Guest Blogger: Nick Maglio

Today, I’d like to share several items sent to me from a trip taken by my wife’s Aunt Sandy, Uncle Roger, and cousin Jill to Walt Disney World in July of 1982, just a couple of months prior to EPCOT Center’s opening.

From their park tickets, we can see what days they visited: June 30th and July 2nd, 1982.

This was Jill’s child’s ticket:

$17 for a 2-day passport!  Adjusting for inflation, that is approximately $40 today!

 Aunt Sandy and Uncle Roger’s Tickets:

 

$21 adjusts to just under $50 in 2012! I don’t think I need to, but will point out that a 2-day pass costs a bit more today!

Adjusted for inflation, $1 is under $3 today. Parking is currently $14:

I’m not sure if the parking lot is still broken down into the same characters, as we don’t rent a car when we fly in. On this day, they were parked in Pluto, space 21.

Now let’s take a look at the guides. The two covers are slightly different, so I’m assuming they changed them monthly? Each features the same 10th Anniversary Parade float:

A nice colorful map of the Magic Kingdom:

They’re almost newsprint quality paper, so it’s amazing they’ve held up so well, and haven’t really yellowed:

This is the earliest park map I’ve seen. I had no previous knowledge that there was once a Hallmark store on Main Street USA! Those were the days when there was a much wider variety of stores featuring a much wider range of products.

Which of your favorite attractions, shops, or restaurants are still in the park, and which are just a memory?

Photo tips. This guide is compliments of Polaroid

Soon, they’ll be adding a whole new park on the map. EPCOT Center!

Downtown Disney was Walt Disney World Village

 

The inner pages and back cover of both guides are the same, with the exception of the last page and inside back cover. This one looks at a decade of dreams coming true, while the inside back cover advertises Disney movies out at that time. Cinderella was in re-release and one of my favorites was in theaters: TRON!

The other guide features an ad for EPCOT Center!  This time, Bambi is in theaters:

They picked up one more guide while on their trip. It’s the EPCOT Center Preview Guide:

This has also been called The Opening Day Guide on some sites and it was obviously given out as a preview.

All of these wonderful items that Aunt Sandy has sent me now join the ranks of my treasured Disneyana collection!