By The Numbers: The Surprising Number of E-Ticket Attractions at Each Disney Park

They are the Holy Grail of theme park attractions – astounding, breathtaking, spectacular rides both classic and modern. When you imagine the most amazing experiences at Disney and Universal parks, it’s probably E-Ticket attractions you picture: the coveted, beloved, fan-favorite, larger-than-life masterpiece rides that command spectacular crowds and engage generations. 

Here at Park Lore, we took a global tour of Disney and Universal parks in our Ride Count Countdown to explore the number of rides each park – and ultimately, resort – offered (with some major surprises along the way). We’ve also explored the parks “By the Numbers” with specific counts of how many dark rides and Opening Day Originals each park offers! But how would our rankings change if we instead looked only at the so-called “E-Ticket” headliners?

Today, we’ll count down from the parks with the fewest anchor attractions to those with the most to explore how these headlining rides make (or sometimes, break) a park’s reputation and tourism. But first, we need to set a definition for ourselves. So… 

What is an E-Ticket?

When Disneyland opened in 1955, admission was $1.00.

But wait – that dollar entry fee was exactly that: admission only. If you cared to experience any of the rides or attractions within, that would cost you. Like many amusement parks of the era, each of Disneyland’s rides carried its own admission fee, albeit paid through the exchange of a “ticket.” For opening year audiences, a “ticket book” would cost an additional $2.25 – about $22 today. Within, guests would receive eight vouchers: a mix of A-, B- and C-tickets, with C-tickets necessary for the most impressive attractions, like Jungle Cruise).

The very next year, the elusive D-Ticket was introduced, with Jungle Cruise promoted to the new, higher-cost, lower-availability designation.

Then, in 1959, it happened. In a massive expansion advertised and televised as a Grand Re-Opening of Disneyland, Walt introduced the world to three attractions so grand, there was simply no way around it: a new ticket was needed. Those three Tomorrowland anchors – Matterhorn Bobsleds, the Monorail, and Submarine Voyage – were the first three “E-Tickets,” requiring the most expensive and elite ride ticket yet (with the Jungle Cruise yet again promoted alongside them to become an E-Ticket itself).

In 1982, individual ride tickets were retired entirely in favor of the pay-one-price admission arrangement we know now. And therein lies the challenge. How do we know if something would require an “E-Ticket” today? For the purposes of deciding how many anchor attractions each park has, we’ll need to set up a definition of what being an E-Ticket today means! While we’ll have to be at least a little subjective in our evaluation, we’ll think of it as an E-Ticket needing to have at least two of these three qualifiers:

• A novel and extraordinary ride system
• An ambitious and spectacular scale
• An exceptionally renowned, historic, or sought-after experience

With those loose qualifications, let the tour begin…

12. Walt Disney Studios Park

1. Avengers Assemble: Flight Force
2. Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy
3. Spider-Man WEB Adventure
4. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Not yet considered: Unnamed Frozen attraction

It’s alright to be depressed when looking at the E-Ticket offerings of the smallest Disney Park on Earth. The subject of a full, in-depth Declassified Disaster: Walt Disney Studios write-up, our tour through the pathetic and under-built second gate at Disneyland Paris at its 2002 opening revealed just how bad this “backlot”-style studio park really was.

Back then, it had only three rides at all: Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, a pointless Studio Tour, and a Magic Carpets spinner ride. A handful of “Band-Aid” attractions in the two decades since has helped, but the future is riding on a multi-phase expansion set. So far, the Avengers Campus is the only piece of that that’s come online, with a Frozen land under construction and plenty of expansion space left after. In the meantime, the park’s been in hibernation with barely anything to offer, much less any true stars.

E-TICKET AWARD: The first step in the park’s pivot away from barren backlot, the Modern Marvel: Ratatouille – L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy fused Disney’s renowned trackless ride tech with multimedia screens. The end result is a ride that doesn’t quite live up to the hopes fans had. If it weren’t for its technological trappings, Ratatouille’s ride experience is probably more of a D-Ticket than a true, headlining E-Ticket. But in Walt Disney Studios’ sparse lineup, it’s a welcome ride, and probably remains a truer, anchoring headliner than either of the Avengers Campus attractions.

11. Disney’s Animal Kingdom

1. AVATAR Flight of Passage
2. Dinosaur
3. Expedition Everest
4. Festival of the Lion King
5. Kilimanjaro Safaris

When Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened in 1998, it offered just four rides – including two whose primary purpose was transportation across the enormous park. Expansions since have added a handful of rides from large-scale thrills to family flat rides, like Kali River Rapids and the Declassified Disaster: Chester and Hester’s Dino-rama. That makes Animal Kingdom a park of very few actual rides, but with most of its collection made of headliners.

