This is a kind of "what if" scenario for Disneyland. These days, we pay a flat ticket rate to enter the parks, which means we can access the rides and attractions whenever and as much as we want.
However, Disney fans may or may not know of a time when guests would use special ticket books to gain access to the attractions:
They were used from 1955 until 1982. There was only a limited number of them, which meant you would need to buy more ticket books if you wanted to experience more. There were five levels of such, from A tickets, which cost ten cents and were used for the smallest/least popular attractions, up through the legendary E tickets (introduced in 1959), which cost a whopping 85 cents and was used for the biggest/most iconic attractions. Here is a shot of an E ticket, circa 1977, the year Space Mountain opened at Disneyland:
It was used at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom when it opened in 1971 and even at Tokyo Disneyland when that opened in 1983, even though Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom had since given up their pay-per system.
It's a wise move to abandon the A-E ticket book structure, as it seemed unfairly imbalanced, meaning that the A tickets in particular were probably never used, whereas the E tickets were blown through countless times over. Through the years, numerous attractions at the parks were given up- or downgrades from one ticket level to another.
In any case, I sometimes wonder how the ticket book structure would look at Disneyland in particular if it was used today. The above video talks about WDW's Magic Kingdom's hypothetical ticket books, so this is about Disneyland.
For this format, I will be using the 1980 Disneyland guide book for reference, which can be found here: http://vintagedisneylandtickets.blogspot.com/2008/02/complete-guide-books.html. I tried to retain the original A-E structure as in the past. In the past, as I said, the attractions were never really limited to any one label over the years. Sometimes a D-ticket ride would get promoted to an E, or vice-versa. Also, some attractions, like Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln, were free, meaning one could access that without paying a ticket.
For the most part, an E ticket was used for the most popular/newest/most expensive rides, even for something like the Jungle Cruise mainly due to its popularity, while Mr. Toad's Wild Ride would use a C ticket because it was less technologically advanced.
This list below shows, based off of information I found elsewhere (including Fastpass), how the A-E structure would look today (it will also include the soon-to-be-open Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge):
FREE:
The Disney Gallery
Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln
Donald's Boat
Goofy's Playhouse
Chip 'n' Dale's Treehouse
A:
Main Street Cinema
Main Street Vehicles
Tarzan's Treehouse
Frontierland Shootin' Gallery
Pirate's Lair On Tom Sawyer Island
Sleeping Beauty Castle
B:
Disneyland Railroad
Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Casey Jr. Circus Train
King Arthur Carrousel
Storybook Land Canal Boats
Monorail
C:
Mark Twain Riverboat
Columbia
Alice In Wonderland
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Mad Tea Party
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
Pinocchio's Daring Journey
Snow White's Scary Adventures
Astro Orbiter
Autopia
D:
Enchanted Tiki Room
Jungle Cruise
It's a Small World
Peter Pan's Flight
Gadget's Go Coaster
Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
E:
Indiana Jones Adventure
Haunted Mansion
Pirates of the Caribbean
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Splash Mountain
Matterhorn
Space Mountain
Star Tours
Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run
Rise of the Resistance
Based off the 1980 guidebook, it would seem that mostly it was the mountains, Pirates and Haunted Mansion that remained the same E tickets now as then. Some other attractions remain the same, such as most of the dark rides, which were a C, save for Peter Pan, which is promoted to D. But most others have been demoted, even from E to lower, including Small World, the Jungle Cruise and the Tiki Room, which are now D level. However, the Monorail, another E ticket in 1980, would take a huge hit down to B. Ouch!
Anyway, it gives you a rough idea of how the ticket book structure might look today. In any case, I'm glad we don't have the ticket book structure anymore, as that would limit enjoyment of the parks, at Disneyland or anywhere else.
Mind you, the above list is just an educated guess on my part. What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree? Please post in the comments below.
