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Theme park wayback machine: The Magic Key ticket

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Published: May 2, 2012 at 10:53 AM
Many of we, uh, older Disney fans remember the days before 1982, when you needed individual tickets to get on most of the attractions at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

I visited Walt Disney World with my Boy Scout troop in October 1981, and marveled at the newfangled "World Passport" that allowed me to visit any ride I wanted, as often as I wanted. No more fumbling with the little paper books of A through E tickets that I'd grown up with in Anaheim. And, better yet, no running out of tickets!

While the World Passport was great, there was another ticket before it that allowed you to ride whatever you wanted in the Magic Kingdom. But I'd forgotten about it until Theme Park Insider reader Susan Jackson emailed me these photos of the "Magic Key" coupon.

Anyone else remember these?

Walt Disney World Magic Key tickets

Disneyland adult Magic Key ticket

Disneyland child Magic Key ticket

A big thank you to Susan, for sharing these memories.

If you have some fun and interesting items of theme park memorabilia (old maps, tickets, photos, etc.), let me know and we'll feature them on Theme Park Insider's home page.

Readers' Opinions

From Betty Rohrer on May 2, 2012 at 4:36 PM
i remember the key ticket at Disneyland. my dad work for a school district and was able get them most times we went. we would buy tickets for A or B rides su we could use on upper rides.
From Mark Kausch on May 2, 2012 at 8:47 PM
Yep. My dad worked for the City of San Diego and we got those All-E-Ticket-All-The-Time books.

Except during summer. The Magic Kingdom Club ticket books then gave you (IIRC) 12 A-E tix instead of 10 or 20 tix instead of 15.

From Fred Roy on May 3, 2012 at 12:52 PM
I was a member of the Magic Kingdom Club (something else that is now a memory) through work back in the 70's. We would get a ticket book with the magic key coupons instead of A thru E. The first time I purchased a POP ticket was in 1980. It was attached to a string that you had to loop through a shirt button hole. It was for two days and cost $18!

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