A few weeks ago, I shared my very first ticket to Walt Disney World Resort. This prompted blog reader Skip to ask if we had any photographs of the old A to E tickets used at Magic Kingdom Park. With the help of my friends at the Walt Disney Archives, I was able to track them down.
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Want to take a ride on the Omnibus on Main Street, U.S.A.? Grab your A ticket and enjoy the double-decker view!
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Don’t know what to do with your B ticket? Climb aboard a Mike Fink Keel Boat and sail around the Rivers of America.
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That C ticket you’re holding would have been perfect to take a spin aboard Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
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Already ridden on the Omnibus and a Mike Fink Keel Boat? Why not make it a trifecta with a voyage aboard the Admiral Joe Fowler with your D ticket?
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Use that E ticket wisely. Take a dive underwater on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Although all-inclusive passport tickets were introduced at Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland park in June of 1981 in advance of ticket books being phased, we still often lovingly refer to attractions by their ticket letter.
Check out these posts for more “Vintage Walt Disney World”:
Comments
I loved “If You Had Wings” and I still find myself humming the tune every now and then. I hope my childrens memories of our trips to Disney have the same lasting effect!
Does anyone remember ‘If You Had Wings’? My parents were thrilled my favorite ride was a walk-on. (no ticket needed)
not only do we have some of our unused A-E tickets from my family’s first trip to WDW on August 22 1973 but I came across an old parking pass on that day it was only 50 cents to park !!!!!
PS… anyone want to guess how much a 3 day child passport cost in 1978? How about a one-day admission to River Country? I have that one too!
Are you SURE about those dates?? I have a 3-Day Magic Kingdom Passport from 1978 in my album from my first trip to the world. I was 5! I can send you a pic if you want….
Peter Pan only a ‘C’ ticket? Hard to imagine, considering how much that ride is loved by so many people.
Hallelujah! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
(I will have to buy you lunch the next time I’m in town!).
You’re welcome, you’re welcome, you’re welcome.
A later version of those tickets had Pirates as an E – and the E tickets were an orangey color, kind of like the 500s in Monopoly money.
I have a 1974 book, all stamped void because the Magic Kingdom Entrance/Transportation fell off. Lucky for me, someone kept it and sold it to me on eBay!
My favorite part is looking at it and seeing no Mountains on the E-Ticket! All three were well-established before I ever visited, so it’s crazy to think of a Magic Kingdom without them!
Was “Flight to the Moon” the same ride as today’s Astro-Orbiter ride? I visited Disneyland in 1971 and remember ending our day on that ride.
Would not be a D today, but seemed well worth a “D” back then.
No, they were two separate attractions.
The letter designation was based not on thrill level, but on popularity. It was fairly common for attractions to move up and down the alphabet, as it were, as their popularity waxed and waned over time. This year’s D or E could be next years’s B as the lines shortened. Conversely, a showing of an older property on television might spike the atraction it inspired for weeks to months.
The letter system was as much about managing the wait times as maximizing revenue. They also figured out that people who would not paay $2 for a single ride would pay $20 to go on ten rides.
“Tropical Serenade” was the name of the show that premiered at the Enchanted Tiki Room when the Magic Kingdom first opened. It is not an “A” ticket, for Pete’s sake — look at the other “A” ticket rides.
Today, it would probably be a “C” or “D” ticket, while Peter Pan would likely get bumped up to “D” or “E”. And of course Space Mountain would be an “E” ticket, but it didn’t exist yet!
The Mike Fink Keel Boats were a bargain as a “B” ticket. I notice that this one did not include the Swan Boats. I think they were also a “B” in their short lived time.
I first went to Walt Disney World on my honeymoon in 1975 – at my then wife’s insistence, I included a HALF DAY there just to say we had been. In that half day, we rode 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and the magic became real, and I was hooked. Today, we are DVC members, and we will visit WDW three times this year – and I still wish that 20,000 Leagues would be brought back. LOL
While cleaning out my grandparents’ house, I came across the leftover ticket booklet from our trip in 1979. Quite a bit of nostalgia for my first time at the part and meeting Tigger!!
Did the Tropical Serenade become the Tiki Room? If so I consider it more of a A ticket than an E ticket. To me Space Mountain and Matterhorn would be E tickets.
Matthew, below, answered the question for you! Thanks, Matthew.
Sorry 20,000 Leagues and Jungle Cruise. My ‘E’ tickets would have been for the Haunted Mansion only.
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