Sitting in the center of the Challenger’s flight deck, 32-year-old mission specialist Sally K. Ride became the first American woman to enter outer space on June 18, 1983. The shuttle thundered above the launch pad of Kennedy Space Center, en route to its six-day, 97-orbit mission around the Earth.
Ride radioed Mission Control. “Have you ever been to Disneyland?” she asked. “This was definitely an E ticket.”
It may not have been a perfect comparison, but that’s precisely what springs to mind when we think of an E ticket attraction: an experience that transcends the standard amusement park fare to offer us something innovative, thrilling or inspiring. In a word, it’s extraordinary. (Maybe not exit-the-planet’s-stratosphere-while-operating-a-robotic-arm-that-launches-shuttle-pallet-satellites-extraordinary, but extraordinary nonetheless.)
In the summer of 1959, Disneyland pulled back the curtain on three big attractions: the Submarine Voyage, Disneyland-Alweg Monorail and the Matterhorn Bobsleds. Bigger thrills meant bigger profits, but the park’s four-tier coupon books were already packed full with attractions like Peter Pan’s Flight, Mike Fink Keel Boats, Skyway to Fantasyland and the Rainbow Caverns Mine Train, among a variety of others. They needed something that would immediately set their new rides apart – and a modest price hike wouldn’t be so bad, either.
Image: Loren Javier, Flickr (license)
Enter the “E ticket,” the fifth and final tier of the Disneyland ticket book. For 50 cents, guests could buy admission to the most awe-inspiring rides at the park, including the Santa Fe and Disneyland Railroad Trains, TWA Rocket to the Moon, Rainbow Ridge Pack Mules, Rainbow Mountain Stage Coaches, Mark Twain Steamboat, Sailing Ship Columbia, Tom Sawyer Island Rafts and the Jungle Cruise.
By the time Disneyland discontinued its ride coupon distribution system in 1981, the E ticket lineup had featured most of the iconic attractions in theme park history, from the spooky corridors of the Haunted Mansion to the hairpin turns of Space Mountain and the less-invigorating but highly entertaining Country Bear Jamboree.
Today, of course, Disneyland coupon books are nothing more than cherished relics of days gone by. Imagine, however, that they survived the jump into the 21st century. What would an E ticket coupon look like in today’s roller coaster-saturated theme park? Would the Jungle Cruise still make the cut? Would the Tom Sawyer Island Rafts? Let’s find out.
What’s so special about the E ticket?
Image: Loren Javier, Flickr (license)
It’s tempting to call every modern roller coaster an E ticket experience, but the original E ticket did more than advertise the most intense rides in the park. It shone a spotlight on Walt’s most beloved and remarkable inventions, from the real steam trains that chugged around the perimeter of Disneyland to the animatronic hippos that flashed gap-toothed smiles at guests aboard the Jungle Cruise. If you had one of these 50-cent bad boys, you knew you were about to experience the best Disney had to offer.
Unlike the lower-tier coupons, an E ticket guaranteed guests access to a top-shelf attraction in each of Disneyland’s five themed lands: Main Street, U.S.A., Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. (New Orleans Square wouldn’t make its debut until 1966, while Critter Country followed in 1972 and Mickey’s Toontown opened in 1993.) Frontierland was home to a whopping six of 11 attractions listed on the 1959 E ticket, but by 1960, both the Mark Twain Steamboat and Sailing Ship Columbia had been demoted to a D ticket and Rocket to the Moon was bumped all the way down to a C Ticket alongside the likes of Tomorrowland Autopia and Dumbo the Flying Elephant.
In the interest of upgrading the original E ticket, let’s limit this experiment to just 11 attractions, with at least one ride or show from each of Disneyland’s eight lands. (It’s safe to assume Star Wars land will host a number of true E ticket experiences when it premieres its interactive Millennium Falcon experience and First Order battle ride in 2019, at which point this list, like the ever-changing coupon books before it, will need some tweaking.)
The thrill ride to end all thrill rides
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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.
Don’t forget about the classics
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That takes care of the first eight E ticket rides, leaving us with just three slots left for Disneyland’s tamer, more iconic attractions. On Main Street, U.S.A., it’s a toss-up between Walt’s first human Audio-Animatronic, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, and the thing he loved most in the world: steam trains. While both Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and the Disneyland Railroad have laid claim to E ticket billing over the years, the edge goes to the Disneyland Railroad, if only for the unique train stations positioned around the park and the plussed features of the Grand Canyon Diorama, including some truly ferocious dinosaur animatronics locked in a prehistoric battle.
Over in Adventureland, we would be remiss not to add the Jungle Cruise to today’s E ticket. Not only was it a marquee feature when Disneyland opened its gates to the public in 1955, but it immerses guests in natural splendor that’s hard to spot elsewhere in the park – according to Disneyland historian Chris Strodder, it boasts over 700 trees and 40 species of plants from six continents.
That leaves us with one final E ticket attraction: Pirates of the Caribbean. Like several others on this list, Pirates of the Caribbean was once hailed as an E ticket ride, and it’s not difficult to see why. It may not make the grade as a thrill ride (unless you aren’t expecting the initial drop into pirate-infested waters), but the sheer number and complexity of animatronics and the way the ride continues to improve and grow with advanced technology makes it a can’t-miss attraction.
Today’s E ticket lineup
Image: HarshLight, Flickr (license)
With a healthy blend of thrill rides and Disney classics, a modern-day E ticket might look something like this:
- Disneyland Railroad
- Jungle Cruise
- Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Haunted Mansion
- Splash Mountain
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Matterhorn Bobsleds
- Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
- Space Mountain
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
Taking the rate of inflation into account, a modern-day E ticket would come out to… well, just around $4.25 per ticket, or $46.75 to experience all 11 attractions. That’s undoubtedly cheaper than the all-inclusive admission today’s guests have to shell out, but not nearly as good of a bargain – especially for those who want a second (or third) spin on Space Mountain.
What would your ideal E ticket look like? Would you swap out Big Thunder Mountain Railroad for Fantasmic! or the Disneyland Railroad for “it’s a small world”? Sound off in the comments below!
