2026 Disneyland Resort hotel and ticket packages were released today and with it came news of a few changes to on-site hotel perks. Early Entry is ending as a perk and a Lightning Lane will now be offered in place of the extra half hour in the park. Along with that, the special entrance from Pixar Place Hotel to California Adventure is closing. In this post, we’ll share the news before adding our own commentary.

To be clear, this news doesn’t pertain to Disneyland Good Neighbor Hotels. Early Entry, and the Lightning Lane in 2026, is only offered to guests staying at Disneyland Hotel, the Grand Californian and Pixar Place Hotel. Here is the news via the Disneyland website.

Prior to January 5, 2026: Guests who are checked in and staying at one of the Disneyland Resort hotels can take advantage of 30-minute early entry to a designated theme park every day of their hotel stay to enjoy select attractions, dining and shopping locations.

Each day, either Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure will open early.

• Disneyland Park: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
• Disney California Adventure Park: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

Starting January 5, 2026: Guests who are checked in and staying at one of the Disneyland Resort hotels can instead take advantage of one Lightning Lane entry to a Lightning Lane Multi Pass attraction during their Resort stay.

Valid theme park admission and a park reservation for the same park on the same date are also required for Guests (ages 3+). Park reservations are limited, subject to availability and not guaranteed. Lightning Lane Multi Pass entry benefit for hotel guests is subject to attraction availability and restrictions, including the Lightning Lane Multi Pass terms and conditions.

As for the designated Pixar Place Hotel entrance, that will close on January 5th (last day of operation on the 4th) to make way for construction of the Coco attraction coming to California Adventure. I have no reason to doubt that but am curious to see exactly what all closes for building this attraction. In lieu of the designated entrance, Pixar Place guests will be able to enter California Adventure through the Grand Californian special entrance.

Moving to commentary, this is a pretty drastic change to the on-site perks at Disneyland Resort but not all that surprising. Early Entry has been cutdown over the years, going from being offered at both parks everyday to just one park per day. Before that, Early Entry was an hour long before getting reduced to half an hour. The writing has been on the wall for this to disappear entirely.

Even with the foreshadowing, this is still unfortunate. Early Entry at Disneyland is a blast! There aren’t many guests in the park and running through the Fantasyland attractions is an easy way to get started on the hefty attraction list. It’s especially nice for families with young kids, getting a less stressful experience than what they’d find just a few hours later. Truly an on-site perk that a Lightning Lane replacement won’t equal.

At California Adventure, Early Entry is less enjoyable. Fewer rides are open and the entry process is clogged up. It can be useful but is more of a commitment than the Disneyland version of the extra half hour. I do think the Lightning Lane replacement is fair there.

Speaking of, the most frustrating part of this news to me is that the Lightning Lane given as a perk is not daily. Instead, it’s offered once per trip for guests in the party. If this was a daily perk then you might be able to make the case that this is a fair trade.

Moving to the special Pixar Place entrance closure, this news is also unsurprising. That path is just not used very often! The only surprising aspect of this was that the resort had just added infrastructure to the path, using the new turnstiles that have gone up around Disneyland Resort.

In 2026, Pixar Place Guests will be using the Grand Californian entrance to California Adventure. I’m hopeful that they expedite the security process here before the change. That line already gets really backed up throughout the course of the day and would only get worse with the Pixar Place Hotel guests using it. I’m not sure how easy it would be to add additional screening and turnstiles here, the space is small. But the lines will be very long!

While I view the news in a negative light overall, the Lightning Lane addition does add some value for the night owls that wouldn’t use Early Entry. It also poses some value for guests who are on a shorter stay and are trying to fit in all of the thrill rides.

Along with that silver lining, it’s important to remember that on-site hotels at Disneyland Resort are different from Walt Disney World. There’s 3 at Disneyland, while over 30 use on-site perks at WDW. The Grand Californian, Pixar Place, and Disneyland Hotels are all well done and fun to stay at, but they aren’t worth the value proposition to most. Frankly, we don’t recommend staying at them to the majority of guests visiting the resort.

There are so many 3rd party hotels with excellent location and significantly cheaper prices. Factor that in with the long park hours offered at Disneyland and it’s hard to justify paying the premium prices unless you’re on more of a relaxing trip or have the money to spend.

That’s why we’ve seen these hotels offer more discounts lately. It’s also the only surprising reason for the negative tradeoff of on-site perks coming in 2026. Although, some guests will see ‘free Lightning Lane’ and consider these perks more alluring now. It’s definitely a cost efficient move for Disneyland Resort but one that some guests prefer.

Overall, this is weirdly a major change that doesn’t move the needle much for us in either direction. Those that want to splurge on one of the 3 on-site Disneyland Resort hotels will probably still do that. Those that balk at the high prices will continue to do so. I hope to see Early Entry make a comeback in the future but, as of now, don’t think that will happen.

What do you think of these Disneyland Resort Hotel changes? Let us know, along with any questions you have, in the comments below. If you are planning a trip to Disneyland Resort then check out our planning guide. Looking for discount Disneyland tickets? Check out this site! If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends, as well as like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. You can do all of that on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!