Disney has announced the return of deeply-discounted kids tickets at Disneyland and California Adventure–with prices as low as $50 per child per day with the purchase of special tickets in 2026. There are some new twists to this fan-favorite deal for next year, and we cover the valid dates, details, how much money you’ll save, impacts on crowds, and our advice about taking advantage of this discount.
Parents can let kids rule this summer and get a head start on summer vacation planning. Disneyland Resort has announced a limited-time, deeply-discounted Kids’ Summer Ticket Special Offer, which will be available to purchase beginning January 21, 2026. While you can buy directly from Disneyland, this deal will also be available via Get Away Today with even greater savings.
The Kids’ Summer Ticket deal will be valid for visits from May 22, 2026 through September 7, 2026. Children ages 3 through 9 can visit Disneyland and Disney California Adventure for as low as $50 per child with a 1-Day Park Hopper ticket. The Kids’ Summer Ticket Special Offer will also be available in 2-Day and 3-Day durations, with options to add Lightning Lane Multi-Pass for an additional fee.
Kids’ Summer Ticket Special Offer Fine Print
Offer valid for children ages 3-9 only. Tickets valid for use beginning May 22, 2026, and multi-day tickets expire 13 days after the first day of use or on September 7, 2026, whichever occurs first. Tickets may be used on nonconsecutive days. Each day of use constitutes one full day of use. May purchase up to 10 tickets per day.
Tickets are nonrefundable, may not be sold or transferred for commercial use and excludes activities/events separately priced. Offer may not be combined with other ticket discounts or promotions. Subject to restrictions and change or cancellation without notice. Sales may be paused from time to time or terminated at any time.
Guests under age 14 must be accompanied by a Guest age 14 or older to enter a Theme Park. To board an attraction, children under age 7 must be accompanied by a person age 14 years or older.
Park Reservations Pool for Kids’ Summer Ticket Offer
To enter a park, both a theme park reservation and a valid ticket for the same park on the same date is required. Theme park reservations for Kids’ Summer Ticket Offer holders are limited in number and subject to the availability of park reservations allocated to the Kids’ Summer Ticket Offer as determined by Disney and theme park capacity.
Reservation availability for Kids’ Summer Ticket Offer holders is not guaranteed for any date, and reservations may be difficult to get for any particular date, especially as the ticket expiration date approaches. To ensure best availability, make reservations early.
On any given date, park reservations may be available for general theme park tickets even though park reservations allocated to the Kids’ Summer Ticket Offer are fully reserved. Kids’ Summer Ticket Offer holders are not entitled to any reservations Disney makes available to others.
Our Commentary
The first interesting wrinkle is the timing of this announcement.
In each of the last two years, Disneyland has announced this deal much earlier. Last year, it was revealed around the same time as price increases as a way to take the sting out of those. Tickets went on sale shortly thereafter, on October 22nd. The release and validity dates were more or less the same last year as the year before.
Speaking of which, the second quirk for the 2026 Kids’ Summer Disneyland Ticket Special Offer is the visit dates. This coming year, the ticket will be valid between May 22 and September 7, 2026. This is several months later than either of the last two years; this year, it offered visit dates from January 7 through March 20.
That would also help explain why Disneyland is releasing it so much later for 2026–because the visit dates are even later. It’s going from a winter and spring deal to a summer special!
Here are answers to questions you might have about the 2026 Kids’ Special Ticket Offer at Disneyland…
Is this a good deal?
Yes. This is a shockingly good deal, amounting to a discount of as much as $150 to $200 off multi-day tickets (depending upon duration and the extras you purchase, or don’t).
To the best of my recollection, it’s consistently been the best pricing on tickets each of the last several years. Of course, it only applies to children’s tickets and is for the summer, but still. It’s an exceptional deal if it works for your family. And it’s valid for the longest stretch of time when kids are out of school, so even out of state tourists should be able to more easily plan around the deal in 2026.
We’d also add that there are dates at the beginning and end of this ticket deal date range that rank highly on our Cheapest Times to Do Disneyland, which also accounts for hotels and more. So you could do an inexpensive (by Disneyland standards) trip during this promo period in Summer 2026!
How bad will crowds be during this deal?
It’s hard to say, honestly. Probably not as bad as the last two years when this deal has coincided with winter and spring, which has become increasingly busy. That’s probably why this deal is not being offered from January through March or April, quite honestly.
In broad strokes, every single month that the 2026 Kids’ Summer Disneyland Ticket Special Offer is valid was less busy this year than January through March. In fact, March is the busiest month of the year-to-date, and those crowds were disproportionately before the ticket deal expired. It’s no coincidence that the busiest week of 2025 (so far) is the last stretch of March that this Kids’ Discount Ticket was valid.
However, it’s fair to point out that the Kids’ Discount Ticket was not the sole driver of crowds during that timeframe. Ski Week and Spring Break would be popular in and of themselves, and there was an aggressive Southern California resident ticket deal. So it was a confluence of circumstances that led to the busy January through March.
