Walt Disney World announced a price increase for the first time ever breaking the eighty dollar mark at ANY of its numerous theme parks. August typically is the month for price increases and usually Universal and Sea World will match Disney’s price increase. It’s too late to buy tickets at the old pricing, however, if you are planning a trip to Universal or Sea World, buy your tickets now before they raise their prices (it may already be too late). Disney not only increased its one day ticket but also multiple day tickets, upgrades to tickets and even its most popular ticket the Five Day Disney Your Way ticket. Package plans including lodging and tickets prices have also been increased.

With the new price increase perhaps they will be able to fix Animal Kingdom’s most popular ride Expedition Everest. There has been a problem with Disney’s most sophisticated animatronics; its twenty-five foot Yeti. No longer does it scare the pants off Animal Kingdom visitors, because it’s now a stationary figure lit with strobe lights (or as the Orlando Sentinel called it “Disco Yeti”). What a shame that this marvel of Disney’s parks is reduced to this from the original animatronics sensation which swooped in on guests as they passed Yeti on the ride.

Kudos to Disney’s Animal Kingdom as its marine biologists rush to save sea turtles drenched in oil from the world’s largest oil spill. Sea World also is taking part in one of the largest life saving operation of marine animals in history. British Petroleum’s deep water rig that caused this enormous catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico has stopped leaking oil and the final solution to this manmade disaster is within sight.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people in the gulf region dealing with this horrible accident and will be dealing with it for years to come. The chemical disbursements, though ripped by many seem to have had a limiting affect on the scope of the disaster. Skimmers for the past week have had difficulty locating oil on the surface and now dive teams are searching for oil under water. These initial reports, although promising, are surely not the end of the clean up in the gulf region. Wetlands and marshes in New Orleans have suffered devastating effects from oil drenching them. A message to BP – although new oil flow has been stopped spewing out of your damaged rig, you must deal with the damage to the gulfs’  ecosystem as well. Here in Florida we are fortunate as the worst of the oil spill never made it to most Florida beaches. If you’re considering a beach vacation soon, Florida’s beaches are open for business and beautiful with great deals to boot!