Ultimate 2025 Disneyland Guide: Planning & Touring Tips

While there are plenty of things that stand the test of time at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, the theme parks there are a constantly changing and evolving place. If you haven't been to Disneyland in awhile and are planning a trip this year, it's important to get up to date!

The closures of 2020-2021 had some very permanent effects at the Disneyland Resort. Many of the old pre-2020 tricks and hacks won't work anymore. Even if you are a return guest to the Happiest Place on Earth, you need to have a few new tools at the ready to have the best vacation experience. And if you are a first timer, there's a lot to learn as well. That's where this Disneyland guide comes in.

If you are planning a trip to Disneyland in Southern California in 2025, this complete Disneyland planning guide will walk you through all the basics of what to expect this year - new requirements, changes from what you might have experienced in previous years, new ride and land openings, revised touring strategies, and more. I've been there first hand all along the way, visiting Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, and the surrounding area numerous times each year to see the evolution in action.

I'll continue to update this annual guide regularly to reflect more changes. So be sure to bookmark and come back to it if your trip is several months down the road from now.

Last Updated: March 7, 2025.

(Trips With Tykes uses affiliate links which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase through links in this post. See our full disclosure policy linked in the menu at the bottom of this site.)

What's New, Returning Soon, or Closed at Disneyland in 2025

Before we get to all the operational changes and new park touring tips, let's briefly dive into what's new to see and do at the resort in 2025. And of course, we have to discuss the flip side as well - what's closed this year for refurbishment or for good.

(Note: If you want to know what happens seasonally every year at the resort see also this guide to special and seasonal Disneyland events.)

Tiana's Bayou Adventure

The ride that used to be known as Splash Mountain has now been re-themed and reopened as Tiana's Bayou Adventure as of late 2024. Tiana's is now set in Bayou Country - a renaming of the area formerly known as Critter Country.

The attraction is still the same type of ride (a water log flume with a drop) and the track is still the same. But the storyline and all of the decor is completely new. The ride features a lot of new high-tech animatronics and a new song that is especially catchy.

Tiana's is one of the rides that is available as a selection with Lightning Lane Multi Pass (more on that later). Just like Splash Mountain, expect to get pretty wet (even more than on the Walt Disney World version of Tiana's). You may want to pack a poncho or wear waterproof shoes like crocs if you don't want to walk around drenched all day - especially in colder months.

Hungry Bear BBQ Jamboree

The Hungry Bear Restaurant right next to Tiana's has a significant refresh as well, opening with a slightly modified name: Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree. It has gotten a whole new menu in keeping with the name change, with plenty of barbecued meats joining the traditional fare of burgers and chicken fingers.

I had a chance to try the restaurant on a recent visit to Disneyland, and would rate it as one of the best counter service restaurants in the parks these days. It's more expensive than some counter service restaurants but it's also more filling with larger portions that you can share.

Haunted Mansion Area Refurb

The construction around Tiana's presented an opportunity for Disneyland Imagineers to redo that whole section of the park. Most notably, the queue for Haunted Mansion underwent an extensive refurbishment to make more space in a corridor of the park that traditionally got very crowded. There is now a bigger plaza in between Haunted Mansion and Tiana's Palace restaurant in addition to the new queue. And Disney also opened a new shop, Madame Leota’s Somewhere Beyond, in between Haunted Mansion and Tiana's.

Disneyland's 70th Anniversary Celebration

Later this year, Disneyland will be celebrating a milestone anniversary: its 70th year of operation. Starting May 16, the parks will celebrate the anniversary in a big way with a full scale celebration.

During the celebration, expect new and returning parades, nighttime spectaculars, special food and merchandise, and a few surprises. Specifically, Disneyland has announced the following additions for the 70th:

• Paint the Night: Nighttime parade that hasn't been seen in Disneyland since 2018.
• Wondrous Journeys: Nighttime spectacular (projections and fireworks) that originally debuted during the Disney100 Celebration.
• The Celebrate Happy Cavalcade: Mini-parade at Disneyland park featuring two characters rarely seen at the US parks: Duffy and ShellieMay
• “Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration!“: Parade from last year’s Pixar Fest with some elements of the original Pixar Pals parade from years prior.
• World of Color Happiness: A new nighttime water and light projection show for DCA with Boyz II Men singing Rainbow Connection and a Muppets pre-show
• “Walt Disney – A Magical Life”: Audio Animatronics show featuring Walt Disney in the Main Street Opera House.

