Disneyland New Years Eve 2024 – SURVIVAL TIPS & Entertainment Times, I’ve Gone 12+ Times

New Year's Eve at Disneyland is one of the most popular nights of the year according to our Disneyland crowd calendar. It's best to be prepared for crowds during New Year's Eve since this is such a busy day at the parks.

New Year's Eve is part of the holiday celebration at Disneyland which includes some of the best decorations of the year and great holiday food items. It's a unique day because everyone in the park is a ticket holder rather than a Magic Key Passholder because all Disneyland Annual Passes are blocked during this period.

Growing up I would visit Disneyland on New Year's Eve with my family almost every single year to enjoy my birthday. We made the most of the day enjoying both the entertainment and attractions. In the below guide you'll find our top tips to visiting during this period, plus what you need to know about the 2024 Disneyland New Year's Eve entertainment schedule.

Disneyland New Year's Eve 2024 Crowds Warning

New Year's Eve at Disneyland is one of the busiest days of the year if not the busiest. Disneyland Park in particular is the iconic choice of guests to ring in and celebrate with fireworks. That icon status causes a huge number of guests who are celebrating at the two parks to attempt to squish onto Main Street to see the show. The parks stay open later with Disneyland Park open until 2 AM and Disney California Adventure open until 1 AM per the 2024 Disneyland calendar.

If you choose to visit the Disneyland Resort on New Year's Eve, be aware that a big chunk of the day from noon onward will be packed with people everywhere. Everything that you want to enjoy in the parks will be more crowded. Starting in the afternoon will be longer for lines for food, attractions, restrooms, and getting into the parking structure, and people camped out waiting for every single show. For those visiting Disneyland for the best day of touring and seeing a ton, New Year's Eve is not the best option. If you are excited about special vibes and a wonderful, safe, experience for celebrating the holiday then you can have a great time. Follow the tips below to plan in advance and avoid the massive headaches caused by big expectations.

The key to enjoying the holiday at Disneyland is to make a plan with what is most important to you and to bring a lot of patience for the day. You may also want to break away from the crowds within Disneyland Park and enjoy the final countdown moments in Disney California Adventure. This is a day where you will want to purchase a park hopper ticket day to enjoy the parks so you have as much flexibility as possible.

I personally just love the “vibes” of the day at the theme parks. Yes, it is also my birthday so combining everyone's festive cheer for the holiday with my own celebration and constant recognition with my birthday button is a great way to celebrate.

Based on my many, many, times visiting on this day I maintain that you can visit the theme parks and have a GREAT day of touring if you remain committed to our Disneyland rope drop morning strategy tips and actually arrive at park opening. Many people aren't as insane as my family and, particularly on this day that stretches all the way past midnight, want to sleep in before their full New Year's Eve day at the parks. To that, I say sleep on this Disneyland day is for the weak. I'll add a caveat that we have sometimes opted for a 9 pm New Year's Eve countdown to then rope drop Disneyland the next morning on January 1st at opening when crowds are especially low. Note that there is no early entry for hotel guests on January 1st.

We have found that by waking up early we are still able to beat the crowds and accomplish the ever-important feeling of having accomplished a lot even on the busiest day. When it's packed on Main Street at 9 pm you can be frustrated and trying to get on a ride or you can look back and say “oh yeah, we already rode everything in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland before any of these other people were even out of bed when we arrived this morning”. New Year's Eve is inherently designed for people to sleep in and prep. We take advantage of that and recommend that you do too if you know that you'll put pressure on getting the “value” out of the ticket even if you arrive later in the day.

My philosophy for being on Disneyland on peak holidays is to just make peace with the reality of the crowds. The parks will be crowded and you just need to be patient. Attitude is everything, the crowds will only ruin your day if you let them! Set your expectations for a crowded day and you'll be far better off and more likely to enjoy the day.

Will Disneyland Close On New Year's Eve Due to Crowds?

