Okay, so going to Disney World isn’t cheap.
Sure, there are ways to save money. You could even manage to find a great flight deal. Sometimes, there are even deals on hotel stays and tickets. But one Disney fan tried to get into Disney World for less money than anyone has IN YEARS…by using a vintage ticket from 1978. So, the question on everyone’s mind: did it work?!
Disney fan Matthew Ables recently used a Magic Kingdom park ticket from 1978 that cost just $8 at the time to visit Disney World. Ables posted a video on TikTok about how he discovered the 46-year-old ticket in his family home.
Ables said, “It’s been collecting dust since before I was born.” He assumed it was just an old family keepsake, but then he realized that the ticket had never been used and had no expiration date. So he decided to fly to Orlando and see if he could use it.
In the video, we see Ables walking to guest relations at Magic Kingdom. A Cast Member there stamped the ticket void, so it seemed that Ables would not be able to use it, but the same Cast Member came back shortly after that and handed Ables a modern ticket to the park. “I can’t believe this actually worked,” Ables says in the video just before he successfully scans into Magic Kingdom with the new ticket.
Considering that a ticket for Magic Kingdom runs from $109 to $164, this might be the best hack EVER to get into Disney World. Here’s the full video below:
@matthewables I tried getting into Disney World using a 46 year old ticket #disneyworld #disney #themepark #funny #fyp
Now, we doubt Disney is going to encourage folks to start hunting down those vintage unused tickets, and it could even be possible that the unused ticket could have gone for even MORE than $164 on eBay. But it’s still a fun story!
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Do you have any vintage Disney tickets? Let us know in the comments!
Vicki Daley says
My brother bought tickets that don’t expire in 1996 and still hasn’t used them. If I could use them without a military ID I buy them from him. I don’t know if they had annual passes back then but every time we bought multiple day tickets they didn’t expire until you used them.
Karla says
I would’ve kept the old tickets and not had the cast member stamp void all over it. Also, seemed a bit staged to me.
Barbara says
Many decades ago, we purchased discounted 10 day, no expiration, park hopper tickets from AAA for less than $500. At that time, you could get the tickets with or without the no expiration feature. Without would have cost $250. The no expiration feature almost doubled the cost. We thought it would be better to have that feature, so we added it to our tickets.
We considered these tickets to be an investment in our Disney future. We didn’t use them every visit because by that time we had family members who worked for Disney and they got us in for free.
Fast forward a number of decades and we decided we needed to use our no expiration tickets before we ourselves expired. We were concerned about the switch over to our Magic Bands and if Disney would charge us for the price increases through the years. No need to worry, all went well. Disney asked for no additional money. We will be using our last ticket in May.
Don Andrews says
I have a few of those unused Disney tickets from the 70’s. They never expired and I always wondered if they would be accepted at Disney. Thanks for the article.
jdh says
Yep We had 6 day tickets 20 years ago and used only 4 days. The following year we returned to purchase a one day and use the other two days remaining on the prior tickets. No park reservations, no expiration. My friend even gave us some tickets they had not used up in the 80’s and we used them for our family. They didn’t have transferable rules then either. No finger scans. No charge for park hopping too. Disney still made money back then and it was not nearly as costly. On property rooms were still expensive though. My husband’s work had a connection to give 25% discount on rooms certain times of the year. We took advantage of that discount, as rooms at Polynesian were around $225 in the 80’s. That was a lot of money then.
Random stranger says
I was planning to visit WDW in two weeks with a vintage ticket from 1990 that was buried in my house.
My worries are now gone since I read this article and I am so happy!
Lori says
During the 25th I think when they were giving my daughter won a ticket as we came in the gate. I used to know where it was but not anymore. I have search d every where.
Lori says
Actually must have been 15 year anniversary
carol says
That’s awesome!
Dan O says
Back in the early eighties I started my annual trips to Disney World I always bought the passport passes months before my trip. I always used the unused days the following year. I loved the prices back then. However there was only Magic Kingdom and Epcot back then. Now it’s a shame how expensive tickets are . So many families can only dream.
Phillipa says
A few years ago, my mum used a ticket she’d bought back in 1990 as they didn’t have expiry dates on them either.
Pete says
I still have unused Disneyland tickets from the early 90’s and (2) 10 day non-expiry WDW tickets w/ park hopper option along with several 7 day WDW tickets.
Thank you for the article and for all the responses. I feel better knowing that these can still be used.
I don’t travel as well as I used to and I’m just going to pass these on to my son and daughter.