Hey there, hi there, ho there, Leah! You′re as welcome as can be here at planDisney! You've asked an excellent question.
A friend of mine was recently in a similar situation. She found two Magic Your Way tickets for MGM Studios from February 1990 in an old scrapbook her mom had made. Initially, she doubted there was any value left on them, but I encouraged her to call Ticket Services and imagine her surprise when she found there was! So, Leah, your mom is correct; Walt Disney World Resort continues to honor all unexpired theme park tickets with remaining admission days.
Although Disney no longer offers a no-expiration ticket option, it still honors no-expiration tickets (tickets would have to be bought before 2004 for the no-expiration rule to apply, which clearly yours were). As long as the name on the tickets matches your name, there shouldn't be an issue.
I recommend contacting Ticket Services at (407) 560-CHAT (2428) to confirm the exact usage left on the tickets. You can also send an email with pictures of the front and back of your tickets to
ticket.usage@disneyworld.com. When I spoke to a Cast Member over the phone today, she said it's possible, but not likely, that they will be able to link your tickets to your
My Disney Experience account over the phone. If that is the case, you'll need to do the conversion process in person at a Walt Disney World ticket booth. The one thing that concerns me is you will need to have a
theme park reservation in addition to valid admission. I'd keep an eye on the
Theme Park Reservation Availability Calendar. The next couple of weeks are busy, but all of next month has lots of reservations available. You can take your chances that there will still be availability on the day you arrive, but if that makes you nervous, I recommend buying new theme park tickets now and making your park pass reservations. Then, once you get them linked to My Disney Experience, you can use those "retro" tickets for a future trip.
Good luck using those tickets, Leah! If you have any more vacation planning needs, you know where to find us. We're all ears!
Eean