Though theme park reservations were introduced in 2021, there is still a possibility that Disneyland Park can hit capacity. Before reservations were introduced, this was a common issue on New Year's Eve. Now, reservations limit this and there are not Annual Passholders who can arrive at the last minute as they are completely blocked out on this date. Starting at 11 AM, guests who have park hopper tickets from Disney California Adventure can park hop over to Disneyland Park.

This causes Disneyland Park to really increase crowds. The draw of the Main Street fireworks view pulls in a huge chunk of all the theme park guests at the two parks into Disneyland Park. It's one reason that Disney California Adventure has beefed up its entertainment offerings to attempt to draw more park visitors there to better split between the two.

We'll go deeper into the entertainment offerings coming for New Year's Eve in the section below.

Be warned that if the weather is clear in the evening and demand remains high, we anticipate that Disneyland Park will hit capacity at some in the evening leading up to the 9 PM fireworks. If you want to park hop between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, I would make the assumption that you may not be able to get into Disneyland Park during the early evening up through the end of the 9 PM fireworks. You should be fine coming back into the park around 9:30 PM after people have left after the fireworks. We've made this jump back in then with little effort and no line.

Anticipate bigger crowds for everything on this date and more people just willing to sit around and wait. It's a long day which means more people will happily sit down for two hours to wait for the daily Christmas parade just as a way to take a break.

The weather is generally cooler in the evening with warmer temperatures without a day. This is a perfect combination for everyone to want to be using lockers in the park. Disneyland lockers can be crowded and will likely sell out for this day so if you are planning on using one, grab it in the morning. Be warned that the Disneyland Main Street lockers will be very hard to navigate to and from as the evening moves forward. Unless you are planning for a New Year's Eve Main Street countdown, you may want to consider the lockers in Disney California Adventure but be aware that may cause you to get locked out of Disneyland Park if they put a hold on the front gate when they hit capacity.

In the evening Disneyland Park becomes almost completely one-way traffic flow. Because Main Street USA will be roped off with crowds starting at about two hours before the first fireworks show, incoming guests are routed through the bypasses on Main Street. I've seen routes opened up that I didn't even know existed. For instance, there's a cut through from next to the Red Wagon Corn Dog cart through to Tomorrowland that comes out near Space Mountain. I've only ever seen that on New Year's Eve. Unlike normal theme park crowd flow nights, the one-way routing stretches beyond just Main Street into the surrounding lands with Cast Members everywhere waving guests through.

It used to be even worse before reservations were in place, but even with reservations Disneyland Park in particular can be PACKED because everyone envisions the classic Main Street USA view of the fireworks when they plan a New Year's Eve trip to Disneyland. This leaves Disney California Adventure far less crowded of the two parks. Disney California Adventure is a theme park built decades after Disneyland. Walkways were built wider specifically for crowd management. The key area where people watch entertainment is far deeper into the park and has it's own dedicated viewing area purpose built for World of Color. The two parks are a night and day difference in evenings, especially on New Year's Eve. For those with any aversion to crowds, this is the place to be.

We also always kept Disney California Adventure as an “in case of emergency break glass”. You can always leave Disneyland Park and escape to Disney California Adventure if you have the park hopper ticket. The breath of fresh air you experience when you walk across the esplanade has literally made us break out and start dancing. Suddenly it's open around you and the positive excitement still remains. There's plenty to do over here that makes this park equally as fun.

Disneyland New Year's Eve 2024 Entertainment Times

Some of the 2024 Disneyland New Year's Eve entertainment schedule has been posted and it includes the times for the special New Year's Eve fireworks spectacular. We'll update the below section with all the info when it's released.

There are two identical fireworks shows at Disneyland so that guests can count down to midnight with the East Coast at 9 pm and then with the West Coast at actual midnight. The earlier show is perfect, and very popular, with families with children who don't want to last until midnight.

