If you are looking to buy an annual pass for Disneyland, I’ve found a method that potentially saves money. So here goes.

1. You don’t buy a pass until you are planning to go to the park anyway. This starts your 365 countdown as late as possible.
2. You buy a regular one-day admission ticket to one park and upgrade to an annual pass once inside. This way you avoid all the “black-out day” non-sense for your first visit. You will only have to pay the difference between your one-day ticket and the annual pass of your choosing.
3. Choose the lowest level annual pass available to you, so your upgrade will be less expensive. Note: you can add parking to any annual pass for $60-ish. If you are a couple or family, try just adding parking to one of your passes since you will most likely be together.
4. If you want to return to the park on a “black-out day”, simply upgrade your pass again to whichever pass will allow your visit. Again, you will only pay the difference between the pass you have and the one you are purchasing.

With this method, you may be able to avoid the cost of upgrading to a Premium pass, since you may never end up going to the park on a day that is blacked-out anyway.

Disclaimer: I do not work for Disney, nor do I have insider knowledge regarding their policies. I’ve just had an annual pass for the past 8 years. As far as I know this will work just fine, but there are no guarantees in life. So happy trails!

For ticket prices etc, visit the Disneyland website: Disneyland.com