GhostHost wrote:those are cool scans of retro Disney items. I would not be a fan of tickets for each ride though.
It really wasn't that bad. The nice thing was that sometimes you'd have leftover tickets that you could use the next time you came to the park. And in addition to the ticket books, they also sold individual tickets at ticket booths in each land. Given the fact that some attractions would be down for maintenance or refurbishment, or just have excessively long lines, that could be beneficial, because you weren't paying for attractions you couldn't enjoy or didn't want, only the ones you did.
Or for those days when you just wanted to get into Disneyland but not see any attractions (like if you just wanted to shop or eat), there was a general admission price as well, and if you changed your mind and maybe wanted to see the Tiki Room or go on the Skyway or go on Pirates of the Caribbean, but nothing else, you could do that without a big cash outlay.
I don't really buy the argument about Annual Passes being more economical once you break down the cost, either. How many AP holders literally use their APs 365 days a year (or every day they can, if they have one with blocked out dates)? Very few. Some might go once a week, or even once or twice a month. Not saying that APs
can't be economical overall, of course - they certainly can be, but only if certain requirements are met. I've known people with APs who live locally in Southern California but have only managed to get to the park 2 or 3 times a year. That seems a big waste compared to the old pricing structure, IMHO.
Currently there are about 45 attractions at Disneyland that either were or would be ticketed, if ticketing was brought back. Now they should still keep the all-day, all-attractions passports, of course; those are fine to keep, but they're not always the best idea for everyone who visits the park. Let's say they updated the old ticket books and made it so that instead of a Big 11 or Deluxe 15, there was a Big 25 and a Deluxe 30 ticket book option. Let's say that the cost for simply entering the park was, oh, $12.00. And each ticket would have a different price value, adjusted for inflation. OK, so then an $.85 E ticket would, in today's dollars, cost about $4.10. A D ticket would cost about $3.40. A C ticket would cost about $1.99. A B ticket would cost about $1.20. And an A ticket would cost about $.50. The more expensive-to-build-and/or-maintain attractions would likely cost more than the ones that didn't cost so much.
OK, now obviously today there'd be more attractions and thus more tickets, but let's see how the 1978 Deluxe 15 ticket book (Adult) was broken down, A thru E:
A-10¢ (1), B-25¢ (2), C-40¢ (3), D-70¢ (4), E-85¢ (5), General Admission Ticket (1)
OK, now it was valued at $12.35 but priced at only $8.00 (huge bargain). In today's dollars that translates into a $39.67 value priced at $25.70. Not bad, really, pretty reasonable. Those 5 E-tickets alone would be valued today at about $20.50.
But let's say they not only provide those levels of ticketing, but also even bigger ones, so that you could have the aforementioned Big 25 or Deluxe 30, priced accordingly. Let's say you double the amounts of each ticket listed above for the Deluxe 30, commensurately (2 A tickets, 4 B tickets, 6 C tickets, 8 D tickets, and 10 E tickets). That'd be a $79.34 value, but you could price it lower, at $51.40 ($25.70 x 2). Still cheaper than a passport, but it provides a lot of leeway.
Even at 30 attractions, 15 aren't included (remember, there's 45 attractions), so guests would have to choose: this one or that one with my ticket? If they wanted to get everything available, and the ticket book didn't provide enough for it, they'd either pay the individual ticket cost at that land's booth, or they'd get a higher-priced passport so it was included already. But leave that choice totally up to the Park Guests.
See, I like having lots of different options, especially if I'm on a budget and can't spend as freely as others (or don't want to). Being forced to fork over for the whole shebang without offering lower-cost options makes the Park a make-or-break deal for some folks. And if I just want to go the Park just to take some photos, shop, and dine, I should be able to do so without paying a $63 cover charge and $11 for parking.
