It’s the summer of 1973. You’ve been reading your Walt Disney World Spring/Summer 1973 Information Guide. There are great attractions in each land of the Magic Kingdom.

Before you can enter the park, you need to decide what kind of admission to buy. You could just buy a General Admission ticket:

Walt Disney World General Admission includes use for one day of the transportation systems (Monorails. ferryboats, and trams), admission to “Magic Kingdom” Theme Park and all free shows, exhibits, and entertainment.

A General Admission could work out well if you already have a pocket full of unused attraction tickets from earlier visits. But you probably don’t because the park is less that two years old. And even if you do, the tickets in your pocket are probably just “A” and “B” tickets—not the valuable “E” tickets that you need for the best attractions, such as the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea submarine ride and The Hall of Presidents.

By the time you buy an adult General Admission and a couple of “E” tickets at 90 cents each, you might was well buy a Ticket Book. It’s a much better value. So open your Information Guide to the page about Ticket Books:

Do you want to know a money-saving trick? For each adult, buy a 12-Adventure Ticket Book. For each child, buy an inexpensive $1.50 General Admission. The kids can use attraction tickets from the adult Ticket Books. Sure, you won’t be able to go on as many attractions—but there aren’t many attractions in the park anyway.

The ticket price page above is from the Walt Disney World Spring/Summer 1973 Information Guide. Here are a few observations:

• The Magic Kingdom sold 8-Adventure and 12-Adventure Ticket Books, while Disneyland sold 10-Adventure and 15-Adventure Ticket Books, yet the Ticket Books at Disneyland cost 25 cents less.
   
• The Magic Kingdom and Disneyland both recommended Guided Tours for first-time guests.
   
• The parks had an age category called Junior (ages 12 to 17). Full adult prices didn’t kick in until age 18.
   
• Today, the age range for children is 3 to 9; everyone older than 9 requires a “Guest 10+” ticket.
   
• With today’s unlimited-attraction tickets, it’s no longer necessary to decide ahead of time how many attractions one is going take in—but there are far more decisions for Walt Disney World guests to make today when choosing the right “Magic Your Way” tickets.
   
• The “Magic Your Way” ticket options strongly encourage multi-day visits because the price per day goes down as the number of days goes up, but there was no such incentive in the era of Ticket Books.

20 Special Surprises! Magic Kingdom in 1973 Home

© 2008-2011Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks

Updated June 3, 2011.

Scanned images from Spring/Summer 1973 Walt Disney World Information Guide
© 1973 Walt Disney Productions.