Rob562
Well-Known Member
As has been discussed on here a few times, the "paper" tickets actually are much more durable and hard-wearing than the plastic room-key stock used at the resorts.
The tickets you get at the parks aren't simply paper. They're actually layered card stock with a coating or two of mylar. They're extremely durable, and almost impossible to tear. (Go ahead, dig out an old ticket and try to rip it in half)
The magnetic stripe is also more long-lasting than the plastic room key stock from the rooms. Those keys get demagnatized much more easily than the paper tickets.
The only instance where the plastic tickets have the edge over paper is when they get wet. The plastic will just dry out, but the paper will soak up water and then curl as it dries. But even then, the printing stays legible on the paper ticket, and can easily be replaced by Guest Relations. (As I discovered after the first time I went to Islands of Adventure... Took everything out of my pockets before the water rides except my wallet. Oops...)
Lastly, the printers for the plastic tickets are much larger and bulkier than the paper tickets. At the resorts they have one key card printer/encoder for every 2 or 3 workstations. At the ticket booths, where space is at a premium and the CMs can't really walk around to various printers, the paper-stock printers are much more compact and can be installed under the counter at each ticket sale location.
Plus the plastic ticket printers can only hold 50-100 blank cards at once, while the paper ticket printers can hold a roll of tickets with many hundreds of tickets on it, so it doesn't have to be refilled as much.
-Rob