The fireworks are called the New Year's Eve Fantasy in the Sky Fireworks Spectacular and occur at 9:00 PM and 12:00 AM. The fireworks show begins with a DJ countdown on Main Street USA and then Auld Lang Syne plays. The show then features a medley of other favorite Disney songs as huge fireworks go off. This show is very impressive from Main Street, but be warned that we are expecting huge 2024 crowds. Between shows is a super fun DJ set of classic hits that completely change the feeling of Main Street. I was looking back at photos and videos and have a video with us dancing in open street space around 9:45 PM. This was fun dad dancing not TikTok dancing as seen in the top featured image. It's a good reminder that the street does get really fun in this period once many have already left after the fireworks.

In Disney California Adventure there is also a huge countdown celebration that takes places in the World of Color viewing area. The World of Color show features fireworks, projections, and the huge fountains. This is the more adult of the two shows and actually has more DJ-type music played after the initial playing of Auld Lang Syne. Songs last year included “GDFR” by Flo Rida, “Uptown Funk” from Mark Ronson, and “The Cup of Life” from Ricky Martin.

The times for this celebration have not yet been added. Typically this countdown also takes place at 9 PM and 12:00 AM. This show is a rare time when World of Color also features fireworks. Currently the World of Color – Season of Light shows are listed to perform at 7 PM and 8 PM on the calendar. So, I would anticipate that those shows will remain and that the two additional countdown shows will also be added. Last year intense rain cancelled the fireworks part of the show but the fountain show remained.

The biggest highlight of this day is the exploding amount of entertainment everywhere. Disneyland pulls out all the stops to keep the crowds entertained.

Throughout both theme parks, other special entertainment will be added for the hours leading up to the countdowns. In the past these have run from around 7 pm to midnight or 1 pm. In previous years, the Disneyland Park dance parties took place along the Rivers of America, in front of it's a small world, in Tomorrowland, and in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle.

In Disney California Adventure, dance parties were held in Cars Land, Paradise Garden, Hollywood Land, and Buena Vista Street. These parties will feature DJs or live bands. When compared to the packed Main Street USA, this area is just SO much easier to navigate through.

The only times for these dance parties that have been released are for the Disney Holiday Dance Party in Tomorrowland which has had its hours extended to take place from 7:00 PM to 12:30 AM on New Year's Eve. We anticipate that the other dance parties will follow a similar hours pattern.

Please check back to this page after December 26th for the addition of the other entertainment for this date.

The two showings of the Christmas Fantasy Parade will also continue at 12:45 PM and 3:15 PM that day.

Around this time of year, you can also expect to spot the two bands from the teams that play in the Rose Bowl making a Disneyland appearance. The bands will play in the days leading up to the Rose Bowl Game which takes place on January 1st. Sometimes one of the bands from these teams will appear on actual New Year's Eve.

As we shared above, the crowds for the day will be high and ever-increasing as the day moves on towards midnight. The long list of entertainment makes up for the huge amount of other guests interested.

New Year's Eve at Disneyland in the past has included unique entertainment and enhancements to daily entertainment like the above picture which features the band from the team playing in that year's Rose Bowl. Enjoying the entertainment at Disneyland during New Year's Eve is the best way to focus your day since you can expect large lines for many of the attractions.

Free Hats and Noise Makers at Disneyland For New Year's Eve

If you scroll up to the photo of Main Street USA near the top of this article you'll spot plastic black hats on almost half of the crowd. That photo was from a couple of years ago. Those are all the free hats given out to guests at the parks. The hat design has now been updated to actually have Mickey Mouse ears painted on and fireworks along the brim.

Previously there were also free paper horns and noise makers given out at the stations but we heard that they didn't do this last year. That's probably a good thing because the shrill kazoo sound that they made really added to the feeling of tight crowding throughout the evening.

There are also boards to hold up to take photos with the year on them.

These hats are available at stations in Disneyland and Disney California Adventure for pick up. These locations also draw big crowds – like pretty much everything in the theme parks on New Year's Eve so be prepared to wait in a line or to only get them if you don't see a line at the location. In the past we've also seen Cast Members just passing out hats in the different dance party areas.

