Price Of Admission: I love Disney. I know that it's become some sort of rite of passage in this country that you're supposed to reach an age where you see Disney as a giant, uncaring, evil corporation masquerading as a family-friendly organization while mass-producing pre-packaged wholesomeness made from parts of slaughtered dolphins.

Or something.

But I still love the company. And I particularly love Disneyland. It still accomplishes its goal--it makes you feel like you've left the real world behind for a while. If you go at the right time of year, you can still get on all the major rides by noon and spend the rest of the day enjoying the intricacies of the park, the care and details which have gone into its design.*

Ever since I was little, I've always measured the value of things in how many days at Disneyland you could get for it. This toy was half a day at Disneyland--the GI Joe aircraft carrier was almost three days at Disneyland. It's sort of my own personal gold standard.

What's it at now? I checked today, and one day of fun at the Magic Kingdom will set you back $49.75. If you live in Southern California, and you go in the winter while adults get in at the kid's price, it's $39.75.

And $39.75 is the everyday price for kids 3-10.

Which means in two weeks, when my daughter has her birthday, a day with Mickey for her and her little sister would set me back two Jacksons.

That's not counting the Grants it would take to get me and my wife in.

*- From what I understand, this is part of why Roy Disney left the company. At least publicly, he's complained that the same level of care and attention to detail is not being paid to the construction of new parks as was put into the old parks. You know--you can't spend a day finding nooks and crannies to explore and looking for hidden Mickeys at California Adventure.