Getting an annual pass—now called “Magic Key pass”—for Disneyland is one of the biggest decisions a Disney traveler can face. You’re looking at $500 to $1700 a year right off the bat, plus—for non-locals—the cost of the vacations you’ll have to plan to get value out of the pass.
In this post, we review the major types of Disneyland annual passes, discuss whether or not a Disneyland Magic Key annual pass is “worth it”, and discuss all the different perks you need to know when considering a Disneyland annual pass.
Update: Magic Keys On Sale March 5
Disney has announced that Magic Keys will resume sale March 5.
Per Disney, “The online queue opens no earlier than 8:45 AM Pacific Time, and sales begin no earlier than 9:00 AM Pacific Time.” We’d recommend being on the website at the latest by 8:30AM. Disney offers a handy buying guide, too.
New keys were last available in January 2024.
Magic Key Sales Will Reopen, Close, Reopen, And So On
This is a bit of mixed news. The good news is that as of late 2023 Disney has stated they expect to close and reopen sales of Disneyland Magic Keys as inventory allows. The bad news is that you can’t expect these windows to be announced much in advance. We expect this link will always take you to one of:
A sales page, if Magic Keys are widely available
A virtual queue, if Magic Keys are available on a limited basis
Some sort of redirected page if Magic Keys are unavailable.
Types of Disneyland Annual Passes (“Magic Keys”) & Prices
First, we’ll discuss the major types of Disneyland annual passes (now called “Magic Keys”). This is just to familiarize you with the options. We’ll cover deciding between them next.
Inspire Key
The Inspire Key annual pass is the most extensive Disneyland annual pass available. You get:
reservation-based access to both theme parks ALMOST ALL DAYS of the year
the ability to hold up to six park reservations at a time
unlimited Photopass downloads
20% off Genie+ purchase
15% discount on select dining and 20% discount on select merchandise
free standard parking
It’s important to remember that park reservations for Magic Key holders are only half the equation—you also have to deal with the blockout calendar. A “blockout” or “blockout day” is a day on which your pass does not include park admission to one or both of the parks. The Inspire Key blockout calendar can be seen here. The blockouts for 2024 are 14 days around Christmas.
The Disneyland Inspire Key annual pass costs $1,649 for adults and children.
Believe Key
The Believe Key annual pass is the second tier annual pass at Disneyland, you get:
reservation-based access to both theme parks MOST DAYS of the year
the ability to hold up to six park reservations at a time
unlimited Photopass downloads
20% off Genie+ purchase
10% discount on select dining and select merchandise
50% off standard parking
View the complete blockout calendar here. There are about 60 blockout days in 2024. The Disneyland Believe Key annual pass costs $1,249, or $400 less than the Inspire Key.
Enchant Key
The Disneyland Enchant Key annual pass has a more limited set of benefits all around. That pass offers:
Substantial blockouts during holidays, peak season (summer), and most Saturdays
The ability to hold four theme park reservations at a time
20% off Genie+ purchase
10% off select dining and merchandise
25% off standard parking
View the complete blockout calendar here. The Disneyland Enchant Key annual pass costs $849, or $400 less than the Believe Key.
Imagine Key
The Disney Imagine Key annual pass replaces the old Disney “SoCal Select” Annual Passport, and is only available to Southern California Residents. It offers:
reservation-based access to the theme parks select days of the year
the ability to hold two theme park reservations at a time
20% off Genie+ purchase
10% off select dining and merchandise
25% off standard parking
View the complete blockout calendar here. The Disneyland Imagine Key annual pass costs $499, or $350 less than the Enchant Key.
Paying for your Magic Key
Currently the only way to buy a Magic Key is online or in the Disneyland app. Here are some notes on current (and possible future) discount and payment plan options. After this section, we’ll talk more about whether or not a Disneyland Magic Key is worth it.
Disney Vacation Club Annual Passes & Discounts
DVC members get a $20 discount on the Disneyland annual passes, except the Imagine Key, which is not discounted.
Disneyland Annual Pass Renewal Discount
Note: While in the past there was a discount for renewing your annual pass, this appears to be a thing of the past.
Monthly Payment Plan
Residents of California also have the option to make monthly payments instead of paying the full amount at once.
Is a Disneyland Annual Pass (Magic Key) Worth It?
In this section we’re going to analyze the Disneyland annual passes (aka Magic Keys) from least expensive to most expensive. For the sake of these examples, we’ll be comparing the full annual pass price to the full price of Disneyland park tickets. Here are the park ticket prices we’re using (keep in mind Disney updates prices regularly, so these may be out of date):
| Ticket Length | No Park Hopper | Park Hopper |
|---|---|---|
| One Day (Regular) | $154 | $219 |
| One Day (Peak) | $194 | $259 |
| Two Day | $310 | $375 |
| Three Day | $390 | $460 |
| Four Day | $445 | $515 |
| Five Day | $480 | $555 |
Let’s start with some very important context before we go through each pass option individually.
