Walt Disney World celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2021, marking a half-century that the resort has been the most magical place on earth. Back then there was only one theme park and Magic Kingdom tickets were a lot less expensive. But it turns out that if you happen to have decades-old tickets to Magic Kingdom, that have never been used, Disney World will still honor them, as one man on TikTok recently discovered.
Matthew Ables is currently going viral on TikTok after attempting to use a 46-year-old ticket to get into Magic Kingdom. In the video, he explains that he discovered the Magic Key Coupon book that he thought was just a souvenir of an old trip his family had taken. But upon discovering that the tickets had not been used, and that there was no listed expiration date, he decided to try and use them-- if only to see what happened. What happened was he spent the day at Magic Kingdom. Check it out.
@matthewables ♬ original sound - Matthew Ables
This is honestly pretty awesome. The tickets were technically valid based on the restrictions, or lack thereof, that Disney World put on them at the time, and the company was still willing to honor that deal. While it would have been annoying if Disney World had said no since these tickets were technically still valid, it wouldn’t have been that shocking if that had happened. Instead, it just takes a few extra steps and a bit longer wait to get you a valid ticket. And then you can experience everything new at Disney World, which is a lot in 46 years. Hopefully he didn't miss out on too much, as there are often a lot of Disney World closed attractions this time of year.
He lost an item that probably would have been worth money to Disney World merchandise collectors, but he got a ticket worth 20 times what somebody originally paid. Ables said in the comments that he did ask for the voided tickets back, but Disney World kept them. I guess you can have the keepsake or the valid ticket, but not both.
Looking at the comments on the video, it appears that Disney World’s ticket booth operators get trained on what to do with legacy tickets if somebody shows up with one and that it isn’t entirely unheard of for people to show up with older tickets. Still, 46 years old is almost as old as a Disney World ticket can be, so it seems unlikely anybody has seen tickets as old as these.
For the record, tickets to Disney World purchased today have expiration dates, though luckily Disney World reservations are no longer required. However, expired tickets can still have their purchase price applied toward new tickets, so if you discovered an unused ticket purchased in 2024 46 years from now, you should only have to pay the difference. But considering how much Disney World ticket prices have increased in the last 46 years, I don’t want to think about what a Disney World ticket will cost in 2070.
