In order to make vacations more customizable, Walt Disney World has come out with a new ticket program that applies to all guests and starts on Jan. 2 2005. Previously, there were basically two multi day ticket options...the park hopper, and the park hopper plus. The park hopper ticket allowed you to enter any of the four major parks (Magic Kingdom, MGM, Animal Kingdom, or EPCOT) on each day of use, as many times as you want...so you could go to one park in the morning, another park in the afternoon, another int he evening etc. The Park Hopper Plus also included options to go to the water parks and Pleasure Island. All tickets never expire.
The new ticket program, called "Magic Your Way" was planned to give guests more options when buying their tickets. First, there is a base price multi-day ticket. If you just buy the base price ticket, it entitiles you to entry into one park per day of the multi day tickets. If you want park hopping, you pay to get the park hopping feature. If you want plus options (like water parks) you pay a fee to add that feature. These tickets expire 14 days after first use, unless you add on the "no expiration" option, which again adds another fee.
Although all these fees sound like alot, the base ticket is lower than the old park hopper ticket. The longer you stay, the more money you save. In fact, kevin yee of www.miceage.com printed a cost comparison that shows that if you purchase a 7 day ticket with all options, it is actually $1 cheaper then the 2004 ticket! However, if you purchase a 4 day ticket the price is 28$ more then the comparable 2004 ticket.
As you can see from the following chart (taken from www.mousesavers.com) the first few days on the base price are significantly more, but the lonfer you stay, the less the increase...with the 7 day ticket being only a few dollars more than the 6 day ticket!
My only complaint is that the tickets expire now. I guess it makes sense with the new prices (why wouldn't you pay a bit more to double the length of your tickets?) and you can add no expiration as an option, but that is one of the few options that cost more as the number of days of the base ticket increases.
ANyway, here is the info from mouse savers. Check out teh website, www.mousesavers.com for more info.
Magic Your Way Base Ticket
(gate price for admission to one theme park per day, including tax)
# Days Adult (ages 10 and up) Child (ages 3-9)
1 $63.63 $51.12
2 $126.74 $102.24
3 $182.12 $145.91
4 $197.03 $157.62
5 $205.55 $165.08
6 $208.74 $167.21
7 $211.94 $170.40
10 $222.59 $177.86
Add-on purchases to the base ticket include:
Park Hopper Option - Adding the Park-Hopper Option lets you come and go as you please through all four Disney theme parks on the same day or every day for each day of your pass. Extra cost on top of the base-price ticket is a flat rate of $35 ($37.28 with tax). This works out to just over $5 per day on a seven-day ticket, but obviously it adds a lot proportionally to the cost of a one-day ticket.
Magic Plus Pack - This option provides the choice of admission to Disney’s Blizzard Beach water park, Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon water park, DisneyQuest, Downtown Disney Pleasure Island or Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex. Extra cost on top of the base-price ticket is a flat rate of $45 ($47.93 with tax). You get a set number of visits to the Magic Plus Pack attractions, depending on the length of the ticket you buy. The flat rate gives you:
1-day ticket - 2 visits
2-day ticket - 2 visits
3-day ticket - 2 visits
4-day ticket - 3 visits
5-day ticket - 3 visits
6-day ticket - 4 visits
7-day ticket - 5 visits
10-day ticket - 5 visits
As you can see, there is a big incentive to buy the longer passes, so that you'll get more "pluses" for your money. If you will be visiting the water parks and/or DisneyQuest at least twice, this add-on is definitely a good deal.
Magic Your Way Premium Ticket - This ticket combines the benefits of the Park Hopper option and the Magic Plus Pack option. Extra cost on top of the base-price ticket is a flat rate of $80 ($85.20 with tax).
No Expiration Option - Regular Magic Your Way Tickets expire 14 days after their first use. Choosing the No Expiration option means you are free to come back and take advantage of unused days at any time. Extra cost on top of the base-price ticket is:
2-day ticket - $10
3-day ticket - $10
4-day ticket - $15
5-day ticket - $35
6-day ticket - $45
7-day ticket - $55
10-day ticket - $100
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Happy Holidays
Hi all! I hope that your Christmas and New Years are going well! My break is flying by. i don't want to go back to school yet, and I still have 4 days (only 4 days???) Life is grand right now with no worries...no immediate worries that it (although there is a little nagging voice in the back of my head saying..."you need to start your research...you need to plan your wedding..." although we have done some wedding stuff.
We have our honeymoon planned and pretty much booked (Thanks to Grant). We are going to spend two nights at the Grand Californian (our wedding night and the next night, so that we can actually see the hotel and go to Disneyland and relax a bit before we rush off on the plane...