E-TICKET AWARD: Frankly, three E-Tickets are in the running here. Subject of a standalone feature, the Modern Marvel: Expedition Everest takes a familiar experience (a roller coaster) and transforms it into something next level. Kilimanjaro Safaris is perhaps the park’s thesis ride, getting guests up close to the wonders of nature. But the spectacular AVATAR Flight of Passage serves as a spectacular 21st century simulator fusing some of Disney’s greatest tricks into an emotional, awe-inspiring journey.

THE WEAK LINK: In our in-depth look at Animal Kingdom’s DINOSAUR, we didn’t know whether to rank the ride among our Lost Legends, Modern Marvels, or Declassified Disasters series… Spectacularly fun but notoriously uneven (and way too scary for most kids), the ride is such an oddball that it’s wild to imagine that when the park opened in 1998, Dinosaur was one of only two actual rides. Twenty years after opening, Dinosaur looks a little dusty…

10. Hong Kong Disneyland

1. Big Grizzly Mountain
2. Frozen Ever After
3. Iron Man Experience
4. Mystic Manor
5. Space Mountain

Hong Kong Disneyland’s 2005 opening signaled the end of the penny-pinching era of the mid-90s and early 2000s – the same time period that produced Walt Disney Studios. When it opened, the park was almost laughably small, borrowing from Disneyland in most every area (including a carbon copy of the itty bitty castle) except one: ride count. Hong Kong Disneyland opened with no Pirates. No “small world.” No Peter Pan’s Flight. No Big Thunder Mountain. No Haunted Mansion. A multi-year expansion opened three Hong Kong exclusive mini-lands, and a continuing evolution developed Stark Expo, an expanded castle, and a new Fantasyland expansion centered around Frozen.

E-TICKET AWARD: This one’s easy. It must be the Modern Marvel: Mystic Manor. Set in the expanded “mythology” of Disney’s S.E.A. – The Society of Explorers and Adventurers, this epic dark ride doesn’t just introduce some of the coolest characters created just for Disney Parks; it’s also a astounding “spiritual sequel” to the Haunted Mansion and one of the world’s best trackless dark rides, sending guests on a spectacular adventure through a museum collection brought to life.

THE WEAK LINK: Among its standout E-Tickets, the weakest link has to be Space Mountain if only because it’s the least ambitious. A carbon copy of Disneyland’s (which was rebuilt the same year, 2005, for the Anaheim park’s 50th anniversary), the ride is spectacular fun… but ultimately, each of the other three E-Tickets at Hong Kong Disneyland is exclusive to the park.

9. EPCOT

1. Frozen Ever After
2. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
3. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
4. Soarin’
5. Test Track Presented by Chevrolet

Since 1982, there doesn’t seem to be a single year that Epcot has been at rest. From its origins as a grand, intellectual, ambitious, permanent World’s Fair showcasing the wonders of human innovation and industry, the park has grown and shrunk in fits and starts to its current form. Today, it’s a mish-mash of brainy concepts, brainless thrills, character invasions, and attempts to downplay (then later, exaggerate) its very-’80s origins. The latest round of reimagining at least positions the park to have an identity once again, even if it lacks the cohesion and intentionality of old.

Just glancing at EPCOT’s E-Ticket list is a good indicator of the park’s identity… or lack thereof. A mix of Disney + Pixar + Marvel that would fit as well in Hollywood Studios or Magic Kingdom, only Test Track hints at the park’s technological, industrial, semi-scientific origins.

E-TICKET AWARD: Though fans will forever discuss its place in EPCOT’s ever-evolving contexts, there’s no doubt that the park’s now-signature experience must be Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind – the long-awaited and much-debated replacement for the Lost Legend: Universe of Energy. As in their rock ‘n’ roll takeover of California Adventure’s Lost Legend: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Marvel’s “irreverent” superhero team doesn’t bother making too much of an effort to conform to the standards of EPCOT. But also like their West Coast ride, you can’t really argue with the results: an insanely fun, musical, spinning family coaster that includes a backwards launch to the Big Bang.

THE WEAK LINK: Unfortunately, EPCOT has several “weak links” among its uneven lineup, including Mission: SPACE, the so-bad-it’s-good Gran Fiesta Tour, and the unfortunate Journey into Imagination With Figment. Of the E-Tickets, though, the weak link would have to be Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. Though we dedicated a whole feature to the ride – and though its headlining family capacity is much-needed – there’s no doubt that the ride feels little regressive for a 2021 addition, especially compared to the much more modern trackless dark rides at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.