They DO Exist—I Met Someone with a Lifetime Pass

tirian

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
My wife's former boss tells the tale of getting lifetime passes when he joined DVC - one of the first. It was a long time ago and don't know if it's true based on this thread and how rare these passes seem to be. Maybe?

To my knowledge, those weren't lifetime passes, but they were good for 10-15 years! And they were complimentary!
 
Found this on a BMW forum I visit.

:A school bus driver for our district won a lifetime pass at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA back in the 70's when they were celebrating their 20th anniversary. They were giving away cars and lifetime passes each day to lucky people. He was bummed at the beginning but what he received he has gotten far greater value for over the years.

1. free admission for himself and up to 4 others to ANY disney property worldwide, unlimited days with no restrictions whatsoever.

2. 1/2 price on food/beverage ANYWHERE food/beverage is sold at ANY disney property (including hotels/golf courses ect)worldwide for himself and his entire party, which is also unlimited. He said he has had 30 different people in his party at one time and it works. (alcohol not included) Didn't ask him about golf but I'm sure he gets some ridiculously cheap green fee.

3. $40 per night hotel rooms per night at ANY disney property ANYWHERE in the world. That is right his rate is $40 bucks for any disney hotel in the world forever, tax, everything total per night. Also if a suite is available the day of check in he gets upgraded for free!

4. He cannot grandfather the pass to children, it is solely his property and not willable.

As he describes it, they basically give him a credit card which identifies him as a lifetime pass recipient. Whenever needed he presents this card and on the back it even tells the employee how to enter in the needed codes. He says almost always he has to take a couple minutes to explain the deals that he gets and actually tells them how to proceed.

He isn't married unfortunately, and can't get the full use of it like many with families. He does have neices and nephews that he takes his family whenever he can. He has been to WDW 1x only, and really only ever used it at disneyland in California and the hotels there. Although when they do grad nights and bus the kids into disneyland, he takes all the other busdrivers to a hotel and gets a couple rooms for them to sleep for 4-5 hours while the kids go crazy. He estimates he has been to disneyland over 500 times in the last 30 years.

He says he has saved well over 20k just in food purchases during that time, and thousands more on the hotel rooms."
 

Zummi Gummi

Pioneering the Universe Within!
Catherine Zeta Jones, Michael Douglas, and their family are in possession of lifetime passes.

When she was appearing in A Little Night Music on Broadway, a friend of mine was one of her dressers and got to accompany her family on a vacation
 

sweetpee_1993

Well-Known Member
Aren't there more enjoyable ways for you to make more Mormons?

I know nothing of the musical but I have a lot of knowledge about the Mormon religion. I do not believe that person is a member of the church. He/she says things that are not of that faith.



Marching on...

I find the lifetime pass thing very interesting. Didn't the first official family to enter Epcot get them? Also, during the year of WDW's 15th anniversary we were seasonal passholders. Every 15th person or something like that to enter a turnstile (seems like I only remember it being at the MK) won something. The prizes could be a hat or plush...all sorts of stuff. Each day I think I remember they gave away 2 cars (Buicks or Oldsmobiles or something uncool to kids at the time). I remember the cars because being 11 or so at the time my sibs & I thought it'd be awesome for our folks to ask us to borrow our car. Lol! How this all relates to the lifetime passes is that I'm certain I remember the so-many-millionth or -billionth guest being the recipient of lifetime passes. Gold rings a bell. I remember thinking that guy had to feel jipped since he didn't get a car.

My parents & grandparents went to WDW in those early years. I'll see if I can jog their memories for lifetime pass offers. :wave:
 

Wilt Dasney

Well-Known Member
Surprised no one has mentioned the first visitor to Disneyland in 1955. He was a college student at the time, and camped out overnight to be the first guest admitted. He received a lifetime pass to Disneyland that I believe has since been upgraded to every Disney park worldwide. He is still alive, probably in his 70s now.
 