Reminder: Prices Change
Pretty much every year, there’s a price increase on annual passes. They vary, but are usually at least a few percent, which can add up when you’re talking about hundreds or thousands of dollars to begin with. Just keep in mind that if Disney is raising prices year after year, you’ll want to evaluate your needs year after year.
Moreover, ticket prices change. While we try to update this post whenever changes occur, we may occasionally miss them. The bottom line is that while this analysis provides a good outline for how to evaluate the Magic Keys, you’ll always want to look at the specifics of your situation and potential trips when doing your own analysis.
Make Sure You Compare Magic Keys
Here’s the wrong way to analyze the Inspire Key. “Our family is making four, three-day trips with park hopper this year. That will cost over $2000. So we all should definitely get the Inspire Key for only $1,649!”
There’s much wrong with this. But here’s the obvious—if your visits are only on dates covered by the Believe Key, you can save $400 per person by getting that pass instead! Yes—you might save money on parking, dining, and merchandise with the Inspire Key, but that brings us to the next question…
Does Every Family Member Need The Same Pass?
Keep in mind that as long as one family member can be in the car for parking and make all the dining and merchandise discounts, it might make sense for one family member to have an annual pass while the others have either lesser passes or even just regular tickets.
We’ll see this particularly below when we talk about the SoCal-only Imagine Key—which is the cheapest way to unlock dining and merchandise discounts for your family—and the Inspire Key—which gets higher discounts than the passes beneath it, along with free standard parking (which costs $35 per day).
Basically, every Disneyland annual pass decision comes down to four questions for you family:
Do we visit enough to need an annual pass to begin with?
What is the best pass for us all to get, given the blockout dates?
Do the limitations on the number of park reservations at one time impact us?
Do we visit enough and spend enough for one family member to get a better pass for the benefits and discounts on dining, merchandise, and parking?
Keep those question in mind as we go through the passes and when making the decision for yourself and your family.
Is an Imagine Key worth it?
We’ll start with the Imagine Key, which is available only to residents of Southern California.
Now, obviously there are true locals for whom this pass is an easy choice. They live in Orange County, they visit once every few weeks, and they like the freedom of coming and going as they please. They don’t mind the blockout dates or the limitations on the number of reservations they can hold because they can be flexible.
If you’re on the fringe of that group, here’s how it breaks down. A $499 Imagine Key pass is probably going to be worth it if you make:
three, or two peak, one-day visits to the parks without park hopper OR
two visits, with one multi-day or single day with park hopper
Again—keep in mind you’ll have many blockout dates to plan around.
If you’re only taking one trip in a year, it’s a tougher sell. At four days with park hopper, the $515 ticket price is higher than the Imagine Key pass price, and the discounts and option to use your pass other days is going to make it worth it even if you find discounted Disneyland tickets.
A three day park-hopper ticket costs $460, or $39 cheaper than the Imagine Key. To take advantage of the annual pass, you’d basically need to spend $390 on dining and merchandise during those three days (also, if you’re parking, you’ll save $26.25 over three days). For one person that’s not too hard, but…
But if one family member of a family of four buys an Imagine Key just for a single trip, they can make all food and merchandise purchases for the family. This makes the $390 spending much easier to hit. For families of three or four, it’s probably worth one member getting the Imagine Key Pass for a three-day trip.
Be careful with this though—once one family member has an annual pass, you might start itching for more trips. If you’re going to be making multiple visits, just get everyone the annual pass to begin with.
Is A Disney Enchant Key annual pass Worth It?
The Enchant Key pass costs $350 more than the Imagine Key and, at $849, is the entry-level option for most guests (all guests outside SoCal). Really, the right way to think about the Enchant Key is to compare it both upwards (to the $1249 Believe Key pass, which we cover next) and downwards (to the Imagine Key) and see if you fit in between
The Enchant Key is blocked out more dates than the Believe Key (check the calendar), but that might not matter if you’re planning around them. It also gets a 25% parking discount instead of 50% (so $8.75 per day difference if you’re parking).
The final significant difference between the two passes is that the Enchant Key can hold only four reservations at a time, while the Believe Key can hold up to six reservations at a time. That could be a problem if you’re planning, say, two three-day trips. But here’s the thing…
If the parks are going to be so busy they hit reservation capacity, the Enchant Key is probably going to be blocked out anyway. Am I so certain of this that I’d rush to buy an Enchant Key even if I had no flexibility in the trips I could take? Maybe not, but it’s pretty close.
And don’t forget, holding four reservations at a time isn’t an awful restraint. If you were planning six days worth of visits, say three in April and three in November, then once you visited the first two days in April you’d be able to book all of your November dates (assuming you don’t make any intermediary bookings).
Is a Disney Believe Key annual pass worth it?
For SoCal residents, the Believe Key is a $750 upgrade from the Imagine Key to lose some blockout dates, expand your reservation count from two to six, and go from 25% to 50% off parking. Alternatively, it’s a $400 upgrade from the Enchant Key to lose some blockout dates, expand your reservation count from four to six, and go from 25% to 50% off parking.
