets or passes, theme park reservations and resort reservations to the Disneyland app to point out verification of those necessities. Tickets and passes may be considered by choosing “Tickets and Passes” and resort dates of keep may be considered by choosing “My Resort Reservation” within the Disneyland app.
Early Entry is ending completely as of January 5, 2026.
That is extra unsurprising information. We’ve accomplished Early Entry at Disneyland usually, and our expertise has been persistently nice at Disneyland. We will often “run the desk” on Fantasyland darkish rides, and even when there’s an attraction with the dreaded delayed opening, it doesn’t matter in Fantasyland as a result of there’s a lot to select up the slack.
All the things is shut collectively, nothing has a pre-show, and every journey is just a few minutes lengthy. It’s extremely simple to knock out the whole lot in fast succession. Beginning in Tomorrowland is far more of a combined bag (Area Mountain having a delayed opening is an even bigger deal), which is why we nearly by no means try this.
We’ve additionally observed that by the tip of Early Entry, it’s as if Fantasyland has “reset.” By this, we imply that few on-site visitors stay in traces for these points of interest–they’ve largely moved on to rope drop Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, cleansing the slate for a recent wave of standard rope drop visitors in Fantasyland. It’s an everybody wins situation.
Alternatively, DCA may be type of a multitude, particularly if coming into from the Grand Californian. Safety is often understaffed and doesn’t open till shortly earlier than Early Entry formally begins. The method is tedious and time-consuming, particularly since Disneyland is steadfast in its refusal to modernize safety screenings.
It’s gotten to the purpose that we routinely undergo the principle entrance when doing Early Entry at DCA simply to keep away from the non-public entrance on the GCH, which is something however an unique visitor perk at that hour. Even when the stroll is longer and there’s a secondary checkpoint within the park, that is often sooner.
As soon as within the park, Early Entry at DCA is hit and miss. It’s much like Early Entry in Tomorrowland at Disneyland. It would work out awesomely, or it’d go awfully. We’ve run the desk on Avengers Campus headliners earlier than shifting on to Radiator Springs Racers, beating the rope drop rush. We’ve additionally acquired actually nothing accomplished, after which been behind the pack for normal rope drop.
Both manner, Disneyland eliminating Early Entry comes as precisely zero shock to me. They beforehand scaled it again from on daily basis at each parks to primarily each different day.
My hope had been that the subsequent step could be increasing eligibility to Good Neighbor Accommodations, purchasers of choose tickets, and so on. That is how the varied permutations of Early Entry beforehand labored, and it is sensible from a numbers perspective.
Disneyland solely has the three inns plus the DVC villas, so there isn’t almost as a lot demand as there’s for the perk as at Walt Disney World. Even the issues we recognized above aren’t the results of unsustainable demand–they’re about low capability or different points. Safety takes without end on the GCH when processing visitor counts within the dozens (perhaps 100?), whereas the full attraction capability in the course of the perk was a number of hundreds.
However, this has “we’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of concepts” vitality. Early Entry was an awesome visitor perk for morning folks–particularly these touring from out of state and having the time zone benefit. There have been methods to make this work, so it’s unlucky they had been by no means examined. As an alternative, they’re going with another that may affect the day visitor expertise.
Free Lightning Lane
Lastly, as an oblique alternative for Early Entry, all visitors staying at one of many Accommodations of Disneyland Resort will obtain one complimentary anytime entry entry for a Lightning Lane Multi-Move attraction of their selection.
The Lightning Lane Multi-Move journey entry shall be obtainable to every visitor on the reservation with legitimate park admission and a park reservation. Disney Trip Membership members qualify, no matter whether or not utilizing factors or staying on money charges. Visitors at Good Neighbor Accommodations don’t qualify.
Word that this free Lightning Lane perk shall be restricted to 1 per visitor, per keep. It’s not each day like Early Entry.
Whether or not that is higher or worse than Early Entry goes to return all the way down to the visitor. For us, that is far worse in Fantasyland at Disneyland, the place we may actually do a half-dozen rides with next-to-no wait. That was our favourite Early Entry anyplace, and we at all times made a degree of getting Megatron off the bed and out the door for it. Whole gamechanger.
Additionally for us, that is really higher than Early Entry at DCA for all the causes above. In all probability no have to rehash these. I’ll fortunately commerce the stress of safety and hoping the delayed opening gods have smiled upon me for a free “anytime” Lightning Lane Multi-Move (presumably a Multi-Expertise Move pre-loaded into the Disneyland app).