To launch the celebration, Disneyland will be offering a special ticket deal for summer travel as follows:

• Valid for visits May 16 - August 14, 2025
• No residency limitations
• 3 day tickets as low as $120 per day ($55 savings off of regular prices)
• 4 day tickets as low as $100 per day ($74 savings off of regular prices
• Days can be used non-consecutively any time throughout the May 16-August 14 time period (do not expire 13 days after first use like most multi-day tickets)
• Park Hopper & Lightning Lane Multi Pass add ons available
• Tickets go on sale March 11, 2025

The anniversary celebration will take place through summer of 2026, so you will have more than a year to experience it. Note however, that some of the anniversary offerings will be paused during the Halloween time and Disneyland Holidays seasons later this year.

Pixar Place Hotel

In 2024, Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel completed the final stages of a renovation to become the Pixar Place Hotel. This property was in dire need of a major refresh so I very excited to experience the finished product when I stayed at Pixar Place last year.

I must admit I was very pleasantly surprised by the transformation after being pretty hard on Paradise Pier in the last few years. It really feels like the property got a complete gutting - far more than the regular refresh that Disney hotels often get.

Rooms are quite large with completely renovated and bright bathrooms. Two queen rooms have a couch that turns into a daybed to sleep families of 5. Bold and bright Pixar themed character and colors are everywhere.

The rooftop pool and splash pad are ideal for younger kids. Bonus that Bing Bong often hangs out in the lobby for a free and unique character meet and greet.

That said, Pixar Place Hotel is certainly not cheap by any means, but the price is now much more in line with what the hotel has to offer. I paid $405/night plus tax and some peak dates are often $500+ a night.

Pixar Place tends to run about $50-100 a night less than the Disneyland Hotel. For visitors who want the benefits of an on-property stay like Early Entry, this is definitely the hotel where you can get them for a little less.

Downtown Disney

Disneyland's shopping and entertainment district, Downtown Disney, continues to be a construction zone in many places right now. Late last year and the first few weeks of 2025 have already brought a first wave of much-needed openings.

Look for the following shops and restaurants that are new within the past year:

• Din Tai Fung: Asian restaurant specializing in soup dumplings
• Avengers Reserve: shop featuring Marvel merchandise
• D-Lander Shop: apparel and jewelry
• Parkside Market: four restaurants under a single roof - Vista Parkside Market (cocktails), Seoul Sister (Korean bowls), Sip & Sonder (drinks/cafe), and GG’s Chicken Shop
• Disney Wonderful World of Sweets: formerly Marceline's Confectionary

And a few more coming soon:

• Arthur & Sons Steak and Bourbon: steakhouse
• Pearl’s Roadside BBQ Restaurant: quick service BBQ
• Porto’s Bakery and Café: Cuban bakery

Closures & Coming Soon

Disneyland is always evolving and changing, so you can also expect some closures and construction this year too. There are always a number of short term attraction closures on calendar, so always be sure to check official Disneyland sources before your trip for those.

Major things to watch include the following:

• Red Car Trolley: Classic streetcar in DCA has been permanently retired as of February 8, 2025 to make way for expansion in Avengers Campus.

Essential Tips for Disneyland Planning & Touring in 2025

So now that all of those dates are out of the way, how do you plan your Disneyland vacation differently in 2025? And how do you approach touring the parks in new ways? Here are all my very best practical tips.

Plan Earlier!

Remember the days when you could wake up and decide to go to Disneyland for the day? Or if you are not a local but are within a few hours driving distance, the days when you could decide mid-week to head down to Disneyland for the weekend? While I won't say those days are long gone, they are certainly fewer and farther between.

