Disneyland plans to keep its gates open through the holidays despite large crowds

In past years, Disneyland has closed its gates between Christmas and New Year’s Day to prevent overcrowding.

But this year, even with big crowds and long wait times for popular rides, the gates will remain open.

“This holiday season, Disneyland shouldn’t experience the pre-pandemic need to close the gates previously seen between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day thanks to the reservation system,” Disneyland officials said Thursday in a prepared statement. “We continue to use this tool to help plan for and manage visitation.”

The resort raised prices for tickets and parking in October and implemented a crowd-control system requiring reservations for park visitors last year. Single-day tickets increased by 9% at that time, while preferred parking shot up 11%.

The Genie+ feature on the Disneyland app, which guests can use to bypass long lines, sold out for the first time Tuesday, per user reports on Twitter. It also sold out Wednesday.

“There is high Guest demand for Disney Genie+ service at this time, and stop-sales are an effort to manage the volume of Guest utilization to help provide a good experience for those who have already purchased Disney Genie+,” Disneyland officials said.

On Wednesday, the average wait for a ride at Disneyland was 38 minutes, per Thrill Data, making it the seventh
busiest day out of nearly 600 tracked by the site.

On Thursday, Radiator Springs Racers at California Adventure had a wait time of two hours 25 minutes, per Thrill Data. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland also had wait times of more than two hours.

Disneyland also recently added a new “courtesy” section to its website, asking visitors to “treat others with respect” after videos of several fights circulated online.