A movie is $7.50 and gets you 90 minutes (maybe two hours) of entertainment.
Go to a traveling Broadway show? Expect to lay down $45 for bad seats.
Basketball game, anyone?
Rent JetSkis?
Go downhill skiing? Golf? (Disney may be $50 a day - but 18 holes on their golf course set me back $135 - the theme parks suddenly look like a bargain!)
Theme parks are priced right for the entertainment value provided. Sure there are lots of entertainment that can be had for free (frisbee in the park with friends, a hike), but most entertainment that you pay for is really very expensive.
(But the best entertainment value for your dollar is still a good book)
The specific holidays that are the best days to go ( to the non-Florida parks, anyway) are Memorial Day and Labor Day. Just the actual day of the the holiday, not the whole weekend. Apparently, a fair amount of people travel some distance,stay a night or two and leave for home on the holiday itself. The Sat and Sun of those 3 day weekends are crowded. I can easily believe long lines in Florida during Easter week and between Christmas and New Years, but are the lines long on Easter or Christmas itself?
Bah. $40+ to stand in line for 2 hours at a time to ride a 2 minute coaster? What value? I don’t think so.
There are still bargains out there. Come to Kennywood near Pittsburgh! One world class steel coaster and 3 world class wooden coasters and tons of traditional rides. Granted, it’s more of a traditional amusement park than a “theme park” but it’s a bargain at less than $20 on weekdays. They also have general admission still where you buy tickets for rides.
Sure, I think they’re worth it. People complain about long lines, but those can be avoided by going during the “off-season” (not summer, not holidays), on light rain days, and during the week. I LOVE roller coasters, and work them in to every vacation I go on. Sure, it’s only a 2-3 minute ride after a 15-120 minute wait, but it’s a really thrilling 2-3 minute ride. “Floating” down the drops weightless, being flipped upside down 100 feet in the air… that doesn’t happen at a movie theater. And there are good reasons for the seem-to-be-high prices. Those coasters don’t come cheap - $10 million will get you a small one. Plus parks need to pay for all the workers, advertising, maintenance, etc. And on top of that they need to make a profit.