With a seemingly limitless amount of interest in the California parks, the demand for Disneyland has continued to exceed supply many times of year. That means you need to plan early to be able to go at all - to find theme park reservation availability, to lock in a hotel that doesn't cost and arm and a leg, and to book flights to Disneyland if you are coming from longer distances.

How early is early enough? Thankfully, supply and demand have normalized a bit so you don't need to plan quite as early as you might have in 2021 and 2022 especially. But even still, I'd say you often need to plan at least a couple of weeks in advance from drive markets. I'd recommend a month or more if you are coming by air or hope to go at peak times like the holidays. If you want to snag the best pricing and availability for hotels, at least several months in advance is necessary.

Secure Theme Park Reservations ASAP

In the last several years, we've all gotten used to the fact that an increasing number of activities require advance reservations to take part. While a lot of those activities have dropped their reservations requirement (and indeed Disney World dropped theirs in January 2024!), Disneyland is one place keeping them around for the indefinite future for now.

Be sure to read my comprehensive guide to Disneyland reservations as you are planning your Disneyland trip to make sure you get the reservations part right. The bottom line is that you need to a) check to make sure there are reservations available for the days you want to visit and the ticket type you plan to buy before planning a trip and b) book those reservations ASAP.

While reservations open 180 days in advance for regular theme park tickets, it's certainly not necessary to book them quite that early. But earlier is better, especially if you plan to go at a high demand time like Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays.

Practically speaking, reservations at at least one park usually remain available for almost all dates more than a few days in advance now (especially if you have park hopper tickets, where reservation availability is more generous). Sometimes, there are still reservations available the night before or even same day! No, that shouldn't make you complacent. Availability can really fluctuate.

There are a lot of factors that might cause the parks to book up more quickly at some times of year. Ticket specials (especially SoCal resident deals), Disney adjusting allotment of space to annual passes (Magic Keys), or the draw of seasonal offerings like Food and Wine Festival or Oogie Boogie Bash can all cause one or both parks to fill farther in advance. For example, the last couple of years, I noticed some dates in October booked up in Disney California Adventure a week or more in advance for some ticket types tdue to the popularity of Halloween offerings there.

Buy the Right Ticket Type

Before making park reservations, guests of course need theme park tickets. So what are your options for regular tickets? Disneyland offers both single day or multi-day tickets (up to 5 total days). There is an optional park hopper add on for both of these as well that costs a $65-105 extra, depending on length of ticket.

Related: Disneyland Park Hopper Tickets: Worth it or Waste of Money?

I have heard a lot of stories of guests who bought the wrong ticket in the first place or who changed their minds about what ticket was right for them after more research. In many cases, however, you really can't afford to do this right now. While Disneyland has made significant strides in offering ways to swap or upgrade tickets on their website in the past year, it's so much easier to just get your ticket purchase right out of the gate.

For this reason, I also highly recommend buying multi-day Disneyland tickets from Trips With Tykes partner Get Away Today. Get Away Today is the only place that offers refundable Disneyland tickets if you get this ticket purchasing step wrong (free if you purchase their Peace of Mind Plan or otherwise a per ticket fee). Plus, their tickets are discounted off of regular Disney direct prices! Book discounted Disneyland park tickets from Get Away Today here. (And also be sure to peek at their discounted Disneyland hotels and vacation packages too - use code TYKES10 for $10 in additional package savings.)

So what else do you need to watch for in terms of tickets? Here's what can trip up many guests and what to know:

