Business Disney World Hasn’t Felt This Empty in Years - Who knew jacking up prices to insane levels while supporting groomers was a bad business decision?

Shorter wait times for rides and more discount offers are signs of thinning crowds at the theme parks​

The U.S. Air Force conducting a special Independence Day flyover of Magic Kingdom Park on July 4.
PHOTO: JAMES KILBY/DISNEY

By Jacob Passy
July 10, 2023 5:30 am ET

Visitors to Disney theme parks this summer are encountering something they haven’t seen in a while: elbow room.

Travel analysts and advisers say traffic to Disney’s U.S. parks, and some rival parks, has slowed this summer. Data from a travel company that tracks line-waiting time at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., shows that the Independence Day weekend was one of the slowest in nearly a decade.

Disney executives have said they have expected weaker earnings from their U.S. parks this year. The Orlando-area resort is even offering hotel discounts around Christmas, typically a peak period.

Travel advisers and industry analysts say the slowdown is the latest sign that Disney’s recent price hikes and changes to park operations have soured some families on visiting the Most Magical Place on Earth.

Disney faces a unique set of challenges right now, from streaming losses to executive succession to a political and legal fight with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Revenue from its parks division has long been a bright spot for the company, buoying overall earnings. Disney declined to comment on recent attendance.

A faster ride​

Park visitors in recent weeks have had significantly lower wait times to get on rides, according to data from Touring Plans, a company that tracks wait times at major amusement parks, including Disney World and Disneyland in California. Industry analysts say shorter wait times generally correlate with smaller crowds.



At Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park in Central Florida, home to the blockbuster Star Wars attractions, July 4 was the third-slowest day in the past year, according to Touring Plans, which analyzed the wait times that Disney parks post on their mobile apps.

The average posted wait time at the Magic Kingdom park in Florida—which has a special fireworks display on July 4—was 27 minutes this year for the holiday, down from 31 minutes in 2022 and 47 minutes in 2019, the Touring Plans analysis shows.

“It’s something that nobody would have predicted—just unfathomable,” says Len Testa, a computer scientist who runs Touring Plans. Testa says wait times rose in the following days.

Disney and other theme-park companies can adjust posted wait times for rides to steer visitors toward or away from areas within parks. Longer wait times can also reflect operational issues like broken-down rides.

Speaking during the company’s May earnings call, former Disney finance chief Christine McCarthy said the company anticipated lower demand for the U.S. parks in the second half of the year, partly due to the end of Disney World’s 50th anniversary celebration.

Room to move​

Jaime Brown, a speech pathologist and Walt Disney World annual pass holder who lives in Celebration, Fla., visited the resort three times during the Independence Day week, hitting all four of the resort’s parks.

When Brown visited Disney’s Epcot theme park during that stretch, she says she walked onto the Spaceship Earth attraction without waiting. On another day, she scored a last-minute breakfast reservation at Topolino’s Terrace in Disney’s Riviera Resort, which typically books out weeks in advance.

“I couldn’t believe how light the crowds were,” Brown says, adding that the parks felt busier during a 2021 summertime visit.

Florida’s summer heat, humidity and heavy rains make summer a relatively quiet season at the state’s theme parks. The heat index exceeded 100 degrees on several days in early July.

Disney has also intentionally thinned crowds at parks, aiming to improve the park experience for a smaller number of visitors who will spend more money.


Wait times for rides at Universal Studios Florida also dropped on the Fourth of July compared with the 2022 holiday.
PHOTO: DEWAYNE BEVIL/ZUMA PRESS

Still, the July 4 lull signals that tourists have cooled somewhat on theme-park vacations, travel professionals say.

“From what we’re seeing with our bookings, that pent-up demand has somewhat transitioned to cruises and Europe,” says Greg Antonelle, co-owner of MickeyTravels, a travel agency based in Windermere, Fla.

The slower period at parks could extend beyond summer, says A.J. Wolfe, the owner of Disney Food Blog, a website focused on the company’s theme parks. Disney doesn’t have major new U.S. attractions opening soon, apart from a reimagination of the Splash Mountain ride at its Florida and California parks. Attractions based on “Frozen” are being built in Disney’s Paris and Hong Kong resorts, and a “Zootopia” attraction is due to open soon at Disney’s park in Shanghai.

Given that vacationers often visit both Disney World and the nearby Universal theme parks, Testa says some families may be holding off on visiting Central Florida in anticipation of a third theme park expected to open in 2025 at Universal Orlando Resort.

Crowds are relatively light at Universal Orlando too, travel analysts say. The average wait time with the Universal Studios Florida theme park was 28 minutes on July 4, down from 38 minutes in 2022 but in line with 2019’s levels. (Universal Orlando Resort declined to comment.)

The number of people who visited Universal’s two Florida theme parks in 2022 combined exceeded the level set in 2019, according to a report from the Themed Entertainment Association, an industry trade group. Attendance at Walt Disney World’s theme parks was lower in 2022 than in 2019, partly because Disney has limited capacity at its parks through a reservation system it implemented in 2020.

Fan fatigue​

Theme-park fans have loudly complained in recent years about Disney raising admission prices and eliminating free amenities.

Stephanie Oprea, an Atlanta-based senior planner and director of marketing for Pixie Travel, an agency specializing in Disney vacations, says costs are giving travelers pause.

