It’s time to get your tickets for the D23 Ultimate Fan Event! We finally have some D23 Ultimate Fan Event details from Disney, including that tickets go on sale TODAY, April 2nd! If you are a Disney Visa Rewards Member or a D23 Charter Member you may have already gotten your tickets. All other Gold Members can purchase tickets today 10am PT/1pm EST. This will be a very exciting a stressful day for sure! Let’s dive into some other information we know.
Dates & Location
We already knew that the D23 Ultimate Fan Event was being held August 14-16 in Anaheim, CA. This was announced at Destination D23 back in August. The daytime adventures of the showroom, exhibits and panels will be at the Anaheim Convention Center. And again this this year the larger panels with park announcements, entertainment announcements and the Disney Legends ceremony will be held at the Honda Center. We stayed at the Grand Californian in 2024 and it was so convenient to just be able to walk over tot he convention center in the morning. D23 provides shuttle busses to the Honda Center that pick up and drop off at the convention center so it was nice to be able to walk back and not have to worry about getting to the car and all that at the end of the night.
Disney Legends
As part of the D23 Ultimate Fan Event details Disney has released, we got the list of the 2026 class of Disney Legends. What a group! Here is the complete list:
- Chris Berman
- Jerry Bruckheimer
- Kim Irvine
- Dwayne Johnson
- Susan Egan
- Jonas Brothers
- Eric Goldberg
- Lin Manuel Miranda
- Anne Hathaway
- Alan Tudyk
- Bob Iger
I don’t know about you but I think this is an incredible list! Kim Irvine is the daughter of Leota Toombs or Madame Leota as we know her. She has done amazing work for the Walt Disney Company and even stepped into her mothers role as Madame Leota for the holiday overlay on Haunted Mansion in Disneyland! Then Susan Egan, I can’t! I love her! She is the voice of Megara in Hercules and was also the original Belle on Broadway. There are obviously some bigger names that need no explanation but those two are probably the ones I am most excited about. I can only imagine how incredible this ceremony is going to be!
Panels, Exhibits & Showroom
Disney also announced that the D23 Ultimate Fan Event will once again host all kinds of amazing panels and exhibits throughout each day. A new D23 Ultimate fan Event detail is that the showroom will stay open until 8pm this year. I thought it was strange that that all closed around 6pm last time. Seemed like it shut down when it was time to go to the Honda Center but there were plenty of people who were not going to the Honda Center events. I’m glad this is staying open later and there is more of an opportunity to explore. It’s the one thing I didn’t feel like we got enough time for in 2024. Disney also announced the return of Mousequerade: The Ultimate Disney Costume Contest. We saw some of the most incredible costumes last time, people put so much into this and it is fabulous to see!
D23 Ultimate Fan Event Extras
There are lots of things outside of the convention for D23 members the week of the event. I ams o secured that they are doing D23 Day at Disneyland again this year! We had the best time at this in 2024. It is Thursday, August 13th the day before the convention starts. And coincidentally my youngest sons birthday! That made it extra magical for him to have on his birthday button and get all the extra attention! There is a special parade that includes some of the Disney Legends, shows, kids dance parties, photo ops and D23 Day Mickey Ears!
There are also event in Anaheim for D23 members throughout the week! Angel Stadium hosts D23 Day on August 12th with a special gift for D23 members. You can also go to D23 night at the Anaheim Packing District food hall where there is a DJ, trivia, lots of food and more! Plus D23 members have exclusive discounts and offers throughout Downtown Disney the week leading up to D23 The Ultimate Fan Event.
Ticketing
Let’s get into the nitty gritty and talk about ticketing. If you are a D23 Gold Member (Essential, Choice or Complete Plus plans) you can purchase your tickets today, April 2nd at 10am PT / 1pm EST. If you are a Gold Member on the free plan through Disney+ you can purchase tickets today at 12pm PT / 3pm EST. Charter members had the opportunity to purchase tickets early on March 30th and Disney Visa Rewards members who are also Gold members received a special invitation to purchase early as well. Although from what I am hearing the Visa Rewards invitations were hit or miss and not everyone received one that should have? You can get your tickets here!
