Although Disneyland has implemented a program to honor their guests with free passes on their individual birthdays, getting the famous amusement park in Anaheim, California to open its doors for free on any other day is not quite as simple a task. Considering that the regular prices of one day tickets to Disneyland are significant at $62 for those between the ages of 3 to 9 and $72 for anyone older, there is a lot of room to save money with discounts and special offers even if you can’t get in completely free.
Unlike other popular amusement parks in Southern California like Universal Studios and Sea World that offer free passes and discount tickets in the hotels, motels and restaurants and where tourists frequently gather, getting free Disneyland passes or discounted tickets is not as easy, but they are possible to find if you know where to look. One method that travelers who plan on visiting all three major parks, Disneyland, Universal and Sea World, can utilize is to sign up for a Southern California CityPass that provides 3-Day Disneyland tickets and tickets for one day each at Universal Studios and SeaWorld at a discount of about 30% . The CityPass can be purchased online at many travel agencies in advance or at the gate of any of the participating attractions.
Travel agencies and tourist trip planning services in general are a good place to look for discount Disneyland tickets at nearly anytime of year. Most of these types of deals are usually only available online in advance and are not offered at the main gate ticket booths. The tourist-targeted deals are also commonly available for travelers who add a couple of extra days to a multi-day ticket. The discounts are pretty good too, as ordering your passes online can often yield discounts of up to $50 per ticket, per day less than what you'd pay at the gate. Most of the discounts ordered online will be delivered to your email address and then all you have to do is to print them out.
The true “free” passes to Disneyland other than the standard free birthday promotions are much harder to come by than discounted tickets, but they do exist at certain times of the year, or for certain groups of qualifying people like the once popular, but now expired, “Free Admission For Volunteer Service” program that once offered free park tickets as the reward for doing a day of volunteer service in various qualifying services. That particular promotion is now closed, but Disneyland still offers other good promotions like the annual Disney Spring Deals” program offering special pricing with discounts of about $15 per ticket for people who visit the park from January through early spring.
Military, teachers, government employees and other special groups can also frequently obtain discounted Disneyland tickets through their parent organizations too. One thing to remember when it comes to the free passes and discounted tickets that are sold through online auction sites like eBay, is that you may not be able to actually use them when you get to the gate. Many people who purchase multi-day tickets to Disneyland and do not use up the entire duration of their tickets will try to sell the remaining time though online auctions. However, if you look at the fine print on these types of Disney tickets you will see that they all state in writing, "Not for Sale. Non Transferable. Must be used by the same person on all days," and unless you have ID that matches the name on your tickets, they will not be honored at the gate.