• One day tickets are the most complicated, with 7 different prices, corresponding to 7 different tiers (inexplicably numbered Tiers 0-6). Only Tier 6 tickets can be used every day on the calendar. Other tiers have blockout dates. Be sure that the tier you purchase will allow you to go on the day you want (as well as any day you might switch to if your vacation plans are not yet firm).
• Multi-day tickets thankfully do not have tiers at all, so you are eligible to book any day on the calendar with them.
• Multi-day tickets expire 13 days after first use. This makes them great for a multi-day vacation for out-of-towners. Locals who can bunch up several single day visits in a two week window might find some value as well, although usually the SoCal ticket specials (when offered) are better for anyone who lives nearby.
• Park hopper tickets and single-park-per-day tickets each have their own separate reservation availability calendar, regardless of the number of days you purchase on these tickets. Make sure you are checking the reservation calendar that matches the ticket type you intend to buy. The single-park-per-day reservation calendar usually fills up first. If you are booking more last minute, paying extra for park hopper will likely open up more days on the reservation calendar to you.
• On-property hotel guests have a park reservation calendar all their own, with more last minute availability.
• Magic Key (annual pass) reservations are a totally separate system. Magic Key dates open up 90 days in advance, and many popular dates become booked very quickly. Magic Keys are not always on sale (or only some types are available), so they may not be an option for many guests to even purchase.

Consider New Hotel Options

A lot of Disneyland visitors have their favorite hotels they've stayed in year after year, and loyalty and familiarity are certainly good things. But whether it's been a while since you've investigated the choices or you are coming to Disneyland as a first timer, I'd encourage all Disneyland visitors to shop around and look at the hotel options anew.

The last 5-7 years have brought a major boom of new construction in the hotel market around Disneyland. Multiple new hotels have opened, some of which have some pretty tempting perks and value propositions.

Additionally, the prices of a lot of hotels have gone up quite a bit in these inflationary times. As I've been monitoring prices closely, I've noticed some hotels have had much more substantial price increases than others and some have changed their included benefits. The relative prices have shifted considerably, and a hotel that used to be a deal or value may not be anymore relative to its current benefits.

If you want to get a peek at what my top hotel picks are in 2025, check out this regularly updated guide to hotels within walking distance of Disneyland.

Additionally, Disney is always tweaking its benefits for on-property hotel guests. This changes the incentives for some guests deciding between a Disneyland owned hotel or an off-property Good Neighbor Hotel nearby. For example, in summer 2023 Disneyland began offering guests at on-property hotels 30 minutes of early entry into both parks daily (a successor to what used to be known as Extra Magic Hour).

Last year, however, this Early Entry benefit changed yet again. Now in 2025, only one park per day opens early. Disneyland opens early on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and DCA opens early on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. You can get a lot done in 30 minutes, but query carefully whether this is a benefit you will fully use before paying several hundred dollars more per night to stay on-property, especially given the current alternating park schedule.

Finally, one important thing to keep in mind - conventions and other special events have largely returned to the Anaheim area making hotel demand higher than ever at some times you might not expect. Walking distance hotels especially seem to book up quickly in 2025 as a lot of travelers don't want the hassle of shuttles or harder-to-find (and increasingly expensive) ridesharing to the parks. So earlier really is better when it comes to being able to plan a Disneyland vacation with your preferred logistics.

Pay More to Park Hop (Still Limited to 11:00AM or Later)

For guests who purchase Disneyland's park hopper ticket add on, the year 2024 brought an unwelcome change - price increases. Just a few years ago, park hopping was a relative value for longer trips, where the option could be added to a 5 day ticket for the same price as adding it to a one day ticket.

Disney moved to a much more variable and expensive structure for park hopping more recently. The privilege can add up to $105 per person to longer tickets. Many guests on a budget may find they need to stick to one park per day even if they tended to park hop in the past.

Additionally, Disneyland (unlike Disney World) still imposes a time limit on park hopping privileges. Guests can't hop until 11:00am or later. This time restriction isn't too inconvenient (especially now that it is before the lunch hour giving you options to dine in either park), but it can be annoying for guests who prefer maximum flexibility.

Adjust Your Disneyland Dining & Restaurant Strategy in 2025

For a long time after the parks first reopened, things simply weren't up to speed on the Disneyland dining front. Thankfully most restaurants have reopened (and at full capacity) in 2025, but the dining scene has changed quite a bit.

Some menus are still pared back to a more limited number of choices at some restaurants. Reservations at table service restaurants are also harder to get, and quick service restaurants have increasingly moved towards encouraging guests to mobile order.

