Disneyland on a budget..

March 21, 2006 9:35 PM

How do you get the cheapest admission to Disneyland?

My family is going to Disneyland very soon and we would like to save on the admission price. It seems that the discount for the two day pass for southern California residents is the cheapest route.

My question, is there a way for someone that is out of state to cash in on this discount?

posted by tucsongal to Travel & Transportation (7 answers total)

Well, I attended some summer classes at UCLA even though I live in Maryland and now I have a student card which qualified me for the local discount. Kind of roundabout, but it is a way to do it. (and UCLA is awesome too).
posted by visual mechanic at 9:49 PM on March 21, 2006

I got a discount (10 or 15%?) when I showed my auto club card at the ticket booth. Some hotels also offer discounted passes. See also here.
posted by acoutu at 9:59 PM on March 21, 2006

We told the ticket taker we were on our honeymoon (actually we said "is there a honeymoon discount?" in the way only people who have been married all of 1 day can) and she gave us the resident's rate.

YMMV.
posted by Biblio at 10:37 PM on March 21, 2006

The resident 2fer ticket is the cheapest, and generally they aren't too strict about it. The best thing to do would be to get a socal resident to buy them for you. They don't check your ID when you use the tickets, just when you buy them, and they can often be purchased at supermarkets where they really aren't too concerned about maintaining the rule. It might be worth a try to simply go to a Vons when you arrive in CA, and ask some teenagers to buy them for you*.

*_{They will probably ask for alcohol in return.}
posted by team lowkey at 12:20 AM on March 22, 2006

Not 100 percent sure if this is still true so long after I worked at the park, but tenured Disneyland employees have a monthly allotment of free park admissions that they can sign for. Most of these go unused -- people just don't have that many friends.

So, a really, really sneaky way would be to post on craigslist or some such site that you're willing to pay 50% of the admission price in cash to a Disneyland employee capable of signing you into the park for free.

Employees would often ... ahem ... supplement their income in this fashion.

The resident 2fer ticket is the cheapest ... The best thing to do would be to get a socal resident to buy them for you. They don't check your ID when you use the tickets, just when you buy them

This is also true. ;-)
posted by frogan at 12:28 AM on March 22, 2006

If you don't mind spending the time, look for time shares in the region. My aunt and uncle sat through a sales pitch and got free tickets to Disney(world? Land? The one in Orlando.) I know in Florida, free Disney tickets are ubiquitous- the time shares even put up signs. This may also be true in CA.
posted by headspace at 5:18 AM on March 22, 2006

I used to work at different L.A.-area theme park that constantly offered deals for residents. Guests would often strike up conversations with other visitors while waiting in line to buy tickets--they'd arrange to make the purchase together to take advantage of the discount (up to the maximum permitted by the offer, of course). You'd likely only need to show one California ID to get the offer--if you join forces with the right people, you'd be set.
posted by serialcomma at 5:53 AM on March 22, 2006