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

3. Tokyo Disneyland

1. Big Thunder Mountain
2. Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast
3. Haunted Mansion
4. Jungle Cruise: Wildlife Expeditions
5. Monsters Inc. Ride & Go Seek
6. Peter Pan’s Flight
7. Pirates of the Caribbean
8. Pooh’s Hunny Hunt
9. Splash Mountain
10. Star Tours – The Adventures Continue

Not yet considered: Space Mountain

When Tokyo Disneyland opened in 1983, it was exactly what the Japanese Oriental Land Company (who owns and operates the resort) asked for: a pretty direct copy of Disneyland and Magic Kingdom with very few modifications to account for Japanese culture. And even in the decades since, its evolution has closely aligned with its American siblings, albeit with big-budget, blue-sky versions of stateside classics. In other words, Tokyo Disneyland offers every E-Ticket in Magic Kingdom… plus three epic originals and Star Tours.

E-TICKET AWARD: Tokyo Disneyland offers three next generation E-Ticket dark rides that are unique to the resort. Pooh’s Hunny Hunt was the first trackless, LPS-powered dark ride in Disney’s catalogue and remains a standout, while the Tomorrowland set Monsters Inc.: Ride & Go Seek invites guests into a game of flashlight tag that’s easily among the best Pixar attractions on Earth. The resort’s new headliner, though, is the Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast, yet another ambitious trackless dark ride that’s the talk of the Imagineering community… but maybe not for the reasons you’d expect…

THE WEAK LINK: Again we’ll need to place Space Mountain here if only because it’s the easiest to compare to its American siblings. Like Hong Kong’s, it’s a direct clone of Disneyland’s. Unlike its two identical sisters, however, Tokyo’s lacks 21st century show elements, projection effects, and on-ride audio. Since Tokyo Disneyland was the first castle-park built with a Space Mountain baked in, it does give the ride a photogenic location at the end of Tomorrowland’s still-’70s-stylized entry corridor, but it’s just not unique enough to be a sought-after experience for Disney Parks fans.

2. Tokyo DisneySea

1. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
2. Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey
3. Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull
4. Journey to the Center of the Earth
5. Nemo & Friends SeaRider
6. Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure
7. Raging Spirits
8. Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival
9. Soaring: Fantastic Flight
10. Tower of Terror
11. Toy Story Midway Mania

Tokyo DisneySea is a bucket list destination for thousands of Imagineering fans across the globe. The incredible park opened in 2001 at an estimated cost of over $3 billion – about five times the cost of Disney’s California Adventure the same year. It’s also celebrated as the origin of a new concept: the park as the E-Ticket. Put another way, you could spend the entire day at DisneySea, ride nothing, and still feel you’d had an outstanding experience. But of course, that doesn’t mean the park doesn’t offer incredible, original attractions.

E-TICKET AWARD: Though the park famously offers two incredible dark rides connected as part of the spectacular mythology of S.E.A. – The Society of Explorers and Adventurers, the park’s anchor is easy to identify. Located inside the rumbling, 189-foot-tall Mount Prometheus volcano resides the Modern Marvel: Journey to the Center of the Earth – one of two Jules Verne literary adventure attractions at the park, and offerings one of the most amazing Audio-Animatronics on Earth.

THE WEAK LINK: Technically, probably Raging Spirits (a better-dressed clone of Disneyland Paris’ Temple of Peril.) But in this park’s stellar lineup, the weak link is more of a mis-matched link: Nemo & Friends: SeaRider, an uncharacteristically-cartoon takeover of an opening day simulator called StormRider. It’s not that StormRider was a great attraction, nor that SeaRider is a bad one… far from it! It’s that it’s oddly out-of-place in the otherwise grounded, literary park. Of course, the upcoming debut of a brand new (and enormous, Pandora-scaled) Fantasy Springs land means characters are no longer verboten at the park, so perhaps we’re being too harsh.

