Disneyland discounts
Disneyland is offering deep discounts on kids’ tickets and hotel stays in early 2025, as the Anaheim, Calif., theme park prepares to open Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and gears up for an anticipated annual ticket price increase. Disneyland and Disney California Adventure will offer kids’ tickets for as little as $50 good for one-day, one-park visits from Jan. 7-March 20. Kids’ tickets typically cost $98 to $183. The limited-time sale begins on Oct. 22 for children ages 3 through 9. Kids’ discounts are also available on two-day tickets at $100 and three-day tickets at $150 during the same dates. The Disneyland Hotel, Disney’s Grand Californian and Pixar Place are offering booking discounts of up to 25% on four-night stays or longer during the same period.
Orange County Register
Ozarks horror
The horror- and thriller-focused Nightmare in the Ozarks Film Festival takes place Oct. 24-26 in Eureka Springs, Ark., an LGBTQ-friendly town famous for Victorian architecture and that even the local tourism office promotes as being haunted. “He Sees You When You’re Sleeping,” a new killer-Santa slasher film, and “The Invisible Raptor,” a dinosaur-gone-wild action thriller, are among the new films to be shown on a 26-foot screen at downtown’s grand City Auditorium, known as the Aud. The festival ends with the Eureka Springs Zombie Crawl, one of the largest zombie parades in the world. That day you can also learn the zombie dance from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video and stuff your face in a gross-out brain-eating contest. (Sorry, actual zombies: It’s gelatin.)
New York Times
Passport waits shorten
The wait for a U.S. passport has gotten shorter — again. The State Department announced that the processing time for passports is now four to six weeks, down from six to eight weeks. Expedited processing, which costs an extra $60, will continue to take two to three weeks. That new time window is a steep drop from pandemic-related waits in 2021, when officials warned that it could take 12 to 18 weeks. Since then, times have dropped bit by bit; in early 2023, routine processing took 10 to 13 weeks. The current waits — which do not include mailing times — are the same whether people apply by paper or online. Last month, the State Department also said its online passport renewal system was “fully available to the public.”
Washington Post
Expedia goes reef-positive
Expedia is embarking on a new partnership to help protect Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef by educating travelers about reef-friendly behavior. The travel site is joining forces with Tourism Tropical North Queensland for the effort, centered around a website called Guardian of the Reef, promoting “reef-positive travel.” As website visitors complete each learning module, they earn coupons for Expedia bookings. Upon finishing all modules, participants are entered to win a trip to the Great Barrier Reef and can unlock exclusive experiences, ranging from a stay in Australia’s first underwater accommodation, Reefstay with Cruise Whitsundays, to a private guided snorkel safari (expedia.com/see/guardian-of-the-reef).
TravelPulse
