The thrill ride to end all thrill rides
Image: HarshLight, Flickr (license)
Since an E ticket is synonymous with “thrill ride” in today’s lexicon, let’s start with the most exciting attractions Disneyland currently has on tap. Working clockwise around the Hub, we first come to Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye. Since its memorable debut in 1995, Indiana Jones Adventure has consistently ranked among the most popular and intense Disneyland attractions. It may not be a proper roller coaster, but its Enhanced Motion Vehicle system can generate up to 160,000 variations, making each trip into Mara’s hellish caves and tunnels almost entirely unique.
As we move toward the back of the park, two more E ticket attractions stand out: New Orleans Square’s Haunted Mansion and Critter Country’s Splash Mountain. The Haunted Mansion wasn’t a bonafide Walt Disney classic when it opened in 1969, three years after Walt’s death in 1966, but it manages to completely encapsulate the ingenuity of Disney Imagineers, right down to the Hatbox Ghost’s eerie grin and disappearing head.
Splash Mountain is the first real roller coaster on our new E ticket, as well it should be: With a heart-stopping, five-story plummet into Br’er Rabbit’s briar patch, it offers one of the steepest flume ride drops among theme parks in the United States.
Image: HarshLight, Flickr (license)
Three more roller coasters deserve to make the cut as well: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Matterhorn Bobsleds and Space Mountain. All three have undergone significant renovations over the last decade, including a new, scarier Yeti perched in the Matterhorn’s icy caves and seasonal overlays that transform Space Mountain’s starry night sky into a Halloween fright fest or Star Wars-themed battlefield.
Several gift shops down from Space Mountain, Star Tours – The Adventures Continue is a shoo-in for E ticket status. Granted, there’s nothing particularly ingenious about a 3-D motion simulator, but the intricate theming around the queue, coupled with the way the ride continues to expand and adjust to an ever-evolving Star Wars canon, elevates it to the top tier of Disneyland’s attractions.
We can’t forget about Mickey’s Toontown here, even though there’s relatively slim pickings over in the “kiddie” area of the park. Gadget’s Go Coaster may elicit 20 seconds of squeals as it dips around Toontown, but the real thrills can be found in Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, a dark ride that combines the nausea-inducing elements of Mad Tea Party with the frightening storyline of Pinocchio’s Daring Journey. While it’s not the most pleasant ride in the park, especially for the young children who often gravitate toward Mickey’s Toontown, it showcases a darker, rarely-seen side of the Disney experience.
Comments
I would totally swap Railroad for It's a small world! I don't think Railroad would ever make it to this list if the rule wasn't 'at least one ride per land'.
Anyway, I found this article really interesting and I think it would be fun to pick the E tickets of today at other Disney (or even non-Disney) parks, especially those which never had the ABCDE ticket system.
I'd love to read also about the other categories, because everyone talks about the É tickets, but it isn't always obvious what differentiates a B from a C, for example
How about we change the system a bit? I know this sounds utterly insane, seriously, impossible more like, but even if it is, it would probably be incredibly costly, both for Disney itself, and for it's guests. But how's about an e-ticket which would allow you to experience attractions across Disney's entire theme park lineup, connected to a cross-continental, magic band style system that checks each guest in as they arrive.
This would work by you being able to pick an experience from each of the parks, but just one experience.
A potential, guest-picked list, could probably look like:
Matterhorn
Radiator Springs Racers
Flight of Passage
Soarin'
Tower of Terror
Haunted Mansion
Phantom Manor
Ratatouille
Pooh's Honey Hunt
Journey to the Center of the Earth, or possibly Sindbad
and finally Battle for the Sunken Treasure due to Tron coming to wdw in a few years.
Interestingly, I counted back the list, and unbelievably, I did not plan this, but this actually makes 11 attractions!
As for how this would work:
Imagine this impossibility just for some at-home imagineering:
To allow for this ticketing, Disney announces and builds a monorail-style system that connects from country to country. But here's the catch. A guest would have already needed to check in at a theme park first, and the time would strictly be booked for this. So, after spending a while at the park, maybe even going so far as to an entire day, instead of going back to a hotel, villa etc, you go to this new station and bored a sleek, new vehicle that is, somehow, very quiet yet very fast, fast enough to go across country. To make this even more crazy, air traffic control need not worry. It goes underground!
You'd do your rides and then move on, ready for your next timing. Honestly, the more I think about it the more I think it's ridiculous, plus I think it'd be a logistical nightmare to pull off especially when it comes to stuff like resorts with multiple parks, as if the parks aren't busy enough already you'd have people going up and below ground plus it's kind of cruel because while this ticket would give you access to one entire park, after that park day and you take your vehicle, you are then stuck with your remaining experiences being tied to the ticketed options that you picked, and then you wait for the next vehicle and move on to the next park. Plus, it'd probably be exhausting for the guest, not the least due to timezone differences. I would also have no idea on the price of this.