News and notes from around the interweb:
- Disney theme park visits down, maybe the price has gotten too high? When I go with my daughter, the two most common t-shirts are (1) families in matching shirts, “[X] Family Takes Disney [Year]” and (2) Dads wearing N.W.A.-styled “Straight Outta Cash”.
- Claims that people are showing up at the wrong airport thanks to Oakland’s name change
- LAX drops plan to add 12 new gates “The deferred funds will free up spending on some projects in the design and planning stage, such as a goal to renumber gates and terminals.” Wut.
- After relieving Pakistan International Airlines of $2.2 billion in debt, the government plans to sell a $2.2 billion stake in the carrier with the buyer assuming “responsibility for around PKR220 billion (USD789 million) in liabilities and be required to inject PKR80 billion USD287 million) in the first twelve months, representing over half of the USD500 million required to be invested over the first three years.”
- U.S. Air Force flight attendant developing meal options, shopping for ingredients, and cooking on board. I guess this is one area where the government clearly out-performs the U.S. private sector.
- From Jersey Shore to an American Airlines A321. Ain’t no GTL.
Spotted: RJC National Chairman Sen. Norm Coleman sitting next to Pauly D on a flight heading back to DC from the RJC Leadership Summit pic.twitter.com/JLcIlnkI3U
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) September 6, 2024
LAX gates are already too many . LAX ought to have built a new airport in Palmdale or Bakersfield .
There’s no money left, they’ve promised it to all of the illegal immigrants. I’m sorry, “undocumented visitors”.
@James N
Actually it was given as tax breaks to billionaires that you continue to suck up to.
OAK need to provide free, on demand helicopter service for wayward passengers so they can get to OAK on time for their flights. Take the money out of the budget for the people who voted for the name change.
There is already an airport in Palmdale. Several reasons it never became a major airport is that it is a long way from the most populated areas and the hot weather of summer reduces lifting capacity of airplanes. LAX is well situated but is on a relatively small piece of land for a major international airport. Being close to the beach provides weather that allows standard lifting capacity even if the area near downtown gets over 100 Fahrenheit. El Toro in Orange county would have been a better choice for a new airport. With the Olympics coming up, I wonder if the dropping of the planned gates is a political move to get more funding.
Frassix you rule. Great story.
In the Norm Coleman/Pauly D photo, they are not on an A321, they appear to be on a 737. (look at the design of the windows)
I’ve been to Disney over 30 times but frankly I’m no longer a fan. The total cost for a trip is simply eye watering. If Disney actually had lowered the number of daily visitors by half while jacking up prices in such an awful fashion then at least you could argue that the visitor was getting something in return besides an empty wallet. Instead you get to wait in lines that are worse than ever.
And let’s not forget our friends at Universal. A line jumper entry ticket for a day for both parks and the Hogwarts Express can set you back $400. Each. For one day. Enough said.
At both parks you also get plenty of ancillary expenses like parking, overpriced food, and the odd souvenir. Of course none of this figures in getting to Orlando, car rental, and hotel. Add these all together and you have prices akin to a week in Europe. If that’s what Disney and Universal want then good for them I guess but my visits will be few and far between.
Wileydog advances one of the more ridiculous arguments and thereby proves his ignorance. “Tax breaks” are not a giveaway, they allow people to keep more of their earnings.
I live fairly close to Disneyland (for more than four decades) but I have never went there. High prices, traffic and crowds just don’t do it for me. Plenty of traffic and crowds elsewhere that don’t add high prices on top.
Been to Disneyland, Disneyworld and EuroDisney over the years. They have their charm to some extent, despite the expenses.
For the California and (even more so for the) Florida parks, it used to be the biggest expense was the accommodation and food for our trips to the parks. Now it’s the expense of the tickets and everything else related to park access and being at the park that adds up so very fast and a lot to visit the California and Florida Disney parks. While the ski trips across the country have also become a lot more expensive, I would find better value out of the money for two weeks of a very good ski vacation than 3-4 days at Disney parks in the country.
In my youth, Disney World was the place to go!!! Went the period between Thanksgiving and Xmas when the attendance is at its lowest and rode Magic Mountain 3x in 20 minutes. As I aged, it has minimal attraction to me, especially as the price of admission & parking has ballooned thru the years.
Now days, rather spend my time on a Florida beach sucking on a cocktail in good company!!
Disney World was never cheap but it has gotten totally out of hand. We took our kids and grandkids ( 6 adults and 3 under 5) for 4 days and despite 5 of the 9 of us being Florida residents giving us a 30% discount on the package the tab for 4 days was almost 20k. That is without the extras such as character breakfasts. That is beyond insanity. I will not be running back.
The sad part is that Disney has priced itself out of the middle class.
The only way I managed to tolerate Disney was when my parents lived in Orlando. They got annual tickets for the family and when visiting we could pop over for a couple hours every day and not make it a nightmare. Any other way and I won’t be there. $1000 bucks a day in tickets/parking/food in order to stay in line for 90% of the day to get on a 2 minute ride…uh…imho people are nuts. I’d like to see Star Wars, but it’s going to stay on my to-do list.
anyone who thinks that inflation is the cause of Disney’s high prices… Go look at how profitable they were in 2023. Sorry, but if you’re driving some serious profits you can’t tell me it’s inflation. It’s corporate greed.
I live down the road from Disney land and I refuse to go and contribute outrageous prices to a greedy corporation who has no interest in coming back down to earth on prices.
Happiest place on earth my ass.
Great story