I literally feel like crying when people say remove Spaceship Earth, AA, and Presidents.
TOTALLY agree. Do you in agree with my entire list of E-Tickets or is there one you'd take off?
It was classed and an E because Eisner and others felt that it was going to be a huge draw. It wasn't, so it quickly lost it's E status. However, even though the imagineers still refer to things as an E ticket, it is just what they consider to be a likely reaction to it, however, they have been wrong about that quite often. They do not publicly state that any ride is currently an E or any other number. Internally they might speculate the opinion that it would be hugely popular, but, other then the limited use of tier breakdown for FP.
With all the detail, lighting, theming, Audio Animatronics, engineering, story, etc...can you explain why you wouldn't consider the AA or SSE E-Tickets? They certainly have more detail than Midway Mania (which is essentially a computer game on screens) and Mine Train, which was clearly a victim of budget cuts.
I agree with all of them with a light disagree on Test Track. I feel like Test Track had the ambition of an E Ticket, but is more of a D+ Ticket in execution. It's not one that I would vehemently argue against, though.
HM, Pirates, and SSE have almost no tech and are the quintessential E-Tickets I miss at Disney. The story, large scale, lighting, care put into each scene, are just things we don't see anymore. Just look how many props/effects something like HM has in total. It's incredible how much detail there is even after literally riding probably 1,000 times.
I think Alien Encounter was absolutely an E Ticket, but it was one that really didn't click for a large percentage of guests. What it did, it did extremely well and there was great attention to detail in its design. I look at it like a Cult Film. For some of us, it was a classic, but it was certainly not for everyone and I totally understand that opinion.
Alright I'll do some reevaluation:
Today, I would agree Test Track 2.0 is a D ticket. I was thinking from the original Test Track perspective. I would definitely consider that an E-Ticket, particularly at the time it was built. It was pretty ambitious and actually had a theme that taught you something about testing cars.
When you consider the amount of merchandise created around it since 1969 along with the number of words written about it on a consistent basis since its opening, I'd say it's perhaps the biggest E Ticket of all time.
Especially since some of that tech is over a hundred years old and still has a lot of people having no idea how certain effects are pulled off.
Glad you agree on HM now...it's my favorite ride anyway.
Even with my bias, it's definitely an E-Ticket.
Tech is there, of course, but it's old tech which is what I mean by "almost no tech." New tech would be FOP or TSMM that uses projectors and gimmicks to avoid building physical worlds and practical effects. Star Wars used Tech, but they used a lot of real models, costumes, etc to make it seem more real.
Glad you agree on HM now...it's my favorite ride anyway.
Pre Jack Sparrow Pirates was Definitely better than the new one, but I don't think it removes it from E-Ticket status, particularly since we agree on HM. It's very similar in its detail and storytelling ability. Scene after scene of detail, music, audio, script, etc.
If you ever get a chance, watch the documentary on how the American Adventure was built. The way the characters come in and out of each scene, silently, is truly an engineering masterpiece. It's a heartfelt story of American history from beginning to end, is in a beautiful theater, and has a wonderful script. Starting from nothing, just think how much time and effort went into making that a physical reality.
SSE is similar to Haunted Mansion for me. Since it's so detail with physical scenes, painstaking effort went into each scene of the ride, script, etc. I agree it does need some TLC to the later scenes, but its message is still relevant and powerful.
TSMM is definitely the best in TSL, but the fact it was basically done on a computer makes it fall short of the other E-Tickets (for me). I can see why people would like it, but it relies too much on technology for me. I really enjoy it, it's a lot of fun, but just doesn't have the scale and grand feel of E-Tickets I know from Disney.
Until the opening of EPCOT Center in 1982, both Disneyland and WDW used tickets for rides. In addition to your admission, which was much lower, in order to ride most things you had to buy a ticket book. Attractions were ranked from A-E, with E being the top-tier, can't miss attraction. You got more A tickets in a ticket book than E tickets, so you used your E tickets sparingly because you knew you'd need to buy more ticket books if you wanted to ride one of those attractions multiple times. Although the tickets are long gone, the designation is still used by Disney fans to rank attractions.