Then we are going to fly to Orlando and spend three days at Disney World. (Our way of incorporating one of our favorite destination spots into our honeymoon...something old, right?) Next, we are flying to Puerto Rico and spending 2 days there before leaving on a southern carribean cruise. After the cruise, we are going to spend 6 nights on St. Croix, at a cute little cottage on the beach...how exciting and awesome is that?
Other things we did on our break...we spent 4 days in Laughlin, which was actually quite nice. We had fun, but I ddin't win anything. I think Grant broke even. Christmas eve was spent looking at Christmas Lights and spending time with family. On Christmas Day, we went over to Grant's parents house, and spent another family day together. (do you know how wonderful it is to have my parents and Grant's parents as friends?)
I hope that your holidays are going well...that they are relaxing, peaceful, and full of love. Happy Holidays!
We have our honeymoon planned and pretty much booked (Thanks to Grant). We are going to spend two nights at the Grand Californian (our wedding night and the next night, so that we can actually see the hotel and go to Disneyland and relax a bit before we rush off on the plane...
Then we are going to fly to Orlando and spend three days at Disney World. (Our way of incorporating one of our favorite destination spots into our honeymoon...something old, right?) Next, we are flying to Puerto Rico and spending 2 days there before leaving on a southern carribean cruise. After the cruise, we are going to spend 6 nights on St. Croix, at a cute little cottage on the beach...how exciting and awesome is that?
Other things we did on our break...we spent 4 days in Laughlin, which was actually quite nice. We had fun, but I ddin't win anything. I think Grant broke even. Christmas eve was spent looking at Christmas Lights and spending time with family. On Christmas Day, we went over to Grant's parents house, and spent another family day together. (do you know how wonderful it is to have my parents and Grant's parents as friends?)
I hope that your holidays are going well...that they are relaxing, peaceful, and full of love. Happy Holidays!
Saturday, December 11, 2004
Romantic Comedies
Last night, I watched Notting Hill, and I decided to give you all a list of my favoritwe romantic comedies. They're great to watch when you are feeling pissed about your job... (o:
(Not in any particular order:)
Notting Hill - Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts...Julia plays a world famous actress, Hugh plays a regular guy from Notting Hill... almost a fairy tale in reverse, with the regular guy falling in love with the famous women (instead of the peasent girl and the prince...) two very strong characters, both bringing something different to the relationship, a fantastic tale of some intrinsic truths about true love...compromise, understanding, and honesty. Very sweet and very funny.
When Harry Met Sally - Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan - Two aquaintences, become friends. During their friendship, they learn all about each other, and begin to see each other's quirks as charms...(I love the way Harry describes Sall'y food oreringhabits later in the movie, something like, "She orders things in a way that the chef didin't even know it could be so good...) The two try for a Will and Grace type platonic relationship, except that neither is gay...so eventually, as Harry tells Sally on thier first meeting, sex does get in the way... A beautiful, funny story with a great cast...one of my all time favorites...great sound track...
The American President - Michael Douglass, Annette Benning - The story of a political lobbyist and the widowed American President...similar to Notting Hill, can they fall in love with the whole world watching? But charming in its own way. Michael Douglass plays a president who is trying desperatly to have his own life and be a popular president, a role he idealistically believes is true, while opponents of his use every trick to turn his personal life into media fodder. (I love idealists...) My only beef with this movie...I thought they had sex way too fast...they barely knew each other, hadn't spent much time together yet...I don't know...it just didin't come off as romantic...but all in all a great movie...warm and charming...great supporting cast (Michael J Fox, Martin Sheen) Again one of my favorites...
Those are a few of my favorites...sigh...
(Not in any particular order:)
Notting Hill - Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts...Julia plays a world famous actress, Hugh plays a regular guy from Notting Hill... almost a fairy tale in reverse, with the regular guy falling in love with the famous women (instead of the peasent girl and the prince...) two very strong characters, both bringing something different to the relationship, a fantastic tale of some intrinsic truths about true love...compromise, understanding, and honesty. Very sweet and very funny.
When Harry Met Sally - Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan - Two aquaintences, become friends. During their friendship, they learn all about each other, and begin to see each other's quirks as charms...(I love the way Harry describes Sall'y food oreringhabits later in the movie, something like, "She orders things in a way that the chef didin't even know it could be so good...) The two try for a Will and Grace type platonic relationship, except that neither is gay...so eventually, as Harry tells Sally on thier first meeting, sex does get in the way... A beautiful, funny story with a great cast...one of my all time favorites...great sound track...
