E-Ticket

I started to send a message to Bryant Barr, to tell him to enjoy the E-ticket ride he is on this year with Davidson basketball.  But then I realized that is way too young to remember the big deal about E-Tickets. Here is a great definition of E-Ticket.

E-tickets were the golden ticket at Disney World. You only three and they had to be rationed. My wife told her grandparents handed them a book of WDW tickets with all of the E-Tickets.  They had visited and not used them!!. Gold mine.

You see, back then you paid to park and then bough a book of tickets. park entry was technically free.

Which gets me to best part of this post: when I was about 12 my parents took me to WDW to stay on-site. Back then there was only two hotels and the camp ground. The Polynesian and the Contemporary were the only ones, but of course the Magic Kingdom was the only park. We stayed at the Contemporary, in the North Wing (now demolished). Four things stood out

1. the Hotel was huge and amazing. Our room seemed enormous. I think we had a corner room so it was bigger. I have since stayed in one of the Contemporary wings and those rooms are big.

2. my parents gave me full reign; I was able to run around and do all kinds of things. I had saved my allowance and I rented one of the motorboats a few times. A twelve year old in a little motor boat. Way too much fun.

3. I went to River country one afternoon and had a blast. That was a fun water park, too bad it is closed. I also went on that trip with my parents to Wet N Wild which was brand new. Yeah, my love of water parks started early

4. Finally, the best part. Disney has always treated the military well. My dad's teaching partner at the time (and still good friend) is a retired navy pilot. He got us this deal were not only did we stay onsite for a reduced rate but we got essentially an unlimited pass. As I remember, I had a lanyard that I wore that let me on any ride I wanted. I remember getting up by myself and leaving my parents in bed to be first in the park. I rode Space Mountain over and over. I most of rode 6 times in a row. That was amazing and really cool.