For me, this is a simple look at the blockout calendar. I don’t drive to the parks (there are plenty of nearby reasonably priced hotels) so the $8.25 per visit doesn’t factor into my analysis. And like I said, if the parks are hitting capacity, the Believe and Enchant keys are probably blocked out anyway, so I’m not sure how much the reservations matter. (That said, it definitely can happen that reservations allocated to Magic Key holders run out even though the park isn’t blocked out or at capacity.)
From a blockout calendar perspective the Believe Key is better than the Enchant Key, but you’re still missing the major vacation windows. The Enchant Key loses most Saturdays and the entire month of July, but otherwise, honestly, its calendar is really workable.
Keep in mind if you’re only visiting for one peak date, a single-day ticket is probably a better choice than upgrading your pass. If you’ll need a peak multi-day ticket, it might be better to upgrade.
Finally, it’s worth noting the Believe Key adds Photopass downloads. Disney’s Photopass service includes ride photos and photos taken by Photopass photographers in the park. This one is a little tough to evaluate because Photopass downloads come with Genie+, so if you’re planning to get Genie+ every or even most days, free Photopass isn’t much of an additional perk. Alternatively, you can pay $78 for a week of Photopass downloads. At most, this perk is worth around $156 (two trips worth of Photopass).
If you can work around the blockout dates, the Disney Believe Key annual pass is worth it if you make three two-day (or longer) trips to Disneyland in a year.
Is a Disney Inspire Key Worth It?
For $1,649, a $400 premium over the Believe Key, Inspire Key holders reduce blockout dates to a few weeks around the holidays, get an extra 5% off (15% total) dining and an extra 10% off (20% total) merchandise, and get free standard parking. Inspire Key holders are limited to 6 park reservations at a time.
Honestly, it’s pretty hard to justify the Inspire Key. I say this as an out-of-state person who plans to make several non-driving vacations to the park each year for the foreseeable future. The blockout calendar for the lower Believe Key isn’t hard to work around, and an extra 5% off dining and 10% off merchandise only justifies the pass on its own if I spend about $6000 per year on those things, which I won’t.
Disneyland Annual Pass Food and Merchandise Discounts
For starters—the Disneyland annual pass discounts on food are much more generous than those at Walt Disney World. We were very impressed with how frequently discounts were available and offered, to the point of being surprised when we finally found some place without a discount.
The Dining Discount Is 10% to 15% Almost Everywhere, Excluding Alcohol
The full dining discount chart if found here. Unlike Walt Disney World, the dining discount applies to almost everywhere that sells food—including quick service. Also, besides Downtown Disney locations, the higher-level passes almost always get their full discount. Moreover, the Chase Disney Visa card dining discounts don’t compare to the annual passholder discounts.
Merchandise Discount Is Consistently 10% to 20%
The 10% to 20% merchandise discount is as advertised, the only exception being that certain Downtown Disney stores cap out at a 10% discount, even for Inspire Key holders.
Other Discounts and Perks
Event and Tour Discounts
As a Magic Key holder, you’ll get 15% off select Disneyland resort tours. You’ll also occasionally receive small discounts on some ticketed events, like Mickey’s Halloween Party.
Annual Passholder Room Offers
Annual Passholders occasionally have access to special Disney hotel offers. These usually have substantial overlap with publicly available discounts, with the annual passholder benefit being slightly expanded dates or an extra 5% off.
Exclusive Annual Passholder Merchandise
Annual passholders have access to exclusive “Annual Passholder” branded merchandise throughout Disneyland resort. Most commonly, this gear going to be found at the main stores of the parks. Occasionally other items are passholder-exclusive, like this Steamboat Willie popcorn bucket.
Other Special Events
Passholders also occasionally get invited to other special events. One recent example of this (part of our Disney World annual passholder perks, to be clear) was the passholder preview of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in Florida.
Early RunDisney Registration
RunDisney events do still sell out, though not as quickly as they used to as prices have risen. We like early registration just because it completely removes the stress of booking. If you’d like to read about some RunDisney events, we have a few reviews (albeit from Walt Disney World):
All Your Other Disneyland Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Disneyland planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you'll not only be an expert, but you'll save big $$$ along the way.
Just starting out? Check out our Disneyland Planning Guide. If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disneyland crowd calendars.
When it comes to hotels, we’ve got reviews of all three Disney hotels: Disneyland Hotel, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, and Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel. As for tickets, check out where to find discount Disneyland tickets.
Know what to ride with our: Disneyland Rides Guide and Disney California Adventure Rides Guide. And just as important, know how to get on the best rides without the wait with our Disneyland and Disney California Adventure FASTPASS and MaxPass Strategy! For the complete guides to a day at the park, we have a One Day Disneyland Itinerary and a One Day Disney California Adventure Itinerary.
We always recommend arriving at the parks early. If you can get access to Extra Magic Hour at Disney California Adventure or Extra Magic Hour and Magic Morning at Disneyland, you’ll have the most time in the parks. Even without those bonus hours, you’ll need to know Rope Drop Strategy at Disneyland and Rope Drop Strategy at Disney California Adventure.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.