RUMOR: Disneyland Resort to Retire Free Paper Theme Park Tickets This Week

Tom Corless

Disneyland paper tickets

RUMOR: Disneyland Resort to Retire Free Paper Theme Park Tickets This Week

With the soft-launch of the MagicBand+ this week and the growing trend of guests simply using their phones to enter the Disneyland Resort theme parks, Disney will reportedly be phasing out the distribution of paper tickets for guests over the course of the next week.

Several Cast Members at the Disneyland Resort have indicated that paper tickets will be phased out for most guests, of course already having been done so for those with a Magic Key. Supposedly, paper tickets would be available to all guests the same way they are to Magic Key holders currently, through an added-cost purchase at a ticket booth.

Reportedly, all tickets purchased online as of this week (as of the price increases) will no longer have a replacement paper ticket printed out at the turnstile. While it is sad that these relics of theme park history are fading away, guests will likely be ecstatic to see entry lines move a little faster every morning at both parks.

As with any rumor, this story is not confirmed until announced by Disney, which we suspect will happen later this week once the changes go into effect.

What do you think? Should guests still be getting paper tickets, or should everything be via the phone and MagicBand+?

9 thoughts on “RUMOR: Disneyland Resort to Retire Free Paper Theme Park Tickets This Week”

  1. Paper tickets should still be given without an extra cost. Some people, like my mom, don’t have or want a smartphone. She shouldn’t have to carry an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper and go through the extra effort of keeping it in scannable condition.

    She also wouldn’t want a MagicBand+ for the same reason that I hate them. I don’t want to deal with having to remember to charge the thing. I also don’t want my phone battery going down even faster due to bluetooth being constantly on.

    • you dont have to charge the magicband to use it to enter the parks, redeem lightning lanes, etc. it just wont vibrate and light up.

    • I think they should still use the paper tickets because they make great souvenirs and it is better to save money.

  2. That’s too bad. Nearly all of my old trip photo albums have the paper tickets in them as mementos. And some people don’t use smartphones or can’t get apps to open when the time comes to get a ticket scanned. They don’t all remember to save screenshots of tickets beforehand, just in case. It’ll still cause some delays entering parks sometimes.

  3. Just come back from Florida. Modern technology is a pain in the backside. My daughter had saved everything to her phone and ‘special’ watch thing. On several occasions the new system wouldn’t recognise her watch or phone so wouldn’t recognise us or our thumb print. In the end it was quicker to produce our ‘cards’ that I had taken with me ‘just in case’. Even the Disney staff were frustrated with the system and were extremely pleased when I presented my cards ( we never had problems using these in the past).
    Disney are no longer bothered about what is best for their customers- it was very obvious that their interest was only in making as much money as they could, as quickly as they could, at the expense of their visitors. $3.50 for a small bottle of water and $5+ for a can of Coke – oh and don’t forget the $25 a day for car parking. We wouldn’t even dream of spending that here. Just plain greedy 🤨 We have been going to Disney for over 30 years and have always known it was a little more expensive than other places but we are so disappointed with them now so won’t be handing over our hard earned money anymore. You’ve finally beaten us Disney.

  4. So you really think the skipping of the paper ticket print will save any significant time in line? Printing the ticket takes but 2 seconds, and they aren’t even exclusive seconds as other things are happening in that time. In the meantime, getting my phone out, to the app, to the ticket screen, and then fighting with trying to scroll to my ticket cause my ticket is never first on the list, all one handed while juggling anything I am carrying with me, and trying to do so while moving forward so I don’t slow the line down is a real hassle that paper tickets (or my good ole plastic annual pass card) simply doesn’t have. Paper tickets are way faster and more convenient than the app… Full stop.

  5. There have been times when Genie+ glitches and I’ve had to scan my paper card to get on the ride. What will they do when the internet goes down or glitches? What’s the point of selling lanyards? I have no desire to pay extra for a magic band.

  6. So will the “welcome to your happiest” tickets be the last ever ticket design in history?? It’s also sad that they aren’t giving paper tickets cause I have lots of those.

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