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Just their theme parks alone must generate millions per day

I work with a guy who used to work there in the early 90s. They rake in mounds of cash every day. He told me just 1 popcorn stand is expected to pull in a minimum of 1 million dollars per year. He said they had the nicest damn popcorn carts you have ever seen. http://www.themeparkinsider.co... well you can do the math at 100 bucks a head plus incidentals...

"they're so cheap." Having seen at least 5 of these fuckup projects up and close. Lets just say you get exactly what you pay for. You pay cheap you get cheap. I had to scrap every single project. Ask them what it would cost if they have to scrap the whole project?

But the worst mental environment was at a shrill right-wing newspaper in the Midwest. I clumsily tried to write editorials, which the then-editor rarely ended up agreeing with as I stand somewhat to the left of folks like Michael Savage and Robert Bartley. (As does most of America....) The editor routinely spiked articles that might offend his buddies and insulted his staff in widely-leaked management memos that sometimes included graphic slurs. (Ah, journalism in the days before Romenesko!)

One day, after getting back a scathing set of reviews from an employee survey, the guy locked me and the other four writers from my department in a darkened room, where he harangued us for almost an hour about our "bad attitudes" and threatened us with even worse treatment unless our morale improved.

I swear, Scott Adams should have sued the guy for copyright infringement.

Recently, it seems, that the park has gotten better at security and designing rides to keep the guests safe, even the stupid ones. OTOH, people are dying because of faulty maintenance.

Rudolf told me to tell aunt bea to make him some hard sex with aligators.
So have fun, eat, and be safe, bitch.

- Mad Money G THUG

While I agree that indie news operations would cause dissonance from readers who want to stick to the familiar (if stale) old media brands, the fact that indie sites tend to offer niche news and subjective news might work in their favor over the long term.

Indymedia, for example, offers a subjective slant to political news (just as the increasingly popular Fox News does on the other side of the political spectrum). Whether it's Guerrilla News Network, The Car Place, Theme Park Insider, Consumer World or others, all such indie news sites offer solid personal journalism and community journalism often not found on institutional news sites beholden to commercial interests.

I don't see how user participation is "dangerous because common sense would dictate, somewhere along the line information will be misconstrued." That's where the Internet community's self-correction mechanism comes into play.

A conversation may be noisier, but it's much more fulfilling than a perpetual one-way lecture from the media.

-- JD Lasica

That would be Mystery Lodge. It is fairly old now, but still a good show.

http://www.themeparkinsider.com/parks/detail.cfm?A ttraction=239

You asked about making reservations online. Are you trying to save a buck, or trying to shoot for convenience?

Like many people, I've made many reservations, happily and without problem I might add, using Travelocity or travel.yahoo.com. That's a good way to save a buck or two.

If money is less of an object, and you're shooting for convenience, call up a travel agent. Pull open the yellow pages and look for "travel" in your metropolitan area. That's what I did for my honeymoon in October 2000. I conducted most of my business over the phone and through e-mail with my agent (contrary to what most services tell you, the agents get kick backs roughly equal to what yahoo or travelocity do), and only had to go to the office to pick up the tickets. I wanted to get access to some extra services, like a premium floor at the Contemporary 2 at DisneyWorld (I couldn't figure out how to do that over the web 2.5 years ago). But calling up and talking to a travel agent helped me get flight arrangements, park tickets at a discount, and set up a private car so we didn't have to hunt down a taxi to take us to and from the hotel.

Yes, you might possibly be able to save a few bucks, or use this novel "Internet" to help you make all the decisions yourself. Or, a travel agent who does this kind of thing professionally may be able to help you out and find you options you didn't know you had. Maybe you pay the same. Maybe you pay more, but get better accomodations.

Choose carefully. Your bride will remember this experience well -- and tell her friends about it. Heck, you probably will, too.

Oh, and Disney World was great. If you go, go first to Epcot Center's gift store and let it slip that you're on your honeymoon. They used to give out bride and groom mouse ears. Once you have those, you get to the front of LOTS of lines. And October is a very temperate, less busy time of year to go.

I wish you many happy years.

You bring up an interesting point. As one could expect, an injury/death in a theme park is the absolute worst thing for business possible. While a lot of people think theme parks are safe, and they are (to an extent), there is a lot more going on then they might not know about. I'm pretty sure every park basically wants a NDA from anyone who got hurt on a ride.

So, we are reduced to the employees (myself included, I work at a Canadian theme park) and rebellious victims to give us any information. Try this site if you want to see more or don't believe me.

Just something to watch out for.

And to think I was born the day Ol' Walt opened the place: 7/17/55. My first time in California, all I wanted to do was spend the day; I was 18 :).

FYI - Frink said that in episode 2F01 "Itchy and Scratchy Land" (aired 02-Oct-94).

More recently, Disney's California Adventure was referenced in episode EABF01 "The Great Louse Detective" aired 15-Dec-02. I found this summary online:

"The Simpsons head into a maximum-security prison to meet Sideshow Bob. Marge, eyeing all the murderers on Death Row wonders aloud whether they should have brought the kids to such a horrible place. Lisa ... pipes up with, 'Well, it's better than Disney's California Adventure.' And the rest of the family starts complaining about the park." source

Contribute to the accident watch at this site

Yes, it sucks that they are trying to charge for it. But that's Six Flags for you. Always doing stuff on the cheap. I'd love to see a better company, like Universal, Disney or Busch, incorporate this technology. Still, I'd pay a few bucks for the child-locating feature.

One pet peeve: It's always frustrating to see reporters blow simple facts in a story. The is no "Little Mermaid" ride at Universal, since "The Little Mermaid" is a Disney property. Makes you wonder what other "facts" the reporter got wrong. Grrrr.

I'm sure someone who actually knows about this stuff has looked into the possibily of such a launch system. but I'd be interested in any pointers to discussions of such a system.

It's not wait times. But it is at least wireless ride ratings and reviews.

It's a volunteer effort to collect theme park accident reports, in database format. (Why? Well, the big boys, like Disney, paid Congress to write a loophole in federal law that prevents the feds from collecting this kind of data.)

"Accident Watch" also has tips and discussion on staying safe on amusement park rides.

I'll probably enter this site anyway, but since the threat of layoffs at day job hangs over my head (despite the fact that the century-old company I work for is very profitable), not having to pay the hundred bucks would certainly help my bank balance.