There’s some…interesting…news out of Disneyland this morning. It’s the sort of news that you’re definitely going to see a ton of clickbait about (ugh, I hate that I already know who and what their headlines will be), but I want to get to the heart of this and discuss why I don’t consider it a huge change, and why I doubt this change will happen at Walt Disney World.
Disneyland Will Eliminate Early Entry for Its Hotel Guests
I don’t want to bury the lede, so here it is—beginning January 5, 2026 Disney will no longer offer Early Entry to the guests of their hotels at Disneyland Resort. I’m going to cover the replacement perk farther below, but if you want to read more about why I don’t care about Early Entry getting the axe here, keep reading this section…
I Won’t Miss Early Entry at Disneyland
Disneyland Resort, in California, has two parks and three hotels. This is fewer parks than Florida’s Walt Disney World (four, plus two water parks) and significantly fewer hotels than Walt Disney World (around 20).
The three Disney hotels at Disneyland are significantly more expensive than nearby competition. For the most part, this isn’t really supported by the quality of perks they get, but there is one specific perk that has some value—Early Entry.
Through January 4, 2026, guests of Disney’s hotels at Disneyland get 30 minutes of Early Entry to one of the two theme parks every day. If you’re familiar with Disney World, this perk sounds very familiar to the Early Entry park at that resort, except that Disney World’s Early Entry is at every park every day.
In theory, you might expect this perk to have unquestionable value at Disneyland. If the Early Entry schedule alternated parks, for example, than a two night stay would come with a bonus 30 minutes at each park in the morning. This allows you to get on at least one popular ride and to queue for another before other guests are let in the park. And since Disneyland Resort only has three hotels, crowds during Early Entry are pretty low.
This all makes sense. And it made sense for me 10 years ago (I don’t remember the specifics of the perk 10 years ago, but it was similar). But then two things happened—I got older, and I had a kid.
On all my recent trips, I’ve noticed that Early Entry just made no sense for me. The reason is simple—park hours:
On the day I’m writing this, both Disneyland parks opened at 8AM, which is pretty common.
Disney California Adventure had Early Entry at 7:30AM.
A guest staying at a Disney hotel would want to be at the gate no later than 7:15AM to take real advantage of the perk.
Plan for 7AM to be safe.
If you’re staying at Grand Californian—the most expensive of the Disney hotels at Disneyland—plan an extra 15 minutes for security (yes, this has been a problem for me).
Want to stop at Starbucks on your way in? Maybe only plan 10 minutes for that…
…but you see what this has done to you morning. And what time do the parks close? Disneyland is open until midnight, and California Adventure closes at 10PM. You don’t have to close the parks, but if you’re wanting to watch the nighttime entertainment its likely you won’t get back to your Disney hotel until at least 10PM. If you get to bed immediately and sleep until 6AM you’ll at least get 8 hours of sleep, I suppose. Just get ready quickly, and skip your morning run.
So on our last trip staying at a Disneyland hotel, I significantly preferred the days when our park schedule did not align with Early Entry. You could argue it’s just getting up 30 minutes earlier in the morning. But if we’re comparing “just 30 minutes” then I’d say it’s just 30 minutes extra in a park open up to 960 minutes already.
And while I mentioned getting older and having a kid, the truth is I’m in better shape than I was ten years ago, and my kid can handle pretty long Disney days. If we’re feeling like this perk isn’t a huge value, I doubt many other guests are getting a ton out of it.
Last but certainly not least, let’s remember that neither Rise of the Resistance nor Radiator Springs Racers participate in Early Entry. For these rides, Early Entry is literally a burden, as you need to arrive 30 minutes Early to be near the front of the hotel-guest crowds who queued in the park for those rides.
Disneyland Adds A New Lightning Lane Perk for Hotel Guests
Before I get to the new perk, I want to say that my feelings on Disney’s hotels really doesn’t change much with these changes. I love the hotels. I think they’re great hotels that can justify their high costs, from the right perspective. That has nothing to do with the perks, old or new. We have stayed at all three Disney hotels and reviewed each separately:
As a replacement for Early Entry, Disneyland is going to be offering a new Lightning Lane perk. I gotta copy this language straight from the Disneyland website because it just…can’t be helped (emphasis is mine):
Starting January 5, 2026: Guests who are checked in and staying at one of the Disneyland Resort hotels can take advantage of one Lightning Lane entry to a Lightning Lane Multi Pass attraction during their Resort stay.
Valid theme park admission and a park reservation for the same park on the same date are also required for Guests (ages 3+). Park reservations are limited, subject to availability and not guaranteed. Lightning Lane Multi Pass entry benefit for hotel guests is subject to attraction availability and restrictions, including the Lightning Lane Multi Pass terms and conditions.
Link theme park tickets or passes, theme park reservations and hotel reservations to the Disneyland app to show verification of these requirements. Tickets and passes can be viewed by selecting “Tickets and Passes” and hotel dates of stay can be viewed by selecting “My Hotel Reservation” in the Disneyland app.
Right off the bat this reminds me of Early Entry—a perk so annoying to use I might just not use it. Let’s break it down a little over-critically, focusing on the things I emphasized above.
A guest at a Disneyland hotel will get a single Lightning Lane entry for their entire stay. NOT daily. One per resort stay.
