Consensus E-Tickets At the 4 Major Parks

[geekza]

Thanks for the explanation. I think it's terrible that you have to spend so much time planning which rides to reserve first in your FastPass+. Then when you go and try to reserve some they're no longer available. Very annoying!! Seems like Universal has a better system from what I've read.

It has definitely killed a lot of the spontaneity that used to exist in the parks. The ticket books were kind of used for the same reason that FastPasses exist. They helped distribute people around the park so that you didn't have a gazillion people at Pirates while other attractions had nobody there. The difference is that, now, Disney wants to get an idea of crowds months in advance of an actual date, so you're practically forced to make decisions about where you're going to be and what you're going to be riding long before you ever walk under the train station. They're great for the company, but not so great for the guests, although there are folks who will disagree with my assessment.

 

[WEDwaydatamover]

If Jungle Cruise isn't an E Ticket I don't know what is? Sure it needs a revamp as much as Peter Pans Flight. Long overdue. Not the Rock revamp either. One where the boats have individual personality and you can't see the metal holding up the elephants.

And just for the record Spaceship Earth and AA surpass the E Ticket status and are almost G-Money Tickets. As was most the original EPCOT Center.

 

[geekza]

Not the Rock revamp either.

SHHHHH! They'll hear you and Bob Iger will appear and make it happen (and charge you $79 extra to ride it)!

 

[marni1971]

Remove Hall of Presidents, Small World, Spaceship Earth, American Adventure, Star Tours, and Dinosaur IMO. Add Mine Train.

But each to their own

 

[geekza]

The Enchanted Tiki Room is an E-Ticket (in my romantic bubble). Oodles of animatronic friends, rain showers, and a masterpiece of a soundtrack. Granted, the Disneyland version is definitively E-Ticket (and I'll fight to the... churro over that), but I still raise a dole whip to the Tikis.

It will always be a personal E Ticket to me as well. I'm interested to see how my wife feels about some of the old-school Disney attractions, since she's never been to the parks and knows next to nothing about them.

 

[DisneyDoctor]

not at all

Overall love or hate for an attraction has nothing to do with it. Budgets, size, scope of the attraction determine status.

Disney, with an eager Eisner, back in the 90's positioned Alien Encounter as an E but too many guests weren't amused.

Half of mankind looked to queue up to Midway Mania early on(yes, sorry about the small exaggeration) but yet Disney acknowledged the attraction was a D like offering.

I disagree. Popularity absolutely matters. An E-ticket attraction according to Disney that flops in public perception is not an E-ticket attraction.

 

[DisneyDoctor]

Public perception plays some part, certainly, but the Tomorrowland Speedway is still popular nearly 50 years later and I don't think that anyone would argue that it's an E Ticket. E Ticket implies a certain level of detailed experience that shows in every aspect of the attraction. They're attractions where the Imagineers went the extra mile to "plus" every element to create an immersive experience that is unique. 7DMT feels like a planned E Ticket that was a victim of compromise.

I suppose the definition of "E-ticket" each person chooses to apply is relative.

 

[winstongator]

Small World is absolutely an E Ticket for several reasons: It's original. It's lengthy. It has a unique design aesthetic that is present in every AA, set piece, and prop.

Hall of Presidents has 43, highly-detailed, robot presidents and incredible emotional impact.

Spaceship Earth is a massive trip through time with each scene packed with detail and beautiful staging. It is the definition of E Ticket.

American Adventure is a wonder of engineering and technology.

7DMT is a C Ticket that, for some reason, people love. Still, one incredible show scene does not an E Ticket make.

I wanted to check to see if IASW was an e-ticket back when they used the tickets. Man, Space Mountain, was alone for thrills way back when.

7DMT is way too popular to call a C...

How many people would have Jungle Cruise, Country Bear Jamboree or PeopleMover as E's?

 

[winstongator]

Was Big Thunder Mountain an E-ticket?

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2013/05/vintage-walt-disney-world-an-a-attraction-or-an-e/

Weren't they transferrable? You could trade a certain number of A's for a B, and on up?

I see them as like FP+ tiers. You could look to see which are the rides least likely to fill up, and at the moment, call them A's, and then work up to the most popular.