Last year, the pickups for these hats were at the middle entrance to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge along that path between Frontierland and Fantasyland, in front of the Star Wars Launch Bay building in Tomorrowland, and the Hollywood Backlot area in Disney California Adventure.

Plan Ahead for the Disneyland New Year's Eve Fireworks

The New Year’s Eve “Fantasy in the Sky” Fireworks Spectacular is insanely popular so make sure you plan ahead on where you want to view them.

The prime viewing spot is in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle where you can have a direct view of the castle and while you wait enjoy a DJ and character appearances from Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and more characters. This is the prime iconic spot as I mentioned at the opening of this article. Everyone who thinks about New Year's Eve at Disneyland thinks about a period of time spent looking at the castle with fireworks.

This show is insanely popular and guests will start to line up hours before the show. If you have your heart set on this fireworks view, circle by the area throughout the early afternoon to get a sense of if people are being allowed to secure spots here yet. It's also important to caveat that the fireworks could be canceled due to high winds. In that case there would still be a DJ countdown, but a big part of the show would be canceled.

You can also watch the fireworks in front of it's a small world or along the Rivers of America. Both of these areas are heavily promoted to guests who want to escape the crowds on Main Street. You can see the fireworks and hear the soundtrack in both of these areas.

For slightly less crowded areas you can watch from the back of Fantasyland or near the exit area of Big Thunder Mountain. The fireworks are also visible from Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, but Star Wars music will be played instead of the New Year's Eve fireworks soundtrack.

You can also see the fireworks with no soundtrack playing from outside of Disneyland Park. They're visible from the Esplanade between the two parks – note that this area will be crowded with people who don't have park tickets, the second floor of the new Paseo restaurant in Downtown Disney, the rooftop of the Mickey and Friends Parking Garage, or some of the rooftop fireworks view restaurants at hotels around Anaheim.

You can read more on specifics of where to see the fireworks within our guide to the best spots for the Disneyland fireworks which includes a look at the views from each of these areas.

The three key viewing areas for the fireworks get very crowded and quite congested right after the end of the fireworks. The 9 PM fireworks especially are difficult as some people attempt to leave the parks and other settle into the spots for the 12 AM show.

After the late fireworks avoid leaving immediately if you are headed back to your car. You'll just be joining thousands of others to wait in a lineup of cars to get out of the parking structure or parking lot. This isn't a worry if you're staying at one of the hotels near Disneyland. For those who drove, you might as well stay and play in the parks and then leave once those lineups of cars have died down.

If you can, avoid taking an Uber or Lyft from Disneyland as the surge prices from Disneyland and the rest of Orange County / LA will be extremely high. This is the best night to have a hotel bed waiting for you.

This is also a good time to mention that there are other great options for counting down to 2025 including celebrating New Year's Eve at Universal Studios Hollywood. See all of our tips and advice there.

Rope Drop for Shortest Ride Wait Times

On a day like New Year's Eve at Disneyland, it is more important than ever to show up early. I recommend arriving at the park at least 90 minutes prior to park opening so you can be inside the park for Rope Drop.

Cast members will allow guests to enter the park about 30 minutes before park opening which gives you the chance to line up at the entrance to each land. At official opening, cast members will lower the ropes and those waiting at Rope Drop will be some of the first people on the attractions. This will be the best chance to experience a few rides with no wait even on a busy day like New Year's Eve at Disneyland. As I shared above, this strategy has always worked for us even on the busiest days.

No matter that this is the most crowded day of the year at Disneyland, this is still a day where you can take advantage of the morning to see a lot.

Spend the morning following our Disneyland morning strategy or Disney California Adventure rope drop morning strategy so you can ride all the rides you have your heart set on and then spend the afternoon enjoying the holiday entertainment, eating, and shopping.

Utilize Lightning Lane When Possible

Utilizing Lightning Lane Multi Pass is an absolute must for spending New Year's Eve at Disneyland. Even with the expected crowd levels, if you utilize Lightning Lane with a strong strategy like our Christmas touring plan, you can experience the best seasonal rides. We recommend securing a Lighting Lane for it's a small world holiday and Haunted Mansion Holiday. You can see our tips for how to best weave those into your strategy in our Christmas strategy linked above.