The Lightning Lane “entry” is only for a Multi Pass attraction. NOT Rise of the Resistance or Radiator Springs Racers, which are on single pass.
You must be checked in to use this Lightning Lane. (So be sure to check in early so you can be told you room isn’t ready!)
The Lightning Lane entry is “subject to attraction availability and restrictions”. Hopefully this means “rides sometimes close” and not “you can choose from what’s available at the time you use it.”
You might need to “show verification of these requirements.” Again, this had better just be some nonsense attempt at legalese, because c’mon, just make the system work without me having to show you anything.
Hello, World!
Now, let’s get a bit charitable. Let’s assume these last two points are nonsense. Specifically, I’m going to assume Disney can find a way to just load a Multiple Experience Pass (like when a ride breaks down during you Lighting Lane window) onto their hotel guests’ accounts. The third point—that you have to check in to use it—is probably a minor nuisance.
But the first two are real complaints. You get one Lightning Lane entry to a Multi Pass attraction for your entire stay. For guests who used Early Entry, they could be trading:
Walking right onto Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout AND
Being among the first guests in line for Radiator Springs Racers
for
A Lightning Lane Multi Pass to Mission Breakout
It’s a downgrade—at least for guests who used Early Entry. Of course, if I’m correct that Early Entry was more pain than it was worth, than this is at least something.
Finally, the elephant in the room is the cost of Disney’s hotels at Disneyland. These hotels regularly cost hundreds of dollars more than nearby hotels, and nights can easily top $1000. “Strings attached” perks just make no sense.
It’s easy to look at this and say “give them the single pass Lightning Lanes!” but there’s a good reason why they won’t do that. And it’s the same reason this perk really isn’t worth anything. And that’s that most guests who are paying the money to stay at a Disney hotel at Disneyland are going to be willing to pay for Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass.
To be totally fair, the structure of Disneyland’s Lightning Lane Multi Pass—which looks more like old Genie+ than Disney World’s current Multi Pass system—makes an extra Lightning Lane a little valuable even to guests who purchase Multi Pass. But, c’mon, now we’re really getting into dollars and cents and niche arguments about Lightning Lane systems for people spending extra hundreds of dollars per night for the privilege of staying at a Disney hotel. It’s a bit much.
This Probably Won’t Happen at Disney World
I don’t really know why Disneyland is making this change. If I had to guess, it’s a simple business decision. Operating the parks an extra 30 minutes each day costs money. Offering Early Entry to Disney hotel guests causes a few more guests to book Disney hotels, which makes money. This offering cost more than it made, so they cut it.
The math works out differently at Walt Disney World, and that’s why I don’t expect to see this change happen there, too. Rather than speculate about operations costs, which I’m no expert on, I think we can look at the bigger difference between the two resorts—the number of hotels, particularly relative to park attendance:
Walt Disney World operates around 20 hotels, compared to Disneyland’s three.
The Walt Disney World hotels number around 30,000 rooms, while the Disneyland hotels number around 3,000
Assuming 4 guests per room, this mean Walt Disney World can house 120,000 hotel guests, while Disneyland can house 12,000 hotel guests
Walt Disney World averages around 150,000 visitors per day to the parks, while Disneyland averages around 75,000
Or, summarizing the key difference:
Walt Disney World can potentially house 120,000 of its 150,000 park guests in its own hotels
Disneyland can potentially house 12,000 of its 75,000 park guests in its own hotels
Disney World is basically competing for 10X the number of hotel guests that Disneyland is competing for. And, FWIW, at Disney World a family of four spends somewhere around $2000 on five nights at a hotel and $2600 on four-day tickets for the parks.
So, Walt Disney World is really competing for almost every park guest to become a hotel guest, which isn’t the case at Disneyland. To that end, Walt Disney World’s Early Entry is a hugely valuable tool for them to drive guests into their own hotels and make more money.
This disparity actually already shows in the big difference between the two Early Entry perks. Walt Disney World runs Early Entry at all four parks every day, while Disneyland runs Early Entry at one park per day. The difference means that non-Disney hotel guests at Disneyland still have a good rope drop option. But if you want to start the day right at Disney World, you have to be a Disney hotel guest. Driving guests into their own hotels is so important to Walt Disney World that they’ll pay the cost of operating all four parks for an extra 30 minutes each day.
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 $$$ along the way.
Just starting out? Check out our Disneyland Planning Guide. When it comes to hotels, we’ve got reviews of all three Disney hotels: Disneyland Hotel, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, and Disney’s Pixar Place Hotel. As for tickets, check out where to find discount Disneyland tickets.
Know what to ride with our: Disneyland Rides Guide and Disney California Adventure Rides Guide. And just as important, know how to get on the best rides without the wait with our Disneyland Lightning Lane Strategy! For the complete guides to a day at the park, we have a One Day Disneyland Itinerary and a One Day Disney California Adventure Itinerary.
We always recommend arriving at the parks early. If you can get access to Early Entry at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, you’ll have the most time in the parks. Even without those bonus hours, you’ll need to know Rope Drop Strategy at Disneyland and Rope Drop Strategy at Disney California Adventure.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you’re interested in saving, there’s no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Disney World planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you'll not only be an expert, but you'll save big $$$ along the way.
Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!
Don't forget to master your Disney World Lightning Lane Guide and Strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, Epcot Lightning Lane Strategy, Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, and Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Strategy.
Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
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.