First Post on my new Blog

To all who come to this happy blog, Welcome.

I am an avid Disneyland fan; I collect all kinds of things that are “Disneyland”.

However, my passion is Disneyland tickets. I have been collecting Disneyland Tickets on E-bay since 2000 and have some from my own past trips to Disneyland. I have a fairly large collection, enough that I felt it was time to share. I want to try and document some of the history of the Disneyland tickets that brought so many millions fun and joy!

All tickets shown on this blog will be from my personal collection unless otherwise noted. On that note, I welcome any and all contributions from other Disneyland ticket fans. I know there are a few of you out there that have collections that put mine to shame, and I welcome your comments and contributions to this blog as well.

Soon I plan to start an actual website and attempt to fully document the history and evolution of Disneyland Tickets. So far I have only found scattered information on the web on this subject; it is my dream to create a full and comprehensive Disneyland Ticket website. However, I need to get my feet fully wet here on this blog first!

I hope to present my blog daily, but don’t hold me to it. Expect every other day or so. I have no idea how some of the great Disneyland bloggers out there do it, but I am ready for the challenge.

In each post I will try to keep on some kind of theme, but expect some “one off’s” or odd collections, it’s just the way my mind works.

So with out any further delay, here we go….

MAIN GATE ADMISSION TICKETS

“It's always best to start at the beginning” so lets open with some nice Main Gate Admission tickets. These are all from complete ticket books, rare indeed with the admission ticket still attached. I hear from several sources that these are still valid for admission to Disneyland since they have no expiration date. (1) I would never waste one to get in, each of these is worth more than the $66 it currently costs for admission. (2) I have also heard they just give you credit for the face value, not much in the case of these, just a few dollars, and (3) if anyone has used one of these old tickets to get in, please share your experience with the blog, I can only imagine what the caster member at the main gate would do when you hand them one of these babies!

Up first, from March of 1972, a nice low serial number "Admit One Child" & 15 Adventures for $4.95, plus Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln... Wow, you can't even get a Churro and Coke for $4.95! - These are the larger style tickets, replaced in early 1974 with the smaller size (exactly when, we'll get into in a latter post).

The back even has nice art work and two colors of ink:

Next is an "Admit One Adult" & 15 Adventures for $8.50 from September 1979 (The new Big Thunder Mountain Railroad had just opened on September 2nd, check out this great commercial for BTMRR: 1979 Commercial) These are the smaller size books.

The back is now a single ink color, but still a good value:

Here is a rare and low serial number Military Weekends ticket book, this is from September 1977. This ticket book included two entry tickets, but for weekends only:

Check out the deal on the back, a $21.80 value for just $6.50!

Lastly today, and sadly, one of the last Admission tickets from a ticket book, this is a Courtesy Book from September 1981. Ticket books and individual ride ticket sales stopped in 1982 in favor of the "passport" one price gets all ticket. Exactly when in 1982 the switch occurred I am not sure, this is something I intend to post and research about in the near future.

Back side: Courtesy Guest Tickets didn't always list the value, but I guess by 1981, they wanted you to know what you were getting for free!!!

Since the ticket books and A thru E tickets were phased out in 1982, the "New Fantasyland" was able to be reconfigured with no ticket booths, making a cleaner look IMHO... Check out this sweet commercial from 1983 for the "New Fantasyland" listen for the voice at the end, it's Paul Frees.... I love this stuff!

Alright, that's it for my first post. I hope you liked it. More to come.....