Others believed the ticket offered fireworks enthusiasts an opportunity to catch a nighttime spectacular<\/a>, while one person said the pass allowed visitors to partake<\/a> in other Southern California activities before finishing their evening at Disneyland.<\/p>\n You’re reading the Essential California newsletter <\/p>\n Sign up to start every day with California’s most important stories.<\/p>\n By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service<\/a>, which include arbitration and a class action waiver. You agree that we and our third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Policy<\/a> such as personalizing your experience and ads. <\/p>\n Buyers of the pass are first set to attend the parks this Sunday, with dates extending until August.<\/p>\n Disneyland officials brush off the speculation, saying the ticket sale is business as usual. Fortunately for us, industry insider Dennis Speigel offered some analysis behind the move.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s jump into the offer and his thoughts on the deal.<\/p>\n All about the ticket<\/p>\n Late last month<\/a>, Disneyland offered a one-park evening pass for $59<\/a> to Disneyland or California Adventure. The ticket is good from Sundays to Wednesdays, starting this Sunday until Aug. 5.<\/p>\n California Adventure would allow evening patrons in at 5 p.m. until closing at 10 p.m. and Disneyland at 7 p.m. until closing at midnight.<\/p>\n A park reservation was still required for evening passes.<\/p>\n The tickets became available June 30 and sold out by July 6, according to a Disneyland spokesperson. Disneyland officials declined to say how many tickets were sold.<\/p>\n What\u2019s Disneyland\u2019s rationale?<\/p>\n The ticket offering is not all that rare.<\/p>\n Similar opportunities began as far back as 1957 with Disneyland date nights admission<\/a> running from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m, a park spokesperson said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal is to provide guests with a variety of limited-time ticket offers throughout the year \u2014 this being just one example of that,\u201d a Disneyland spokesperson said.<\/p>\n Softer than a dole whip<\/p>\n Speigel, founder and chief executive of Cincinnati-based International Theme Park Services, Inc.<\/a>, a theme park consulting firm, said theme parks, ranging from small, regional locales to international destinations are struggling with a \u201csoftness\u201d in admission demand that began in April but became more acute in June.<\/p>\n That slump at Disney and Universal Studios properties nationwide, Speigel said in a call with The Times, is due to three primary factors: the economy, weather and the Iranian War.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a nervousness from visitors, a lack of understanding of what to expect because of the war and economy,\u201d he said. \u201cWe saw something like that last year driven by tariffs with soaring gas prices, and we monitored how people started moving back on their spending.\u201d<\/p>\n Visitors still want deals<\/p>\n To counter that softness, Disney is turning to discounts, hoping to kindle interest, Speigel speculated.<\/p>\n \u201cThey understand their guests are in a crucible, and this drives the decision to discount,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople still want their escapes; that doesn\u2019t go down. They just want to pay less to escape.\u201d<\/p>\n Disney\u2019s evening pass is also a shrewd offer because it aims to attract another type of guest: budget-minded locals who might be enticed by $59, Speigel said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a smart attempt on Disney\u2019s part,\u201d Speigel said. \u201cIt moves in the local people who aren\u2019t the season pass holders or tourists, and it fills the park. That\u2019s what parks are looking to do right now.\u201d<\/p>\n The week\u2019s biggest stories (Etienne Laurent \/ For the Times)<\/p>\n Boyle Heights fireTwo graduation traumasBeach takeoversScience and technologyWhat else is going onMust-readsOther meaty readsFor your downtime (Stephanie Breijo \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Going outStaying inL.A. Timeless<\/p>\n A selection of the very best reads from The Times\u2019 143-year archive.<\/p>\n Have a great day, from the Essential California team<\/p>\n Hailey Branson-Potts, staff reporter How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>. Check our top stories<\/a>, topics<\/a> and the latest articles<\/a> on latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you visit Disneyland with any frequency, a discount from the usual price of more than $100 a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,2299,1085,891,2300,2297,340,2303,63,2302,1086,1459,2301,2298,74,225,315,688],"class_list":["post-394724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-civic-revolt","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-days","tag-essential-california","tag-israel","tag-l-a","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-may","tag-pandemic","tag-part","tag-president-biden","tag-red-county","tag-san-diego","tag-state","tag-time","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Protesters](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783777753_16_.jpeg\")
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Hugo Mart\u00edn, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew J. Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters<\/p>\n