The problem with crowd predictions at this point is that it would be a mistake to look back at the last year and assume the same crowds for the same dates, since this discount moves the needle considerably on attendance trends. Anecdotally, we saw a noticeable increase in strollers and families around the parks during the final few weeks of the promotion in each of the last two years–many more than normal.
With this deal shifting to Summer 2026 when school is out of session, we fully expect some of the crowds to shift from winter and spring to summer along with it. The extent to which that’ll happen is impossible to predict at this point, but that’s something our 2026 Disneyland Crowd Calendars will be updated to take into consideration. Stay tuned.
For more holistic guidance that’s less subject to change significantly, consult our list of the 10 Best & Worst Weeks to Visit Disneyland in 2026 & 2027.
Will there be adult ticket deals during this same date range?
Definitely yes, it’s more a question of whether they’ll be exclusively for Californians or available to the general public. There’s also the question of just how good the discount ends up being.
Our guess is that there will be a general public ticket discount, but that it’ll be relatively lukewarm (just like this summer). Perhaps Disney will offer a deeper-discount multi-day ticket through Costco once again. There’s already the New Costco Disneyland 2-Day Ticket Deal for 2026, but that spans only a portion of this (and is also a lukewarm deal).
What about hotel discounts?
Yes.
Disneyland also announced that guests will be able save up to 25% on select stays of four nights or longer at any of the three on-site hotels from May 22 through September 7, 2026. Reservations open for this resort discount starting January 21, 2026. There’s likewise a 25% off resort discount for January 1, 2026 through May 21, 2026 on stays of 3 nights or longer.
In all likelihood, there will be Magic Key Annual Passholder and Disney Visa cardholder deals offering superior savings in addition to the above general public deal. That’s usually how hotel deals at Disneyland work, especially for this timeframe. The really notable aspects of this are the ‘stay longer & save more’ angle.
Is it worth buying the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass ticket add-on?
Maybe. It comes down to how long you’re visiting and how important rides are to your visit. The shorter the trip, the more likely we are to recommend the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass (LLMP) add-on. If you’re doing a longer trip and you don’t care as much about repeating rides, we’re less inclined to recommend it. Given that these are 3 day tickets or less, we’re inclined to recommend the LLMP add-on.
Lightning Lane Multi-Pass works incredibly well at Disneyland Resort, which is both an argument for and against buying it length of stay. Most days, you will be able to secure Lightning Lane selections for most popular attractions, saving several hours as compared to waiting in the standby lines. The last time we tested LLMP at Disneyland and DCA, we were easily able to make ride reservations for over one-dozen attractions, saving roughly over 6 hours in line.
This is not an uncommon outcome or the result of superior skills on our part. Lightning Lane Multi-Pass is really easy to use at Disneyland Resort, and gives you a huge advantage. Accordingly, it offers great value and strategic advantage. Conversely, LLMP makes it easy to have 1-2 days when you “go hard” on rides, followed by more relaxed days where line-skipping is not necessary.
Moreover, you can still accomplish a lot without LLMP and with savvy strategy, such as using our Disney Theme Park Touring Plans & Itineraries or Early Entry at Disneyland. Lightning Lane Multi-Pass enables you to ride many more attractions and get a lot more bang for your buck without much other strategy or a stringent plan-of-attack.
If you want to do the most attractions possible, we recommend using a variety of strategies to experience headliners via the Lightning Lanes and standby lines when wait times are lower. We also cover everything you need to know in our Guide to Lightning Lanes at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.
What about the Park Hopper option?
If your budget allows, Park Hopper tickets are worth the added cost. The reason for this is simple: Disneyland and Disney California Adventure are literally less than a football field apart. It’s easy to jump from one to the other, and we do on every single visit.
This allows you to hit Radiator Springs Racers first thing every morning of our trip, and then either continue the day at Disney California Adventure, or head over to Disneyland. It also enables you to use Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at both parks in a single day, instead of just at one.
If you do continue the day at Disney California Adventure, having the hopper allows you to go to Disneyland late at night for the fireworks, or to head over to Disneyland to end the day, because it’s usually open later. You can also bounce back and forth between the parks, making for more efficient touring without wasting time given the proximity of the parks to one another.
With that said, if you have small children who won’t stay up late or aren’t concerned about having the most efficient day possible, purchasing Park Hoppers is probably a waste of your money. There’s no one size fits all answer.
We love the Park Hopper option and can’t imagine not doing both parks in the same day, but we’re also Annual Passholders who have no added expense when Park Hopping. Each park has more than enough to fill an entire day, so you definitely don’t “need” to buy the add-on. If saving the most money is priority #1, don’t get any of the add-ons.
Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you taking advantage of the 2026 Kids’ Summer Special Ticket Offer at Disneyland? Thoughts on buying the Park Hopper or Lightning Lane Multi-Pass add-ons at Disneyland Resort? Will you still be visiting the parks this year, or are you priced out? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!