CBS News
Disney offers pricey, all-access, skip-the-line pass to a limited few
Walt Disney World and Disneyland will soon make skipping the line easier for a limited few willing to pay a hefty sum for the privilege.
The Florida and California resorts on Wednesday unveiled a Lightning Lane Premier Pass alongside the current Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass. Akin to line-jumping passes at rival theme parks, Disney’s new offering will let people into Lightning Lane attractions without having to book ahead.
The passes must be purchased along with the cost of park tickets.
Not every attraction has what Disney calls a “Lightning Lane,” meaning a faster entryway. There are 55 attractions with the quicker lanes at the four Disney World parks and 24 at the two Disneyland parks.
Disneyland
California’s Disneyland is launching its Lightning Lane Premier Pass next week, on Wednesday, October 23. There’s no advance booking ahead of that date for now, but in the future guests will be able to buy the pass up to two days before a park reservation.
Open to all customers on a first-come, first-served basis — but with very limited availability — Disneyland’s pass will include Lightning Lane access at both Disneyland and Disneyland California Adventure on the same day.
For the remainder of 2024, the tab for Disneyland’s pass runs $400 a person, per day. That includes for kids ages 3 and up, as well as adults. The passes will range from $300 to $400 in 2025, depending on the date.
Disney World
Billed as a “convenient way to save time in line,” the Lightning Lane Premier Pass allows one-time entry to each Lightning Lane experience in a theme park, starting Oct. 30, 2024, for guests staying at Disney Resorts and other Disney hotels in Florida.
Guests will be able to buy the passes up to seven days ahead of their visit, except for the launch date, for which no advance purchases are allowed. Disney World’s Lightning Lane Premier Pass will be park-specific, with prices varying depending on the park and date.
Folks can see Lightning Lane pass prices 21 days in advance on Disney World’s app. Here’s a rundown of the cost, per person, per day:
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom: $129 – $199 plus tax
- EPCOT: $169 – $249 plus tax
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $269 – $349 plus tax
- Magic Kingdom: $329 – $449 plus tax
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CBS News
McDonald’s investing $100 million to lure customers back to the fast food giant after E. coli outbreak
McDonald’s is investing $100 million to bring customers back to stores after an outbreak of E. coli food poisoning tied to onions on the fast-food giant’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers.
The investments include $65 million that will go directly to the hardest-hit franchises, the company said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that slivered onions on the Quarter Pounders were the likely source of the E. coli. Taylor Farms in California recalled onions potentially linked to the outbreak.
The E. coli outbreak has sickened 104 people in 14 states, federal health officials said in an update on Wednesday.
At least 34 people have been hospitalized, and four developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious condition that can cause kidney failure. An 88-year-old man who resided in Grand Junction, Colorado, died, as previously reported. The illnesses began at the end of September, and the most recent onset of illness occurred as of Oct. 21, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The Food and Drug Administration has said that “there does not appear to be a continued food safety concern related to this outbreak at McDonald’s restaurants.”
However, the outbreak hurt the company’s sales.
Quarter Pounders were removed from menus in several states in the early days of the outbreak.
In a statement Wednesday obtained by CBS News, McDonald’s said it had found an “alternate supplier” for the approximately 900 restaurants that had temporarily stopped serving Quarter Pounders with slivered onions.
“Over the past week, these restaurants resumed the sale of Quarter Pounder burgers with slivered onions,” McDonald’s said.
CBS News reached out to McDonald’s on Saturday for a statement regarding the reported investment.
Health officials said Saturday they have confirmed the first U.S. case of a new form of mpox that was first seen in eastern Congo.
The person had traveled to eastern Africa and was treated in Northern California upon return, according to the California Department of Public Health. Symptoms are improving and the risk to the public is low.
Mpox is a rare disease caused by infection with a virus that’s in the same family as the one that causes smallpox. It is endemic in parts of Africa, where people have been infected through bites from rodents or small animals.
Earlier this year, scientists reported the emergence of a new form of mpox in Africa that was spread through close contact including through sex.
More than 3,100 confirmed cases have been reported just since late September, according to the World Health Organization. The vast majority of them have been in three African countries – Burundi, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Since then, cases of travelers with the new mpox form have been reported in Germany, India, Kenya, Sweden, Thailand, Zimbabwe, and the United Kingdom.
Health officials earlier this month said the situation in Congo appears to be stabilizing. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated Congo needs at least 3 million mpox vaccines to stop the spread, and another 7 million vaccines for the rest of Africa.
The current outbreak is different from the 2022 global outbreak of mpox where gay and bisexual men made up the vast majority of cases.
