Disneyland wasn’t always an all-you-care-to-enjoy buffet of theme park attractions. During its earliest days, the Happiest Place on Earth came with a pay-to-play system. Guests purchased a ticket for each individual ride, and so Disney sold ticket books once upon a time.
During 1959, the first significant Disneyland expansion forced Walt Disney and his team to create a new tier for the most expensive rides, one of which was the monorail. This highest ticket class famously became the E-ticket, and while it no longer exists, its legacy remains. Let’s rank the actual E-ticket rides from the early days of Disneyland that are still in operation today.
The caveats
Before I get started in earnest, I want to stress a couple of points. First of all, I’m only discussing rides today. Also, I’ve ruled out anything that involves transportation.
Believe it or not, the Mark Twain Riverboat, Sailing Ship Columbia, Tom Sawyer Island Rafts, and Disneyland Railroad are all former E-Ticket attractions. The same is true of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and Enchanted Tiki Room!
Including the monorail, a total of 15 different E-ticket attractions are still in operation at Disneyland today. With these constraints, I’ve whittled the list down to eight attractions, all of which are still quite popular and recognizable today.
8. Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
Okay, something has to lose here, and no answer that I pick will satisfy anyone. From my perspective, Submarine Voyage comes with the largest asterisk. The attraction stopped operating in 1998 and stayed out of commission for the body of a decade.
The ride may have remained that way if not for some enterprising Imagineers who realized that The Seas with Nemo & Friends could share technology with the shuttered Submarine Voyage. Effectively, Disney could reduce costs by renovating two attractions simultaneously. The new character-themed version of the submarine ride is quite good. But it also survived by the narrowest of margins.
7. Matterhorn Bobsleds
I’ve written an entire introductory section of a book about the importance of Matterhorn Bobsleds to the roller coaster industry. It became the starter pistol for the coaster arms race that still benefits theme park tourists today. I love everything about it in terms of historical significance.
As a modern ride experience, it’s loose and free and vaguely unsettling, just like a bobsled ride should be. Unfortunately, everything else on this list is so iconic that Matterhorn Bobsleds seems a bit dated by comparison.
6. It’s a Small World
I have a love/hate relationship with this song, and I frankly worry about anyone who doesn’t. It’s decidedly repetitive and undoubtedly annoying when you’re in a bad mood. Even so, the eternal optimism of this attraction will soothe even the most troubled of souls.
At its core, It’s a Small World celebrates the diversity of the human race. The sets demonstrate the ways that countries are different, yet it embraces those cultural variations as a net positive for society. And the various puppets demonstrate daily that Mary Blair was quietly one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.
5. Space Mountain
Given the kind words I just had for It’s a Small World, I clearly admire everything in the top five. After all, anything that beats Matterhorn Bobsleds and Walt Disney’s little boat ride must be extremely impressive. And Space Mountain certainly qualifies.
Oddly, the history of this attraction involves Disneyland the least of anything listed here. It’s a Walt Disney World attraction through and through, at least in terms of development and construction.
Still, the Disneyland version with two riders per row is superior, at least in my opinion. It provides a tandem ride that makes the experience feel less isolated. I fully understand why some may prefer that, but I like sharing space Mountain with others. Plus, the Disneyland version is nowhere near as bumpy and sometimes features brilliant ride overlays.
4. Jungle Cruise
This ride covers two of my go-to trivia notes about the early days of Disneyland. The first fact involves Walt Disney, who wanted real animals on Jungle Cruise, which would have changed everything.
The other fact involves the script for the ride. Disney officials never intended Jungle Cruise to include comedy. Alas, the dialogue for the attraction lost its freshness within a few years of the opening. Skippers took it on themselves to liven up the experience by adding some jokes, and the rest is history.
To this day, Jungle Cruise is somehow timeless and modern. You know many of the jokes by heart, but cast members have developed their own distinctive spiels. So, each ride is slightly different. Plus, you never know when you might hear a new joke! Skippers always possess the ability to improvise.
3. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Yes, selecting Big Thunder Mountain as the best E-ticket roller coaster is a bit controversial, but I stand firm on this one. In recent years, I’ve come to appreciate just how consistently this ride entertains me. In fact, I’ve taken to riding it at night and love to shout, “Tony Baxter is a genius!” as the man-made mountain glows in the dark. It’s one of the most scenic attractions at Disneyland and just narrowly makes this list. Big Thunder Mountain is the last official E-ticket attraction in Disneyland history.
2. Haunted Mansion
When I think of timeless attractions, Haunted Mansion quickly springs to mind. There’s something about this macabre Doom Buggy ride that has entertained me since childhood. The incongruity of comedy in a haunted house has always appealed to me, although I’ve also been terrified of Constance Hatchaway since I was in Kindergarten.
Out of the E-ticket attractions at Disneyland, Haunted Mansion comes with the most intrigue. It took so long to build that E-tickets didn’t even exist during its conception. For that matter, neither did Disneyland.
Its incubation lasted so long that Haunted Mansion wouldn’t arrive until a decade after the introduction of E-tickets, though. As one of the anchors of New Orleans Square, it undoubtedly drove ticket sales until Disney introduced the single admission system. And it’s still a brilliant attraction today that gets better with each plussing. For example, the triumphant return of the Hatbox Ghost warmed every Disneyland fan’s heart. I seriously thought about naming it the best E-ticket attraction, but…
1. Pirates of the Caribbean
In terms of name recognition, I’m not sure that any theme park attraction in the world tops Pirates of the Caribbean. Hearing that name transports the listener to a Disney theme park, as everyone knows the setting for the attraction. It’s a boat ride through pirate territory, a place where you’re safe, but all of the people that you’re observing are in peril. Some are under fire, others are being chased, and a few are even imprisoned.
Pirates of the Caribbean stands above all other E-ticket attractions due to its sustained run of excellence. It never fades in quality, as Imagineers plus it frequently. Sometimes, the changes prove controversial, but the overall experience remains hypnotic to this day. It exemplifies how well Disney Imagineers can tell a rich story over the course of a few scenes. While every E-ticket attraction here has always been worth the high cost of admission, Pirates of the Caribbean is the best.
