Hi, I'm Missa Kwonger.

And I'm Ryan Hunt.

And we co-host, Stadio, a football podcast, on the Ring of Podcast Network.

If you like soccer or football, make sure you search for Stadio, a football podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

It is Thursday, May 25th.

Memorial Day weekend, the official start of summer.

For many people, myself included, that probably means a trip to a theme park or two.

Since the parks reopened after the COVID shutdowns, attendance has been booming.

Disney this past quarter reported $2.2 billion in profit from the parks, up 20% from last year. That includes the Florida and

Anaheim resorts, plus Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. Bob Iger, the Disney CEO, is

counting on the park's revenue to fund the company's transition from linear TV to streaming,

which, as we know, is very costly and at least so far, not a very good business.

But despite a bunch of new revenue drivers at the parks, like the Genie Plus app and across-the-board

price increases, I call it price gouging, but I'm not writing the Disney press releases.

There's been some weaknesses.

Park's profit actually came in below analyst estimates at the end of last year, and both inflation

and the teetering U.S. economy have worried Disney investors, especially since before the

pandemic, the Parks Division generated as much as 45% of the company's overall profit.

That's a lot.

Just last week, Disney closed down or announced it was going to close down, the Galactic Star Cruiser, a very ambitious and very pricey Star Wars luxury hotel.

I never went.

Probably wouldn't pay a lot for that experience in a hotel.

...