For Oct 15, looks like the only MK ride w/o FP availability is 7DMT. Epcot everything is available - I remember when it was hard to get FEA 60 days out. HS, only SDD. AK is FoP. WDW could total up all the fp+ for each ride and then divide into a-e.

 

[winstongator]

It has definitely killed a lot of the spontaneity that used to exist in the parks. The ticket books were kind of used for the same reason that FastPasses exist. They helped distribute people around the park so that you didn't have a gazillion people at Pirates while other attractions had nobody there. The difference is that, now, Disney wants to get an idea of crowds months in advance of an actual date, so you're practically forced to make decisions about where you're going to be and what you're going to be riding long before you ever walk under the train station. They're great for the company, but not so great for the guests, although there are folks who will disagree with my assessment.

I have a different take on FP. I think they are best for the people taking infrequent long trips and staying on property. People that might not get to the parks at open, would miss the short lines at rope-drop, wouldn't be able to rush to get the paper FP. They'll still get 3 rides a day with no wait. Imagine flying from overseas, paying for the hotel, and having hour waits for everything.

I disliked Disney as a kid, largely because of the lines and the arguing in them. The cost and the arguing that came with that didn't help either. Going as an adult, starting in 2013, The ability to get on rides with no wait was a huge plus for me. Picking 3 rides with hour windows each doesn't constrain a whole day. I know it's an unpopular contrarian view, and I never visited the parks during the paper FP days.

What percentage of guests enter a WDW park each day with no fast passes booked?

 

[MisterPenguin]

Below is a list of historical Ticket Levels of rides before the tickets were eliminated.

One of the original ways that rides were ranked by Ticket Level was by the costliness of the ride. An expensive ride to create and to maintain wound up costing more to ride than a cheaper one, so, it was at the E-Ticket rank, which was the most expensive ticket. That's important to remember since when people bought tickets in a mixed-Level packaged book, the book obscured that fact that some rides cost more to ride than others (even though the value in cents was printed on the tickets).

But it also turned out that the Ticket Levels were used to manipulated crowds, much like the FP+ Tiers. When the DL Alice ride debuted, it was a D Ticket. Then it became C. Then B. The lesser ride of the Orbiter Spinner (in its many incarnations) had a huge capacity issue. As just a spinner, it debuted as a B. Then it became a C. Then a D.

To Imagineers, an E-Ticket would be a ride which was very complex and innovative and expensive, regardless of how well it was finally implemented or how well the public received it. And unfortunately, Disney Imagineers don't publish their list of what they consider to be an E Ticket ride.

To the guests, all they knew were that E-Ticket rides were really popular and usually very grand or thrilling. Which means that rides with long waits and were very popular were usually the main way they could abstract what was meant by an "E Ticket" ride; even though the long line was for a ride that was just simple and popular, or, a very low capacity.

I was looking at images of old tickets on the internet and thought to compile... a chart! Some of the rides changed level over times, some changed several times. A few seems to me were downgraded simply because they became older and were outshone by new attractions. One seemed to jump up the scales simply because of how low the ride's capacity was and they wanted to limit guests. The online record is incomplete year-to-year, but I believe I have enough data. The list indicates where the ride started and changes in tiers over time. I started the year after the E-Ticket was first introduced. I ignored one-year changes in level...

A

• Main Street Vehicles
• 20,000 Leagues Exhibit
• Sleeping Beauty Castle walk-thru
• Carrousel

B > A

• Main Street Cinema

B

• Art of Animation Exhibit
• Casey Jr. Circus Train
• Motor Boat Cruise

B > C > B

• Fantasyland Theater

B > C > D

• Astro-Jet / Star Jets

C > B

• Mad Tea Party
• Dumbo Flying Elephant
• Shooting Gallery

C > B > C > B

• Mike Fink Keel Boats
• Swiss Family Tree House

C

• Autopia/Speedway
• Adventure Through Inner Space
• Conestoga Wagons

C > D > C

• Canoes

C > D

• Rocket to the Moon/Mission to Mars

D > C > B

• Alice in Wonderland

D > C

• Peter Pan Flight
• Snow White’s Adventures
• Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride

D

• Skyway
• People Mover
• Storybook Land Canals
• Steamboat
• Sailing Ship Columbia
• Tom Sawyer Island Rafts

E > C

• Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln

E > D > C

• Steam Train

E > D

• Mickey Mouse Review
• Enchanted Tiki Room

E > D > E > D

• Mine Train (Rainbow Ridge/Nature’s Wonderland)

E

• Monorail
• Submarine Voyage
• 20,000 Leagues
• Space Mountain
• Flying Saucers
• Matterhorn Bobsleds
• It’s a Small World
• Pack Mule
• Big Thunder Mt. Railroad
• Haunted Mansion
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Country Bear Jamboree
• Hall of Presidents
• Jungle Cruise

Here is the spreadsheet with the info... https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uC--rAjBeErcoEQgl87RsI6bO8VZzrlr

 

[CaptainAmerica]

But each to their own

My list wasn't based on personal preference. I think Mine Train rots, but it has insanely high demand so I consider it an E ticket.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I literally feel like crying when people say remove Spaceship Earth, AA, and Presidents.

Really, AA is NOT an E-Ticket show? The engineering is incredible.

Mine Train borders, but I found it simply too short. If Mine Train is an E Ticket, Slinky is a C ticket.

E ticket is not based on technological achievement. Na'vi River Journey, Frozen Ever After, and Enchanted Tales with Belle have the most advanced animatronic figures in all of WDW. None of them are E tickets.

 

[Chef Mickey]

I think the change in the auction scene is also incredibly distracting though for Pirates of the Caribbean. Maybe when Spaceship Earth receives its next update, I'll reevaulate it. It's still a little too 80s ish for me.
Ah! Since you mentioned it, I'll bring up an interesting point of view I hold that many people disagree with me on. "relies too much on technology" is what I would say about Flight of Passage. Right now it's probably the greatest ride on Disney property. But in 20 years, when technology has eclipsed the technology used in FOP, will it still be an E ticket ride? There isn't too much of a story there nor any particular characters to connect with. What will keep FOP relevant at Disney when its technology fails to do so? Is the sheer beauty of the exterior of the ride enough?

I’ve already said FOP is less rideable than before, unfortunately. Too much tech, too screeny, and I agree with you. It’s an E-Ticket, but not necessarily the same way as the best E-Tickets, if that makes sense. To me, a true E-Ticket can never be ridden enough.

 

[Chef Mickey]

E ticket is not based on technological achievement. Na'vi River Journey, Frozen Ever After, and Enchanted Tales with Belle have the most advanced animatronic figures in all of WDW. None of them are E tickets.

That’s true, but those only have 1 or a couple nice animatronics. If Frozen were full of them and actually themed without tons of blank walls, it’d need to be re-evaluated.

AA has an entire laundry list of scenes, animatronics, story, music, and theme that was all brought together by incredible engineering.

 

[erasure fan1]

7DMT is way too popular to call a C...

I would say it's a C just because of the length. You could argue D because of the theme and detail but that ride length really hurts it. And like others have said, its a ride that had E ticket ambitions, but got severely cut. Popularity only plays a small role in ticket status in my book.

 

[Chef Mickey]

But each to their own

Assuming you’d have all those as E-Rickets as well?

I wanted to put in Tiki Room too but thought I’d be ridiculed.

 

[Chef Mickey]

If Jungle Cruise isn't an E Ticket I don't know what is? Sure it needs a revamp as much as Peter Pans Flight. Long overdue. Not the Rock revamp either. One where the boats have individual personality and you can't see the metal holding up the elephants.

And just for the record Spaceship Earth and AA surpass the E Ticket status and are almost G-Money Tickets. As was most the original EPCOT Center.

Agreed, Jungle Cruise should be added.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

It may be easier to work backwards. But something tells me we will have as much disagreement on what is not an E-Ticket.

Can we at least agree Swiss Family Treehouse is not an E-Ticket?

 

[JohnD]

Top four (one each park. I realize there are more)

MK: Space Mountain
Ep: Soarin
HS: Tower of Terror
AK: Flight of Passage (yes EE is up there and would have been the top choice prior to FOP opening)