Might as well revive this as it is talked about very frequently.
Originally as we all know, Disney had an A-E ticket system based on the most popular attractions. The reason why using popularity today makes for an instantly flawed argument is that although the attraction may have high wait times it may not even be popular. Think about it...
The Haunted Mansion can do over 3,000 per hour while a ride like the
Speedway frequently ends up getting the
same wait times with less than a quarter of the capacity!
Attractions like the Tiki birds were e-tickets due to demand outweighing capacity. Though the capacity for an attraction like Peter Pan is around 500 per hour, it still would have less people actually riding it even if the capacity was much much larger as demand is not as high for a minor dark ride than an entire town overtaken by pirates. If across the board every ride had the same capacity it would be absolutely different and my post would not need to be typed up.
Disney internally uses it for scale... so why on Earth should we not? For instance... Na'vi River Journey is a D-ticket. It may very well end up being the most popular ride at the entire resort, but that won't change the fact that the scale (ride length and/or quality) is short of Shanghai's POTC which is (about?) double the length and is a super headliner E-ticket.
Another fine example is Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. While The Mine Train is a high-quality attraction and receives massive lines nearly 3 years after its opening (I was there for the softs), it's a D-ticket because of its short length (don't worry... I'm not biased to a non-thrilling coaster that does not 5 inversions).
Skull Island: Reign of Kong is by far the most interesting example in my mind. I absolutely loved the exterior and queue (it's probably my favorite in all of Orlando), and while the ride itself I enjoyed, it still could have been much better for the queue etc. (like what happened to Mermaid at MK), but its main issue is the fact that although it is still an E-ticket, it's just not very good for being an E-ticket. But if this makes sense... the ride on account of it being an E-ticket makes you still like it and want to ride it... its quality and scale are large, but the story and other reasons keep it from feeling like Splash Mountain or Spaceship Earth. Hey! Spaceship Earth doesn't even have a themed queue, but look! Spaceship Earth would also not be an E-ticket if you use a demand-based ticket scale.
Random variables to consider
- Ride Time: Different depending on the type of ride (can be dictated by the speed of the vehicle). While Rock n' Rollercoaster is super short you go 58 MPH.
- Nostalgia does not factor into the scale. It may make it popular, but as a scale rating, it effectively equates to zero.
- Capacity: the main reason why measuring an attraction on demand is a flawed argument in itself.
- Fastpass distribution: again, capacity makes it harder to be an absolute.
- Location: whether the area of the park is popular, or a completely different park. Star Tours is waaay more popular at Disneyland than HWS as it has 4 simulators instead of HWS' 6, and the fact that Disneyland Park is far more popular creates a situation where the same ride can get nearly double the waits. Does that mean it is not an E-ticket in HWS, but yes at Disneyland? You can obviously use it differently, but it is so much easier just to rate scale -- Soarin' is The same ride here or at Disneyland, yet EPCOT sees it with commonly double the wait, as with Toy Story Midway Mania. Heck, Frozen: Ever After has the same issue: capacity making a D-ticket have soaring waits. While it could theoretically be an E-ticket if we look at it through demand it does not rate the attraction in any way... it only states its popularity.
- Personal opinions: While I may not like Escape From Gringotts as a ride -- that does not change that it is an E-ticket... If The Rock n' Rollercoaster is to next get an update and in 50 years it is nearly always empty It may not be very popular or liked, but the scale of the attraction will not change. Obviously if you let it just rot it will (like Universe of Energy being an E-ticket originally to now being what? I guess it is still an E-ticket, just a very dated one) not hold its scale as well, but in full working order as an E-ticket is intended it should rarely ever go down in scale.
Toy Story Midway Mania is massively popular at Hollywood Studios, but now that it has a third track wait times are less... does that mean that it is now not an E-ticket? Now a Splash Mountain has walk on waits when it is cold... does that mean it'sonly an E-ticket part of the time? And if your definition is demand/popularity then yes, but the fact is... that ship has sailed. The old ticket system is not used anymore. We should just call it "Ride Categories" 1 being the lowest scale and 5 being the highest.
Again, Originally the ticket system was used based on demand as it would be crazy to charge an equal price for a not as long lines attraction even if the ride is better, so they used it that way rather than scale.
You could use it as a demand based scale: "Oh Splash Mountain is an easierFastpasss to procure when it's cold as it's a C-ticket then. While that makes sense on its own (demand to *capacity*), for the people that look to insiders to know if a future ride is any good... how can you say that best? Same with armchair-Imagineering. You can predict how popular a ride would be ex. Peter Pan being popular because of its low capacity, but the scale is absolute. By far the most useful is the scale, and that's why Disney recognizes it as that.
The bottom line is that you can use it either to determine scale or demand, but the former gives an absolute as to the attraction itself while the latter is based on external factors to create a queue time.
Queue lines also help determine for both, but are not everything. Spider-Man's queue is nothing special but the ride is arguably at the minimum in the top 10 worldwide while The Little Mermaid has a mind blowing queue, but just a standard C-ticket (scale) attraction.
Neither determine quality as an E-ticket in scale could be bad, or Demand can inflate a bad ride by capacity, or decrease a good ride as well as other factors. Since quality is more personal it's good that both of these hint at it, but don't require it in determining if something is grand or popular.
Quite frankly I think that Demand should be limited to "Most Popular" not really a designated category that fluctuates and is skewed based on external factors.
Personally, I recommend you use it for scale as that seems to be the most beneficial today, and what is used by Disney to refer to attractions internally. It's just my opinion though, take it for what it is please.