Ah, but as expected, we’ve come down to just three parks: the three original “castle” parks in Anaheim, Orlando, and Tokyo – the 2nd, 1st, and 3rd most visited theme parks on Earth, respectively. What order do you expect they’ll be in when it comes to E-Ticket counts?

1. Disneyland Park

1. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
2. Fantasmic!
3. Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
4. Haunted Mansion
5. Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye
6. Jungle Cruise
7. Matterhorn Bobsleds
8. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
9. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
10. Peter Pan’s Flight
11. Pirates of the Caribbean
12. Space Mountain
13. Splash Mountain
14. Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
15. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
16. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

Ah, Disneyland. Just as Walt’s little storybook park somehow manages to squeeze in more than rides any other Disney or Universal park on Earth, this minuscule little theme park – the smallest “castle” park in Disney’s arsenal – somehow packs in more certifiable E-Tickets than any other, as well. Again, that’s partly because of its 16-year head start over its next-closest sibling. But it’s also that Disneyland and Disney California Adventure share between two parks what Walt Disney World’s split between four, meaning that Disneyland offers almost all the E-Tickets of Magic Kingdom, plus most of Hollywood Studios’, and several all its own.

E-TICKET AWARD: It goes without saying that Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance would have to be the single-most ambitious ride at Disneyland, maintaining its “U-Ticket” status. But that aside, two rides really makes Disneyland unlike any other “castle” park on Earth:

• The Modern Marvel: Indiana Jones Adventure – Temple of the Forbidden Eye, a wild, off-roading E-Ticket that not only introduced the EMV technology, but is presented on a scale not seen again until Galaxy’s Edge… a highlight of Disney’s “Ride the Movies” era;
• The definitive and unparalleled original Pirates of the Caribbean, presented in its epic, unabridged, 16-minute format. It’s no accident that Disneyland’s version is often celebrated as the best classic dark ride on Earth, and known as Walt’s magnum opus.

THE WEAK LINK: Looking across the list, it might be either the historic Matterhorn Bobsleds (one of the three original E-Tickets, but now quite rough to modern audiences) or even Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run if only for its lukewarm reception, made all the worse by being the solo star of Galaxy’s Edge at the time of its opening.

Resort Report

Walt Disney World: 24 E-Tickets – 9 (MK) + 5 (EP) + 7 (DHS) + 5 (DAK) [Average: 6.5 per park]

Disneyland Resort: 19 E-Tickets – 14 (DL) + 5 (DCA) [Average: 9.5 per park]

Tokyo Disneyland: 19 E-Tickets – 10 (TDL) + 11 (TDS) [Average: 10.5 per park]

Disneyland Paris: 9 E-Tickets – 7 (DLP) + 4 (WDS) [Average: 5.5 per park]

Hong Kong Disneyland: 5 E-Tickets

Shanghai Disneyland: 7 E-Tickets

While Disneyland Park tops both our Ride Count Countdown and these per-park E-Ticket Awards, Walt Disney World sneaks away with the most certifiable E-Tickets in one resort – albeit, with one of the lower per-park E-Ticket averages. The loser-by-the-numbers continues to be Disneyland Paris, whose Walt Disney Studios park continues to drag the resort’s finances, ride count, and E-Ticket lineup… at least until it gains three or more from the expansion underway now.

Of course, we know that a park needs more than E-Tickets… a  lot more!  This list doesn’t account for unmissable, essential shows like Enchanted Tiki Room or Country Bear Jamboree; must-see entertainment; the kinds of meet-and-greets, and dining opportunities, and tucked-away walkthrough that give a park its heart and soul. In fact, by design this omits the “hidden gems” and mid-level family rides we know a park absolutely has to have!

But the numbers here tell an interesting story. Without a double, the sheer quantity of headlining anchor attractions does matter, and the pure numbers displayed here might just reveal the data behind the pride (and sometimes, embarrassment) Disney Parks fans feel about their favorite and least favorite properties.

Did we miss an obvious E-Ticket? Want to argue for or against one that we included? Let us know in the comments below if you find our E-Ticket Awards accurate. The addition or removal of even a few attractions by your request could shift this list entirely!