Penelope

Member
Today, I met someone with a lifetime pass. He was born and raised in the Orlando area, and his dad worked for a construction company Disney contracted. Apparently, whenever Disney completed a massive project in the 70s and 80s, they offered these tickets for sale to associated businesses. His dad purchased them for the family, and this man (now in his late 40s) still owns his. Although he is not sure about the particulars, he assumes his father had worked on EPCOT Center, because the ticket is only good for the MK and Epcot. (Disney tickets are only valid for parks existing at the time the ticket is sold.) Due to the original ticket's limitations, he has been purchasing a heavily discounted AP for decades; he keeps the original pass in a safety deposit box.

I would love to see a picture of these. I bet this "paper" is valuable beyond the park admission perks. Very cool thread thanks for sharing!
 

Enderikari

Well-Known Member
*Le Sigh*

Lifetime passes... K

I know what you are referring to, and sometimes people do mess up and call them lifetime passes.

Wanna know what they look like, Tirian? Look at a standard blue/silver Main Entrance Pass. Now imagine it red. That's it, the red VIP pass

For the record, the *concept* of an annual pass didnt even come to fruition until 1982, and someone who has been getting annual passes and renewing faithfully since then is entitled to a discount, called a "Charter Member" discount. There are very few *actual* charter members around nowadays, but every now and again, someone will mess up when selling a ticket and accidentally sell a charter member ticket to someone who isnt actually entitled to it (which is shockingly easy).

Technically, if you really wanted to, you could go, right now, to Guest Relations and buy renewal certificates until the cows came home, as many as you would want, and continue to use those to renew your annual pass for your "lifetime." There are some people who do that, I know one middle-aged woman who still is sitting on a few she had since about 10 years ago.

Also, the *parks commencing operations* rule is no longer in effect, thus the gentleman was able to use his old ticket at DCA. The old K tickets, which was used to denote a ticket could not be used at the Animal Kingdom, no longer work the way they used to, and can be used at any of the four Disney World theme parks. Just don't try to use WDW tickets at Disneyland, unless they are company sponsored comps, of course.
 

Enderikari

Well-Known Member
Disneyland opened to the public on July 18, 1955, with an entrance fee of $1


Wouldnt that be sweet now? lol

In a word? No

People would be lined up for days, literally days, just to enter into a theme park that would take all of 20 minutes to hit parkwide capacity. If youve ever been to a park on July 4th, New Years Eve or X-Mas Day, take that and then spread it across every day of the year. Attractions would be working at full capacity all day, to minimum lines approaching more than an hour. Food locations would struggle to keep up with demand until they ran out of food altogether. Dogs and Cats, living together, Mass Hysteria
 

The Mom

Moderator
Premium Member
*Le Sigh*

Lifetime passes... K

I know what you are referring to, and sometimes people do mess up and call them lifetime passes.

Wanna know what they look like, Tirian? Look at a standard blue/silver Main Entrance Pass. Now imagine it red. That's it, the red VIP pass

For the record, the *concept* of an annual pass didnt even come to fruition until 1982, and someone who has been getting annual passes and renewing faithfully since then is entitled to a discount, called a "Charter Member" discount. There are very few *actual* charter members around nowadays, but every now and again, someone will mess up when selling a ticket and accidentally sell a charter member ticket to someone who isnt actually entitled to it (which is shockingly easy).

Technically, if you really wanted to, you could go, right now, to Guest Relations and buy renewal certificates until the cows came home, as many as you would want, and continue to use those to renew your annual pass for your "lifetime." There are some people who do that, I know one middle-aged woman who still is sitting on a few she had since about 10 years ago.

Also, the *parks commencing operations* rule is no longer in effect, thus the gentleman was able to use his old ticket at DCA. The old K tickets, which was used to denote a ticket could not be used at the Animal Kingdom, no longer work the way they used to, and can be used at any of the four Disney World theme parks. Just don't try to use WDW tickets at Disneyland, unless they are company sponsored comps, of course.

I was going to mention Charter Members. My in-laws are Charter Members; I wish I had done the same way back when, but I didn't think it would be cost effective at the time. After all, how many times would I want to return? :lol: :eek:
 

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