The American President - Michael Douglass, Annette Benning - The story of a political lobbyist and the widowed American President...similar to Notting Hill, can they fall in love with the whole world watching? But charming in its own way. Michael Douglass plays a president who is trying desperatly to have his own life and be a popular president, a role he idealistically believes is true, while opponents of his use every trick to turn his personal life into media fodder. (I love idealists...) My only beef with this movie...I thought they had sex way too fast...they barely knew each other, hadn't spent much time together yet...I don't know...it just didin't come off as romantic...but all in all a great movie...warm and charming...great supporting cast (Michael J Fox, Martin Sheen) Again one of my favorites...
Those are a few of my favorites...sigh...
Education
Crikey...everytime I get on here, its for a long winded mish mash update...but really, since I am, by nature, long winded and mish mashy, I really can't be much suprised.
So, report cards are done, one more final for school, and one more week until Christmas Vacation. Wowzers. Unbelievable. Time flies. All that jazz...
I am really not liking my job. I know, you hear that all the time. But it is so dissapointing becasue I thought I would love my job. But I don't. I don't feel like I am teaching, I am reading a script. I can't do thematic units or literature circles. It is very frustrating. Let's just say that I know I can be a good teacher, but education, right now, isn't about teaching children, providing them with experiences (which everyone knows are a lot more memorable and impressionistic then everyday school lessons...think back to when you were in school...what do you remember? What left the lasting impressions. I can pretty much guarentee that those experiences, by and large,are not happening in public schools these days)
Thanks to a beuracratic educational system, National Laws trying to control schools (which are suppposed to be run state and locally), there needs to be numbers...quantitative data....unfortunatly, these are children, and no situation is ever the same, and no set of numerical data can express what true learning and understanding is taking place.
Sometimes, education has immediate effects...more often then not, the big lessons are learned far in the future, and these effects can't be measured on a written test. Unfortunatly, we are not teaching...we are preparing students to take tests.
For a positive view of this line of thinking, it gives state and national governments data, however unimportant in the large scheme of things, to work with to try to "improve" education, unfortunatly, int he wrong direction.
In the middle of the continuam, if education continumes in this manner, adults in our next generation will now how to fill out multiple choice tests, but have little experince in real world problems, critical thinking, multiple perspective thinking......
worse case senario, the government is forming education to train people to be what they want of their next genreation of citizens, not radical free thinkers who will try to change and possibly improve our world (like great thinkers in the past...Jefferson, Franklin, King...) but little lemmings trained to not think or question, but to fill out forms and tests....scary.
Well, that was much more than I had anticipated saying! I even had to go back and change the beginning of the post, becasue I had said at one point, "I am not going to get into it, but..."
Anyways, that is the tip of th ice berg of how a LOT of people are feeling about education these days. I read an article the other day that commented on the same ideas. I should find it and quote it for you. In the mean time, well, arg!
So, report cards are done, one more final for school, and one more week until Christmas Vacation. Wowzers. Unbelievable. Time flies. All that jazz...
I am really not liking my job. I know, you hear that all the time. But it is so dissapointing becasue I thought I would love my job. But I don't. I don't feel like I am teaching, I am reading a script. I can't do thematic units or literature circles. It is very frustrating. Let's just say that I know I can be a good teacher, but education, right now, isn't about teaching children, providing them with experiences (which everyone knows are a lot more memorable and impressionistic then everyday school lessons...think back to when you were in school...what do you remember? What left the lasting impressions. I can pretty much guarentee that those experiences, by and large,are not happening in public schools these days)
Thanks to a beuracratic educational system, National Laws trying to control schools (which are suppposed to be run state and locally), there needs to be numbers...quantitative data....unfortunatly, these are children, and no situation is ever the same, and no set of numerical data can express what true learning and understanding is taking place.
Sometimes, education has immediate effects...more often then not, the big lessons are learned far in the future, and these effects can't be measured on a written test. Unfortunatly, we are not teaching...we are preparing students to take tests.
For a positive view of this line of thinking, it gives state and national governments data, however unimportant in the large scheme of things, to work with to try to "improve" education, unfortunatly, int he wrong direction.
In the middle of the continuam, if education continumes in this manner, adults in our next generation will now how to fill out multiple choice tests, but have little experince in real world problems, critical thinking, multiple perspective thinking......
worse case senario, the government is forming education to train people to be what they want of their next genreation of citizens, not radical free thinkers who will try to change and possibly improve our world (like great thinkers in the past...Jefferson, Franklin, King...) but little lemmings trained to not think or question, but to fill out forms and tests....scary.
Well, that was much more than I had anticipated saying! I even had to go back and change the beginning of the post, becasue I had said at one point, "I am not going to get into it, but..."
Anyways, that is the tip of th ice berg of how a LOT of people are feeling about education these days. I read an article the other day that commented on the same ideas. I should find it and quote it for you. In the mean time, well, arg!