Table Service Restaurants

For table service restaurants, my best advice is to book early (and often). Reservations didn't used to be incredibly hard to get at Disneyland except for a very few popular restaurants, but they are much more challenging in 2025. You may not be able to secure your top choice, so consider making backup reservations for restaurants you are happy with when you see they are available - because those too may soon be gone!

When do you need to plan to book dining reservations? Officially, Disneyland table service reservations open up exactly 60 days in advance, usually at 6:00 am PT. Some restaurants, however, will not open up availability at that time, releasing all availability several days later or releasing additional times in dribs and drabs.

How do you navigate the uncertainty? My best advice is to at least set an alarm to try first thing in the morning 60 days in advance. After that, I would suggest saving yourself dozens of fruitless refreshes and sign up for a Disney dining reservation monitoring service.

I highly recommend the site Mouse Dining, which is a great tool to help you snag a hard to find reservation by notifying you of cancellations or Disney adding capacity. Mouse Dining has both a free and a paid version, and I've had personal success using it to snag reservations many times.

If you are serious about a specific hard-to-get restaurant you'll likely need the paid service to be competitive. This version sends instant text alerts. If you are more casually looking for openings at one of several places, the free version which sends email alerts can usually get the job done. A lot of guests book multiple or extra reservations to hedge their bets and cancel some as their plans firm up. Snagging those cancellations is possible, especially with some assistance.

All hope is not lost for the last minute planners either! Last year, Disneyland changed its cancellation policies for table service reservations, allowing guests to cancel until 2 hours in advance with no penalty. This means it's possible to snag a same day reservation off of these cancellations.

Additionally, most table service restaurants have walkup availability too. You can join a same day walkup wait list on the Disneyland app on the day of your visit.

Quick Service Restaurants & Mobile Ordering

If you don't want a fancier or longer meal, head for one of Disneyland's quick service restaurants. Actually, don't physically head there. First, you need to open the Disneyland app. The new normal for these dining locations is that you need to mobile order your food on the app. Disneyland thankfully still has regular lines with cashiers to enable walk up orders, but they are in smaller numbers than before. Mobile ordering will still save you time almost all the time.

To use mobile ordering, the app will first display a list of available time windows for you to return to each restaurant to pick up your order. The closer you get to peak mealtimes, the more other guests start to place their mobile orders. And the farther out the return times become (although this thankfully has improved somewhat).

The bottom line? It's essential to order on the early side, especially if there is a particular popular restaurant that is a must-do for you or that is new, like Tiana's Palace or Hungry Bear Barbecue Jamboree. You can always cancel an order with no penalty before your pickup window if you change your mind. You can also modify your pickup window if you are running late. See the quick and easy guide to Disneyland mobile ordering that my friend Casey at Disneyland Daily has created with step-by-step instructions.

Master the Disneyland App

Speaking of the Disneyland app, it's important for more than just mobile ordering. It's a backup for your theme park ticket, your ticket to Lightning Lanes (more on that later), your park map, the way to access your PhotoPass images, and more. Disneyland has even added functionality to let you check out of stores by allowing guests to self-scan merchandise in the app.

It's essential that you download the app, know your login and password, and load a credit card to your account. Every adult doesn't need to have it, but the most tech-savvy adult in your party (or at least the one managing the Disneyland vacation planning) should. If more than one adult will be using it, it is sometimes easiest for both to log in to the same account so that both phones get alerts.

Note that Disney gift cards are a permitted method of payment in the app as of a few years ago. So if you've acquired Disney gift cards at a discount, you can use them to save on food too. The only problem is that the app doesn't store the gift card each time, so be prepared to enter the 16 digit code anew for each purchase (hot tip: copy and paste the number in your phone's text notes so you don't have to fish out the card each time).

My friend Jessica from the Happiest Blog on Earth has even more detail and information in this detailed guide to the Disneyland app.

See Characters Up Close & Get Hugs Again!

