That's correct, we are staying at the Candy Cane Inn December 10-16, arriving in the afternoon if possible. Park days are Dec. 11-15 because the longest ticket you can buy at Disneyland is five days.
Sunday we'll either have dinner in Downtown Disney or just go to bed early to recover from jet lag.
If you want to arrive later or leave earlier, that's fine. Everyone can do whatever fits their schedule.
Southwest says they will open their schdule though November 4 on March 9. That implies that it will probably early May when reservations are available for mid-December.
If you buy a ticket from Disney, you have to make your park reservations at the time of purchase. Park reservations can only be made 120 days in advance, so we can't buy tickets with park reservations through Dec. 15 until August 17.
I recommend buying a park hopper ticket since the two parks are 300 feet apart and hopping is very easy. Disneyland park hopping now starts at 11 am.
We have not yet decided whether or not we'll need to buy Genie+ for $25/day when we buy our tickets. Genie+ is a good thing to have at Disneyland when it's crowded, but there are many rides (especially in Fantasyland) that don't have Ligntning Lanes. If crowds are low, waits are short. But since it's always more crowded at night, maybe Genie+ will be worth the cost for after-dinner use.
You can also buy Disneyland tickets right now through other sellers like Undercover Tourist and ARes Travel. I've purchased tickets from both and used them without problems.
However, Covid caused me a bit of pain: In early 2020, I purchased a ticket from Undercover Tourist for a Disneyland trip in September 2020. Then Covid hit. Disney extended the expiration date of tickets from Dec. 31, 2020 to Dec. 31. 2021. However, I didn't take my next trip until September 2022. I called Disneyland Guest Services before my trip to verify that I could apply the value of my ticket to a new ticket and to ask what the procedure was for that. They looked up my ticket and asked if I had purchased it with a gift card. I explained that I had bought it from Undercover Tourist. They told me I had to do this: Purchase a new ticket from Disneyland, them mail a copy of the oriiginal ticket along with the confirmation number from the new ticket to an address in Anaheim. A few weeks later, I received a check for the value of the original ticket.
The moral is, if you use a ticket from a third-party seller before it expires, there are no problems. If the ticket expires before you can use it, it may be more complicated than simply exchanging it for a new ticket.
As of today, a 5-day park hopper with Genie+ from Undercover Tourist is $33 cheaper than buying it from Disney. The ticket expires January 12, 2025, so if your plans change and you can't make it in December, it's still good for another year. Plus, tickets purchased from Undercover Tourist are refundable within 365 days of purchase if unused (note that only 95% of your purchase price is refunded).
I've never used ABC Shuttle but friends have said good things about them. We probably don't need to make shuttle reservations until early December.
