It wasn't based so much on "capacity" as it was on the costs to operate the thing. Pirates of the Caribbean was an E Ticket because it was a massive facility loaded with special effects and dozens of animatronics that required a great amount of resources, labor and investment to keep going.
I have a hunch that if this Little Mermaid 6 minute long Omnimover ride loaded with animatronics in an elaborately decorated environment had opened in the 1960's or 70's, it would have been classified as an E Ticket. But by today's standards, where people expect physical thrills or bizarrely unique ride systems to classify something as a "Big WOW!", it's going to be considered a D Ticket.
I'm cool with the D Ticket classification, as I still think it's going to be a huge hit and wildly popular, particularly with girls and young women in their late teens and twenties.
On another board, a trustworthy Disneyland CM just posted a report that CM's have recently been walking through the show building at California Adventure and that Al Lutz's first report of soft openings of DCA's Little Mermaid ride by April, 2011 are right on track. Four months from now WDW fans will be able to see the ride they'll be getting via YouTube videos and non-stop Internet coverage as the first ride reports come in. Not too long now, regardless of what ticket you assign it. :lol:
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