One of the favorite parts of a Disneyland vacation for many visitors - especially young kids - is seeing favorite Disney characters. These encounters were highly modified for a long time. As of last year, hugs and close encounters are fully back for character meet-and-greets!

There are still characters that pop up in the distanced spots (especially on the Disneyland Railroad balcony overlooking Town Square in Main Street U.S.A.). So if you don't want to wait in a long line to see a character, this is a helpful alternative I'm glad has stuck around. Check the Disneyland app under the Entertainment menu option to see the many locations where characters will appear in the parks, both near and far.

Disneyland character dining has returned entirely to its pre-2020 modes of operation as well. Characters come by tables again in addition to sometimes doing a parade or dance a few times per hour. Some restaurants will also take a character photo with guests to start the meal. See all the details in my complete guide to Disneyland character meals.

Have a New Strategy for Lines & Crowds

If you don't want to be standing in line for rides (who does?), you've got a LOT new to learn in 2025. Fastpass, MaxPass, Extra Magic Hour, Magic Morning, even virtual queues for many rides.... most of the tricks and hacks we used to use to shortcut lines in the good old days are GONE.

In their place are a few brand new tools that you absolutely need to know about. Whether you use them or not, they will affect how long the lines are and what rides you should do and when.

So what are these options? The most important ones to know about are Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass. Lightning Lane Multi Pass (formerly known as Disney Genie+) is a pretty close cousin to MaxPass and allows guests speedier access for up to approximately 20 eligible attractions. Lightning Lane Single Pass is a separate Fastpass-like offering for 2 additional super-popular rides for a separate fee (Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Radiator Springs Racers).

If you want short waits most like the Fastpasses of old, these are upcharges that you should seriously consider. The flip side of course is that they can make standby lines for everyone else much longer. See my complete FAQ for Disneyland's Lightning Lane and then read these additional advanced Disneyland Lightning Lane strategies for all the details.

(And if you want to get super complicated, there's a really pricey premium product called Lightning Lane Premier Pass too - sigh!)

For those of you who like to shortcut lines by going during less busy times, is it even possible to find a less crowded day to go to Disneyland in 2025? With the theme park reservations requirement, there are fewer really slow days at Disneyland. That said, midweek dates are still usually going to be less crowded than a holiday weekend - except for when a SoCal resident ticket special is live.

Disneyland crowd calendars can help, but I find them less reliable than before, especially many months in advance. Personally I'd say that it's less important to try to game the dates you are going to go to hope to luck into low crowds rather than just pick what works best for your travel schedule.

How else can you minimize your Disneyland wait times in 2025? This is an ever changing target, but here has been working of late:

• Rope dropping still works. Starting early is vital to a successful touring plan. Get in the front of the line to enter the parks up to an hour before park opening and you'll be in prime position for your first ride of choice - and probably also your second and third. Although early entry means that on-property guests have a half hour head start on other guests, there aren't enough on-property guests to make lines long by the time everyone else is let in at rope drop. And because early entry is in alternating parks, rope drop in the park not offering early entry is a level playing field for all. (If you want to learn more about rope drop, see my strategies for rope drop at Disneyland park and DCA.)
• Use single rider lines when available. Single rider lines are back but not necessarily for all the rides that offered them in 2020 and in quite the same way. But they are a great benefit, especially if you are flying solo or have older kids who are ok riding alone.
• Hop in line for one last ride a minute or two before closing time. As long as you are in line before the park officially closes, you get to ride. Lines are often very short at this hour as many guests head for the exits. Squeeze in one last ride, especially if you are a night owl!
• Ride during the fireworks or parades. Now that fireworks, parades, and other shows are back at Disneyland, a lot of guests aren't on rides in the minutes that lead up to and during the shows. Fantasyland attractions close during fireworks nights (usually weekends only), but you can head elsewhere in the park to find shorter ride lines.

Final Thoughts

Disneyland is undoubtedly different in 2025, but still exudes much of the same joy that we all expect from the Happiest Place on Earth. And now you should be armed with all the information you need to adjust accordingly and take maximum advantage of the new rules.