BREAKING: Disneyland Magic Keys Going On Sale Again

On the morning of March 4, 2024, Disney made the surprising announcement that Magic Keys, Disneyland’s post-covid annual pass, would go on sale once again on March 5, no earlier than 9am.

It’s surprising because Magic Keys just went on sale a couple months ago on January 10. In prior years, there were much longer gaps between sales and at least a week’s notice. This time, Disney is giving less than a 24 hour heads up.

Additionally, Disney announced a few new features to the buying process that’ll hopefully improve the customer experience. That’s good because the last few sales were disasters. Especially the one on January 10.

Due to many online glitches, potential Magic Key buyers who were stuck in an hours-long virtual queue were never given the opportunity to complete their purchases. I know because I was nearly one of them.

I waited in the virtual queue, literally staring at the screen so it wouldn’t go black, for nearly six hours before I was finally let into the checkout area. Then, due to a glitch in the checkout process, I nearly missed my chance. Thankfully, the Disney Gods were kind as I was able to get back in to buy my Magic Key.

The Doctor Strange area of Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure.

Many, however, were not that lucky. They would wait for many hours longer than I did, all to be told later that evening that sales would be paused until the next morning. Then, shortly after sales resumed on January 11, all Magic Keys would sell out. Leaving many people out in the cold.

For the sale event on March 4, there will be a few welcomed changes that’ll make the virtual queue and buying process a little less anxiety inducing. They are:

  • The “Notify Me” option that was introduced during the Star Wars Nite virtual queue. This will be the first time that this option will be available for Magic Key sales. Simply provide an email address and Disney will notify you when it’s your turn to enter the checkout area.

  • The waiting room will notify potential buyers of their chances of being able to buy a key by updating them on Magic Key availability. Essentially, if you’re aiming to buy a Believe Key, but they sell out while you’re in the virtual queue, you’ll be notified so you’re not waiting around for nothing. This feature was somewhat in effect during the January 10 sale, but it wasn’t updated all that often. Hopefully it’ll work better this time around.

  • The checkout process will better remind customers that they need to be logged into their Disney account in order to see payment options for Magic Keys..

 

What You’ll Need to Do

A close perspective of Sleeping Beauty Castle and Fantasyland at Disneyland.

I cannot stress this enough. You need to be logged into your Disney account PRIOR to when sales begin. Disney states “no earlier than 9am”, but few know that you can actually enter into a virtual waiting room of sorts starting at 8:45am.

Disney doesn’t advertise it, but it exists. Be sure to take advantage of that extra 15 minutes because it could literally mean the difference between buying a Magic Key and going without.

Furthermore, don’t try to enter the virtual queue directly from within the Disneyland website. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but going that route nearly cost me my chance.

Instead, go to Google and search, “Disneyland Magic Key Sale”, right at 8:45am. Click or tap on the first non-sponsored link from Disney you see, and that’ll take you straight into the virtual queue.

Once you’re in, you have no choice but to be patient. You could get into the purchasing area in less than an hour, or you could end up waiting all day. Getting into the virtual queue early increases your chance of a short wait, but it’s far from a guarantee.

To see current pricing, benefits and tiers of Disneyland’s Magic Key program, go here. Good luck to you.

Kevin

One day I threw on a backpack, grabbed a camera, hit the trail, and never looked back. After all, great things never come from comfort zones.

https://www.inkedwithwanderlust.com
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