Most kids leave Disney World with a souvenir. Virgil Waytes Jr. left with a lifetime pass.

On July 20, 1985, the 7-year-old from Virginia ran through the turnstiles on his family’s first-ever Disney trip and unknowingly became the park’s 200 millionth guest, a milestone Disney marks with major fanfare.

“I immediately just ran through the gates, and when I ran through the gates they just grabbed me,” Waytes recalled in an interview with Atlanta Black Star.

Suddenly there was music, fireworks, and a Disney executive presenting him a commemorative plaque, while his startled father braced to defend him before realizing what was happening.

The prize: free admission to every Disney park in the world, for life, with no blackout dates, plus the ability to bring three guests in free, and the perk even extends to food and merchandise.

At 7, he had no idea what he’d won. “I didn’t really appreciate it until I got older and had kids,” said Waytes, now a Charlotte father of three.

“When I started seeing the price of Disney, and that my family gets in free, I was like, ‘Wow.'”

These days he uses it often, with EPCOT his favorite park, and says the real reward is simply “watching my kids have fun.”