“People might be a little bit fatigued with price increases based on the economy at the moment,” Oprea says, noting that some clients have considered cruise or beach vacations rather than returning to Disney’s parks due to recent price increases.

At Disneyland, the company increased the cost of multiday tickets by 9% or more in October, with the price of a two-day ticket rising from $255 per adult to $285.

To attract more visitors to Main Street U.S.A., Disney has rolled out promotions, including discounts for return visits and savings of up to 40% on rooms at some Disney World hotels for annual passholders on certain days in December near Christmas, which is typically one of the busiest and most expensive times to visit. (Disney has offered discounts to passholders during that time period in the past.)

The company also announced it would bring back dining plans that allow visitors to prepay for meals next year. The plans, popular with Disney die-hards, were suspended in 2020.

Other Orlando-area theme parks, including Universal Studios and SeaWorld, have also started offering discounts and promotions for later this year.

The recent flood of promotions suggests that greater savings could be on the horizon for next year. “If I were going to Disney World, I would probably hold off until 2024,” Wolfe says.

Source (Archive)

 

[Mr. Zed da Robot Poon Fed]

Even the lobster rolls there were too fucking expensive for too little lobster.

 

[Diana Moon Glampers]

This article was written by someone who has rarely been to Disney parks.

A walk-on to Spaceship Earth? That's the norm. That ride is a looping continuous track with extremely high throughput, the kind of innovation that made it possible for Disney parks to accommodate a huge number of people. I don't think I've seen the wait time for that ride higher than 15 minutes at any time, even though it's right at the front of the park and a certain kind of kid and adult loves it (). Epcot's just not a long-line park except the Frozen and Ratatouille rides. Until Cosmic Rewind opens a normal queue, at which point I'm sure there will be 80-90 minute wait times like there are when any new shiny attraction first starts up.

 

[Trianon]

Universal Studios was always the better park, to be honest. Not sure if it's changed since I left Florida, but it didn't feel as infantilized as Disney World did. And they have Volcano Bay now, which looks way more interesting and fun compared to Disney's water parks.

Epic Universe is totally going to mog Disney, solely on the basis it's going to have Super Nintendo World and likely an expanded version, too. If you think I'm exaggerating, just look at how Disney got its shit completely kicked in at the box office by the Super Mario Bros. Movie this year. Don't tell me Universal ain't going to ride that hype in the run-up to Epic's opening in a couple years.

I went 10-15 years ago before Universal even had a lot of stuff, and it was still a better experience than Magic Kingdom. Being smaller meant you could get through most everything in a reasonable amount of time. They're bigger now but have invested well in good IPs and design. It's funny too that Disney had a chance to do the Wizarding World themselves and passed.

 

[Mothra1988]

Do you think mega amusement parks like Disney World and Six Flags are too big to fail while smaller places eventually close down?

It used to be every city had an amusement park. That was the original model. You'd get on a train or a trolley and go to tan elaborate Luna Park style amusement park, have a good time, then go back. This was before everyone had cars.

What Disney did was Walmartize the industry by convincing people they could just fly to Florida instead of giving money to their local businesses. As a result, most of those local parks all died. Hopefully now that Disney has lost its freaking mind and visiting them requires loans for people, things may go back to a sense of balance in that regard. But building new parks is still a huge risk so I wouldn't count on it, which is depressing.

People act like Disney were some geniuses, but it's like what the WWF did to smaller regional wrestling promotions in the 80's. You can't go see your hometown hero every week for a few bucks anymore due to that. A lot of people grew up with those kinds of experiences, but now everything is dumbed down for a mass market and has no individualized character.

I'm personally not a fan of any of these big companies. Universal focuses on "screen rides" too fucking much, and Six Flags and Cedar Fair bought a bunch of parks and ripped out all the charm, traditional rides and Americana out of them to make them into dumb roller coaster only parks. The only one that seems to have stayed somewhat the same under that kind of ownership is Knottsbery Farms. I don't even like Cedar Point that much right now becuase there is no ride variety despite them having 10,000 coasters. The compay that owns DollyWood and Silver Dollar City does a good job continuing a version of the amusement park tradition though, but they only have two parks.

 

[Would]

All Walt wanted were parks for the working class.
If the boog ever happens, know that I'll cap a few yids and whites in your honor, Mr. Disney.

 

[The Ugly One]

Six Flags has been through some shit, due in part to current management prioritizing hiking costs to flush out lower income consumers as he believed the Six Flags parks right now were glorified daycares for teenagers

You don't have to use euphemisms here. Six Flags had become a nigger rumble pit.

 

[WelperHelper99]

Even the lobster rolls there were too fucking expensive for too little lobster.

Want to remind everyone that lobster used to be considered prison food until they figure out how to prepare it right. That's how cheap lobster actually is.

 

[GunCar Gary]

You don't have to use euphemisms here. Six Flags had become a nigger rumble pit.

there were even fights reported at disney world in the last few years. guess who the main culprits were

after june of 2020 black americans learned they have a free pass to do whatever they want and face no repercussions. every store, mall, or amusement park located anywhere near elevated melanin areas or on public transit lines has become a nigger rumble pit

 

[Reverend]

I thought it sucked. $300 to walk through the world's largest airport terminal, eating expensive, okay food and drinking expensive, okay booze.

To each their own. I went with a dozen plus people so it was more entertaining. Plus it was way before the Wokeness kicked in and you could get into the park for cheap and not the ridiculous prices today.