Originally Posted By Route66 adventures through inner space was always a highlight for me when I was A kid. My dad really did fool me into believing that we were shrunk down to atom size. I liked that Rocket to the moon too with the NASA control center... And lastly America Sings was so great. I guess I just miss the old Tomorrowland.
Originally Posted By crapshoot <<I don't think the ticket book experience was anything special.>> Many would disagree with that statement. From the standpoint of accounting, revenue generated from ride coupons was easily tracked and correctly justified. These lines became horribly blurred in the '90's as less and less revenue from gate admission was given to attractions. It took some time to overcome the backlash from the siezing of attraction revenues to bolster other shortfall areas, but I believe that their matrix is much more evenly weighted today. The only real benefit to eliminating the ride coupons was the huge and costly infrastructure it took to operate the system. Of course, once eliminated, the system of accounting was abused and the park suffered. But from a pop culture standpoint, the "E-Ticket" was as much as a marketing windfall as anything could possibly be. Now we all gauge an attraction by arbitrary designations, such as cost of construction, technology used and the like. But that just doesn't hold the same credibility as when Disney would truly build the next "E-Ticket". Those rare and all important events defined Disneyland more than the Disney characters ever could.
Originally Posted By orangemanshow3 I would have liked to see the Lincoln experience. Lincoln was a great man in my opinion and I loved the idea that DL paid tribute to him. But my first time to the park was in 2002 (22nd bday) so I think I just missed it.
Originally Posted By DOG1 "The only real benefit to eliminating the ride coupons was the huge and costly infrastructure it took to operate the system. Of course, once eliminated, the system of accounting was abused and the park suffered." What about the "benefit" of offering a competitive pricing model that other parks were using at the time? How would accounting suffer since the attendance on every ride is still fanatically recorded every day for every hour? Was it not easy enough without a ticket scheme for Disney to decide to orignally axe both sub rides due to decreasing ridership and escalating maintenance costs? Yes, from a nostalgic point of view you lose the possible impact of launching a "new E ride" but Disney marketing folks clearly had no problem in making the openings of Indy or ToT big events (compared to the opening of such "non-E-ticket rides" such as Buzz Lightyear or Toy Story Mania). IMO the ticket system was a clever pay-as-you-go concept that made sense to Walt in the park's early years as he anticipated lots of corporate participants, unique shops and restaurants and other vendors within the park which might draw guests in strictly to enjoy those offerings as opposed to just going on rides (the concept of the Tivoli park that he so chose to emulate in Disneyland's earlier years). But as those unique offerings faded and the emphasis on the park became primarily just the rides, it made a lot more sense to offer the one-price for all from the standpoint of competition with other parks and with decreased logistical costs for collecting and selling tickets for each attraction.
Originally Posted By crapshoot <<How would accounting suffer since the attendance on every ride is still fanatically recorded every day for every hour?>> The turnstile tick no longer mattered as to what piece of the gate that attractions were granted. That became a very arbitrary number as individual attraction's value and worth also became blurred. As I recall, Subs were operating at $.85 per rider which was considered very expensive. Counter that with the original shows at the Hyperion operating at $5 per guest. A huge disparity developed and operating costs were required to be cut. That's when it was decided to shutter attractions in DL and minor entertainments in the spare park. The backlash became evident inside DL when it was later discovered that there were no longer enough attractions in operation to support the large number of guests in the park. <<. . . it made a lot more sense to offer the one-price . . .> Absolutely correct, no one is claiming otherwise. Unfortunately though, there was such a political power play happening at the time to force the spare park to succeed, that DL suffered at the hand of the management and subsequent accounting practices resulting in, if nothing else, two guests dying as a result of poor maintenance practices blamed partly on reduced budgets.
