This one is less a thought about Disneyland and more a thought about
the Disneyland/Disney theme parks fandom. Apologizing in advance if
it gets a little ranty.
I keep seeing Disneyland fans demand more “E-tickets.” No major
change at the park—at any park—is considered complete without
one. People like to speculate about what “lesser” attractions
they would sacrifice in order to have more rides with this coveted
top-tier status, and how feasible the replacement would actually be.
And of course when it comes to imagining future developments,
existing E-tickets are considered sacrosanct, while anything else is
up for grabs, automatically considered expendable. To hear some tell
it, the park would be better if it consisted of nothing but
E-ticket rides.
I strenuously disagree, of course. The main reason, with which many
others will concur, is that there's a lot more to Disneyland than
just its flashiest, most popular rides. The attractions not
usually considered E's are vital for pacing one's day and maintaining
the park's signature family atmosphere, as well as often being highly
enjoyable in their own right.
But there's another reason I wish my fellow fans would stop their
single-minded fixation on “E-tickets.” To be blunt...the term
doesn't mean anything. Not concretely. At best, it's used as
shorthand for any of several concepts, none of which really holds up
under scrutiny.
Here, let me go over them...
