theme parks

Usually, CBS's hit show Undercover Boss features an out-of-touch executive who, while in disguise as one of his own workers, learns firsthand about the hardships his employees deal with every day. But when it came to the show's latest episode, which showcased Joel Manby the Chief Executive of theme-park operator Herschend Family Entertainment, the tables turned.

Disney Parks has announced that it has met its promised goal of giving away 1 million free passes to people who donate a day of volunteering. Now that the target has been reached, the program will end. And what a massively successful program it was. As our incisive sister site Gadling pointed out,...

So Marvel just got swallowed up by Disney for $4 billion. Hey, Captain America, what are you? Some kind of super hero? That's the sort of huge payday that we used to see three or four years ago. But what about Universal Studios? It's Walt Disney World's biggest rival for the cutthroat Orlando...

If you haven't been to a Six Flags lately, you won't know that it, too, has adopted a strategy popular at airlines, hotels, and on cruises. It's charging customers extra for smoother service. The Flash Pass is the chain's for-rent gadget that grants guests the right to leap to the front of the long...

Disney's big new attraction this year? The same as the media's: Barack Obama.Walt Disney World in Orlando, hunkering down for the economic storm, is in the rare position of not having any major attractions under construction. Instead, its big summer draw, opened July 3, is the addition of President...

Some people think it's already pretty outrageous that a one-day ticket to a single Disney park will hit you for nearly $80. But when you're budgeting for your big summer vacation, you can't assume that's the end of your daily expenses when you're at a theme park. Like the airlines, the amusement...

Disney may soon be dealing with an unwanted kind of Toy Story: Legoland, the California theme park, wants to move in next to Mickey Mouse.Attractions Magazine, a unique publication that chronicles the amusement industry in Florida, started chatter among locals by reporting that residents have been...

Its TV commercials would count this as "no flags": Six Flags, which operates 20 amusement parks, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Saturday. It's been one long downhill ride for the thriller, which has been battling debt for years. The past few months have seen the park's embattled CEO, Mark Shapiro,...

We have a resolution to a problem covered on these pages a few weeks ago. Steven Goodwin's ploy to force the struggling Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach to pay him $500,000 a year plus 1.5% of revenues for the use of the name has ended with empty pockets. Rather than indulge him, the new owners of...

Profits at the Walt Disney parks tumbled by nearly a quarter in the first fiscal quarter of the year, leading the theme park giant to stanch the flow of blood by laying off staff. Keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle, Disney fans -- it's going to be a bumpy ride.