The value of purchasing Lightning Lane is higher when you arrive earlier because you can make your first Lightning Lane reservation once you have scanned into the park. You are then able to make your next reservations when you use your first reservation or every two hours, whichever comes first. This is another reason that it's imperative to get into the parks early to enjoy the day.

While Lightning Lane return times will run out fast on a crowded day, you can use our hack for refreshing the Disneyland app to look for canceled ride return times and grab things as you see them. This hack has worked well for me many times including on Thanksgiving Day which has a similar crowd level. Reservation times will sell out on this busy day so if you arrive later you may want to skip on the Lightning Lane.

For those who have no interest in all the stress of arriving early, you can also consider the Lightning Lane Premier Pass which gives you the ability to access all of the Lightning Lane attractions without making any return time reservations. This more expensive pass costs $400 per person.

Some Rides Close Early During New Year's Eve

As you make a list of your priorities for New Year's Eve, keep in mind that some offerings will close early that day to allow for the different aspects of the celebration. Some attractions also generally close early daily as part of operations. You can check attraction hours in the app.

Rise of the Resistance closes at 10 pm every night. Keep that in mind as you consider when to ride this popular attraction. The lowest crowd time besides the morning is likely going to be leading up to, during, and immediately after the 9 PM fireworks so consider if you would want to skip those.

Due to the larger fireworks shows, both Mickey's Toontown and it's a small world close early and throughout the evening. Check the hours in the app that day for specific times.

Similarly, the rides around Pixar Pier including the Incredicoaster also have closed early in the past. Disney did make the change to run Incredicoaster during World of Color but I don't think that change will apply because the show should include fireworks.

Reserve Table Service Dining for a Break

My best method for surviving a peak crowded day at Disneyland is to reserve table service dining reservations for at least one meal of the day but sometimes even two! This is a hack I do for every holiday I've spent at the parks and this is always a great way to recharge.

Not only is having a table service reservation a good way to get a break from the crowds but it also helps ensure you can get food without waiting in lines. Most quick service locations and even snack carts will have long lines during peak crowded days like this so you will thank yourself later for making these reservations.

Consider some of our favorite best Disneyland restaurants for your time on New Year's Eve.

One of my favorite meals on New Year's Eve was when we got a reservation for Carthay Circle Restaurant. We sat on the outdoor balcony which offers a direct view across the Esplanade towards Disneyland, perfectly lined up for the fireworks. It was so relaxed compared to what we could have been doing in Disneyland Park.

Another year we planned a more last minute trip for New Year's Eve. When we checked for dining reservations we were only able to get one for Splitsville in Downtown Disney. That actually worked out perfectly well because we enjoyed dinner there and then still popped back into Disneyland right afterwards. We had gambled with not being able to get on Main Street that year though. A note on getting last-minute reservations – check into reservations again at the 24 hr mark when people begin to cancel reservations that they aren't going to be using in order to avoid the no-show fee.

You can also consider one of the many dessert and dining package options to secure a seat for the shows offered during this evening. You can see all of the dining packages offered at Disneyland here.

Note that the Napa Rose restaurant typically has a multi-course meal at a pre-fix price. This is a $350 per person experience with dinner and dancing.

There are also walk-up lists available for restaurants that you can try, but you may not want to deal with the crowds around this.

You can also pre-order food for later in the day with Disneyland mobile order. The return times for the most popular restaurants creep up and can sell out for the evening. For instance if you are planning on a Main Street night lined up for fireworks, I would definitely setup a Jolly Holiday mobile order for late in the evening. Reminder that you can cancel your order up until your time.

We've survived New Year's Eve at Disneyland before because we utilized all these tips and it's been a great experience each time. Just come prepared to work through some bigger crowds and you'll be all set.

Read More Disney Planning Advice!

Have you ever visited Disneyland on New Year's Eve? Do you have any tips and experience to share?

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