A perk available to guests who stay at Disneyland resorts in California will no longer be available in 2026. Disney announced this week that effective January 5, 2026, resort guests will not be able to utilize the Early Theme Park Entry program.
This perk allowed guests staying on the Disneyland premises to enter the park 30 minutes early, giving them time to ride certain attractions or get to certain areas of the park ahead of the usual crowds.
The program will be offered through the established end date. Guests are currently able to utilize early entry on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at Disneyland, and they’re able to enter early on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at Disney California Adventure.
What Will Replace The Early Entry Program?
After January 5, 2026, Disney will offer guests who stay at Disneyland resorts one complimentary Lightning Lane entry for a Lightning Lane Multi Pass attraction.
Those attractions include Alice in Wonderland, Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, Mad Tea Party and Space Mountain at Disneyland. At Disney California Adventure, guests will be able to utilize the Lightning Lane entry for attractions like Guardians of the Galaxy, The Little Mermaid, Monster’s Inc. and Spider-Man.
In order to utilize the benefit, guests must have a valid theme park admission and a same-day park reservation. Disney Vacation Club reservations qualify, but bookings through Good Neighbor hotels do not.
Why Is Disney Changing The Benefit?
According to Nexstar’s Scott Gustin, officials at Disneyland are shifting to the Lightning Lane benefit because the Early Entry program was “not widely used.”
The new system will allow guests to take advantage of expedited attractions without having to wake up extremely early to enter the park. If guests would rather save their complimentary Lightning Lane pass until later in the day and go to an attraction at a busier time, they’re now able to do so.
Some critics of the change have said that they would like to see more passes given depending on how long a person plans to stay at the resort. Disney hasn’t confirmed whether the amount of free Lightning Lane passes will change or scale based on the length of a guest’s stay.
Roughly 47,000 people visit Disneyland each day. When the Early Entry program is eliminated, they’ll all enter starting at the same time. We’ll see if the change comes to other Disney parks around the country, including Walt Disney World in Florida.