My largest disappointment is that that is as soon as per keep versus as soon as per day. This incentivizes single night time stays, and it’s fairly simple to create synthetic 1-night stays with a purpose to qualify for this perk every day. I might think about there’s a pointy spike on this, as Disneyland visitors are typically savvy.
As for the oblique ramifications for different visitors because of the elevated Lightning Lane stock, I wouldn’t count on a lot. The overall variety of rooms in all three Accommodations of Disneyland Resort is pretty insignificant within the grand scheme of issues (therefore the dropping of Early Entry), so this ought to be a drop within the bucket.
The following query for a lot of followers will undoubtedly be whether or not Walt Disney World may undertake an analogous technique. We doubt it. If this had been to occur, it positively wouldn’t change in 2026. We all know this for positive as a result of Walt Disney World launched its trip packages a number of months in the past, and proactively said that Early Entry and Prolonged Night Hours would each proceed all through 2026.
Early Entry does have excessive utilization at Walt Disney World, the place it’s a preferred visitor perk. It’s not flawless, however we view it as higher than the choice. We’re definitely not going to advocate for the discount of hours, particularly provided that they’re already considerably shorter at WDW than DLR.
There have been requires Walt Disney World to incorporate Lightning Lane entry with on-site stays. Once more, the circumstances differ dramatically. In whole, there are slightly below 3,000 on-site resort rooms at Disneyland Resort (resort stock plus DVC).
Against this, there are roughly 40,000 rooms at Walt Disney World, which incorporates all the Disney-owned and operated properties plus the Disney Springs Resort Space, Bonnet Creek, Swan & Dolphin, Shades of Inexperienced.
These third celebration inns are included as a result of they’re technically on-site and, extra importantly, have contractual offers with Disney to supply sure visitor perks and facilities. Most significantly for our functions is Early Entry, which is the theoretical ‘swap’ for a free floating anytime Lightning Lane Multi-Move expertise.
What we may see taking place is Walt Disney World introducing a novel particular provide that gives free Lightning Lane Multi-Move. We’re already seeing Free Eating lose its luster because the flagship low cost at Walt Disney World, and that’s more likely to be doubly true in 2026 with the introduction of Youngsters Eat Free all 12 months lengthy.
With out different modifications, that new perk (which was the “one massive factor” of WDW’s 2026 product launch) will undercut the worth of Free Eating. If I had been Walt Disney World, I might need my marquee particular provide to be as interesting as attainable, particularly because it helps increase visitor spending metrics.
Utterly speculative, however maybe the reply is bundling “free” Lightning Lane Multi-Move with that to create an “final” “all-inclusive” package deal. (Three units of separate air quotes, for these preserving rating at dwelling.) I’m not precisely positive the way it’d work, however it may work.
In any other case, I wouldn’t count on Walt Disney World to supply free Lightning Lanes to on-site visitors. Not primarily due to the full room depend—that alone isn’t an insurmountable impediment since they beforehand supplied free FastPass to everybody.
Extra importantly, the income implications. Lightning Lane gross sales are primarily a free income stream, and a extremely profitable one. Messing with that in any respect may have main unanticipated downstream results on gross sales.
No manner they mess with that until completely needed. Possibly it’s a “break glass in case of emergency” factor for 2027, however my intestine is that getting Disney’s Magical Categorical again is way extra probably.
Something is feasible at Walt Disney World within the long-term, particularly if visitor satisfaction–and extra importantly, habits and visitation tendencies–takes sufficient of a success and administration is pressured to do one thing. Possibly an financial downturn would change the equation, or maybe Epic Universe will entice a ample variety of resort stays and cut back occupancy.
Based mostly on what we’ve seen within the second half of the 12 months, Walt Disney World’s massive reply to each is elevated discounting, so it follows that any reply involving Lightning Lanes would come with them as a part of a particular provide. We will see, although!
Planning a Southern California trip? For park admission offers, learn Suggestions for Saving Cash on Disneyland Tickets. Find out about on-site and off-site inns in our Anaheim Resort Critiques & Rankings. For the place to eat, take a look at our Disneyland Restaurant Critiques. For distinctive concepts of issues that’ll enhance your journey, take a look at What to Pack for Disney. For complete recommendation, seek the advice of our Disneyland Trip Planning Information. Lastly, for guides past Disney, take a look at our Southern California Itineraries for day journeys to Los Angeles, Laguna Seaside, and tons of different locations!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider Disneyland ending Early Entry and changing it with a free floating FastPass? What about eliminating the Pixar Place Resort entrance into DCA? Will you be reserving a 2026 Disneyland trip package deal? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments right here? Any questions we will help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even while you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
