Your Guide to Lunar New Year at the Disneyland Resort
January and February are fantastic times to visit the Disneyland Resort for a few reasons. The first part of the year tends to be one of the quietest times for the parks, and you can enjoy the Disneyland Lunar New Year celebration!
Lunar New Year is an annual celebration of good luck for the countries and cultures that celebrate, so what better way to kick off a new year? Here is everything you should know before you book your trip.
What is the Disneyland Lunar New Year Celebration?
Lunar New Year festivities at the Disneyland Resort include entertainment, decorations and meals, snacks, and drinks inspired by Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese cultures, and there is no special event ticket required. Aside from food, drink, and souvenir purchases, the celebration is all included in your regular park ticket.
Expect special character meet and greets, unique shows, and even kids’ crafts that you don’t usually find in the parks. You can even add your hopes or wishes for the new year to the Lunar New Year Wishing Wall in Paradise Gardens Park.
When is Lunar New Year?
The Lunar New Year celebration at the Disneyland Resort coincides with the actual Lunar New Year. This date varies from year to year. For the last few years, the Lunar New Year celebration has run from mid-January to late-January through mid-February, and Disney will announce the specific start and end dates of the festival a few months ahead of time.
The Weather
There are so many pros to visiting this time of year, but the biggest potential con is that it can be cool and rainy. Southern California rain is usually light and the rain clouds tend to pass quickly but I have experienced downpours during Lunar New Year so if the forecast even mentions the possibility of rain, pack and prepare accordingly. The bright side of a rainy day at Disneyland is that the park crowds tend to be lighter than a dry, sunny day.
Park Admission Deals
No guarantees, but Disney parks often run ticket specials during slower times of the year. This and last year, Disneyland Resort offered great pricing at the same time of the year as the Lunar New Year Celebration. This is unique because ticket deals don’t often run during special events at the Disneyland Resort.
Expect Some Ride Closures
The park is quieter in the new year, and you can score some great ticket prices, but the flipside of these pros are the cons, which include possibly less than ideal weather and likely more attraction renovation closures than there are throughout the remainder of the calendar year. You can view any planned ride closures schedule 6 weeks out on the Disneyland App.
Most of the celebration is at DCA
While there are a few snacks at Disneyland Park and in Downtown Disney, the vast majority of festival food, decorations, and entertainment are at Disney California Adventure Park, so you’ll want to make sure you have a park reservation for Disney California Adventure or a park hopper to enjoy the festivities.
Check out the Lunar New Year Foodie Guide
There are returning favorites most years (I’m thinking of you, Quesabirria Eggroll and Garlic Noodles!), but Disney releases a brand new Lunar New Year Foodie Guide each year, so check it out before your trip and take note of the Lunar New Year dishes and drinks you’d like to try. You can also pick up their handy pocket-size guide in the park, but many items sell out early in the day and there can be long lines for food, so planning ahead is ideal.
Know that you can order at one kiosk
Which brings me to my next bit of advice. Do not wait in line at each individual kiosk for your snacks and drinks! Early in the day, at any of the food booths, you can actually order all of your festival food items and drinks for that day. You just keep your receipt and pick up your items as you wish. This is a great time-saver because each kiosk has two lines – one to order and one to pick up, so you can completely skip the order line for the rest of the day! Note: This only applies to festival food and I’ve heard that it’s not always an option to pre-order. And, it’s worth mentioning again, if you pre-purchase food, keep your receipt!
All About Sip and Savor Passes
If you expect to try several Lunar New Year foods during your visit, you might consider a Sip and Savor Pass. This scannable pass allows you to pre-pay for a certain number of food and/or non-alcoholic beverage options. It only saves a few dollars, but it can be convenient and a fun keepsake. And if you are pre-ordering your food for the day, you can decide then if it’s worth purchasing the Sip and Savor Pass or not.
Live Entertainment
There is some great, lively entertainment specific to the Lunar New Year Festival. You can catch Mulan’s Lunar New Year Procession multiple times per day at California Adventure along the parade route with special appearances by rare characters in culturally-inspired outfits. And don’t miss the Hurry Home pre-show for World of Color, also featuring Mulan.
Use the App
As with every Disneyland visit, the Disneyland App is always handy. In the case of Lunar New Year, you can use it to check ride wait times, entertainment schedules, and to view menus from the Lunar New Year Marketplaces or Kiosks. You cannot mobile order food from the marketplaces, but you can place mobile orders for many restaurants throughout California Adventure and some of the regular, non-kiosk restaurants will have a special variety of Asian-inspired dishes for the Lunar New Year Celebration.
Don’t Miss the Grand Californian Lobby
Although most of the celebration is at California Adventure, do not miss the Grand Californian Lobby. They will often have a few specialty treats at the Great Hall Cart and they decorate the lobby for each holiday and celebration. In 2025, the year of the snake, they had a beautiful snake artwork display. And the previous year, in 2024, they had an massive dragon in the ceiling of the lobby for the year of the dragon.