Getting tickets is very stressful! You will enter a queue before the window opens and once it does you are placed into a random spot in line. It does not matter if you were in the queue an hour before the event window opened or 5 minutes according to Disney. Once in you just have to hope and pray your little running man moves faster than others to the finish line so get in and can get your tickets! I can’t say if this really has any effect and some people even have said it has a negative effect BUT, I always have multiple devices in the queue at the same time. Last time I had a laptop, iPad and my phone going. My phone won the race for me thankfully!
Once you are in you have 10 minutes to make your selections and purchase your tickets. If you put something in your cart and change your mind, Disney says your 10 minutes starts over once you hit clear cart. So just a little hack there in case you need more time. I feel like for anything normal, checking out in 10 minutes is totally not stressful. But for this it feels like they give you 5 seconds! SWEATING!
Ticket Options
Part of the D23 Ultimate Fan Event Details released were the ticketing options for this years event. There are some new options and honestly, some confusing ones but here they are:
- D23 Fan Pass 1-Day Afternoon Only to Anaheim CC – $49
- D23 Fan Pass 1-Day Pass to Anaheim CC – $99 *weird here, I’ll explain below*
- D23 Fan Pass 3-Day to Anaheim CC – $297 *also weird*
- D23 Ultimate Fan Pass 1-Day to Anaheim CC AND Honda Center (choose Friday, Saturday OR Sunday) – $99 *catching the weird yet?*
- D23 Ultimate Fan Pass 3-Day to Anaheim CC AND Honda Center – $297 *you see it right?*
- D23 Ultimate Preferred Fan Pass to Anaheim CC AND Honda Center with floor seats and pin RSP – $1299 *what do you do for a living and are they hiring?*
Ok, so if you don’t see the confusion and weirdness that I do let me explain. I do not get why the 1-Day and 3-Day passes are the same prices but one includes a seat at the Honda center?? I get that the seat at the Honda Center are going to be in the nose bleeds and on the side but it’s still a seat! How are they the same price. Aand why would you buy the one without the seat for the exact same price? I feel like there is going to be a surprise upcharge to the tickets with the Honda Center included when we get in there today.
2024 Ticketing
So in 2024 we bought 4 tickets. My husband and I got the tickets that included the Honda Center and the kids tickets were for ACC only. There was about a $60-$100 difference in the price of the tickets. Yes, we were in the nose bleeds but we didn’t mind and actually felt like we had a great view. But if the tickets are truly the same price, I guess I will be getting all 4 of us the Honda Center tickets if I am lucky enough to get in today.
I feel the same way for the one day passes. Why would the one day pass that does NOT include the Honda Center be the same price as the one that DOES include the Honda Center? Like I said, I feel like this will not be the case once you are in there buying tickets. I guess we will find out today! Although, it does look like the charter members and Visa Rewards members may have sold out the $297 3-Day option with the Honda Center!
Conclusion
I am beyond excited to try and get tickets today, but also terrified I won’t get in. This is one of those trips that we said, Ok we did it and experienced it once. And now we can’t bear the thought of not going again! We went a few days early and did our first trip to Disneyland. That alone was amazing and then to experience everything at D23 as well was just incredible! Full transparency, when you work as much as I do you really need something to look forward to to keep you going. This used to be our Disney World vacations. Now it’s this trip every other year!
Even living down the street from Cinderella Castle, you can’t just go whenever you want to. Life is still life so it’s nice to have this to be excited and look forward to and to be dramatic…..make the life worth living! Hahahaha! Totally joking but it does help get through the 80+ hour work week this time of year! If you are hoping to get tickets today, I wish you all the luck and pixie dust! I hope I see you there and that today, especially, is a very magical day!