The Walt Disney World Resort is playing host to much smaller crowds this summer than in previous years. Theme park experts say families are staying away due to record heat, rising costs, and their decision to visit at other times of the year.
After two years of strong post-pandemic numbers, Disney’s summer numbers are dropping, according to the latest data collected by the travel company Touring Plans. The figures include one of the lowest recorded park crowds for the Fourth of July in recent history.
Using a scaling system 1–10, Touring Plans tracks daily crowd levels of Disney World’s four theme parks: Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
The daily average for all four theme parks in June 2023 was 5.56. In June 2022, that average level was 6.46.
The first 11 days of July 2023 recorded a daily average crowd level of 4.54. By July 11, 2022, the average daily crowd level was 6.36.
The levels are determined by the average wait times posted for each park’s key attractions during the day.
Michael Arnold, an annual pass holder, and writer for DisneyDining.com, confirmed experiencing significantly lower crowds and wait times on his latest visits.
The most astonishing time drop, he said he noticed, was the wait time for Avatar: Flight of Passage at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The 4-D simulator ride infamous for maintaining a wait time of more than 100 minutes almost daily was found to have a 55-minute wait in the middle of the day.
The Walt Disney Company continues to face a tumultuous 2023.
Its current fiscal quarter has featured the departure of two C-level executives, further box office flops, and the enduring bout with Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis over control of The Reedy Creek Improvement District.
Now, its largest theme park resort complex is having the worst summer crowds since its restrictive reopening from the COVID-justified shutdown.
Disney’s now-former Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy warned of a drop in theme park attendance at the company’s second-quarter earnings webcast in May but said it was to be expected.
“Please keep in mind that in the back half of this fiscal year, there will be an unfavorable comparison against the prior year’s incredibly successful 50th Anniversary celebration at Walt Disney World,” she said.
“We typically see some moderation in demand as we lap these types of events, and third quarter-to-date performance has been in line with those historical trends.”
Independent theme park experts agreed that a post-anniversary lull made sense, but they also say general costs and the decision to avoid the Florida summer heat are keeping a larger number of families away from the “Most Magical Place On Earth.”
Once upon a time, a child’s visit to The Most Magical Place On Earth was determined by his or her school schedule. Summer vacation, the Christmas holiday season, Spring Break, and three-day weekends became peak seasons for family visits.
But those days of traditional family travel, experts said, might be in the past.
“Summer crowds have been declining for a few years,” said Touring Plans master statistician Fred Hazelton. “We attribute this to the increased willingness of parents to take children out of school for trips rather than wait until summer.”
Disney reported “attendance growth and higher occupied room nights” in its latest quarterly earnings report.
And Ms. McCarthy specifically announced a 7 percent increase in attendance during the first three months of the year compared to 2022.
But that three-month period includes traditional vacation time slots: The tail end of Disney’s holiday celebration, long weekends such as President’s Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“Spring Break is still a thing, though, but those crowd sizes depend on where Easter falls, we can’t necessarily attribute a light or heavy spring break season to guest preference,” said Mr. Hazelton.
“I think guests do have some regard for travel windows like summer and spring break but less so than, say, 15 years ago. Now we see increases in crowds during October and February instead.”
“A lot of people will pull their kids out early fall into September or early October to try to come down and enjoy the Halloween parties and things like that before it gets crazy busy,” Mr. Arnold said. “A lot … will pull their kids out, you know, late winter, early spring before the spring break crowds hit.”
“There’s been plenty of times where our kids have stayed home so we could go to Disney World before for a couple of days,” he said.
“I personally don’t see anything wrong with that. Sure, there’s people out there that disagree, but to each their own, I guess.”
“Our kids’ school doesn’t have a problem with vacations during the school year,” Alexis Pechek, content creator and mother of three, told The Epoch Times. “Not every parent has the summer off—or can take the summer off—so we all have to do what benefits us.”
“For parents who are hesitant to take a vacation during the school year, I would say do it,” she said. “They are only young once, and it’s not like they won’t be learning from an amazing experience … to travel to a place like Disney.”
‘They Can’t Afford Disney Anymore’
Tied to families’ decision to visit outside of traditional vacation seasons is the increasing cost parents must pay to go, according to Len Testa, president of Touring Plans.
“Disney’s explicitly encouraged this by pricing admission and hotels lower during those previously slower times and limiting the number of guests in the parks through its parks reservation system.”
Walt Disney World Resort frequently offers discounts throughout the year for ticket sales and resort hotel stays. Special pricing for Florida residents is also readily available.
However, a standard five-day ticket valid for all four theme parks each day, called a “park hopper,” would cost over $135 a day for would-be guests this July, according to Disney World’s website.
Meanwhile, that same ticket could cost $117 per day in September.
“You know, people are struggling to put groceries on their table. They’re struggling to fill up their cars, they can’t afford Disney anymore,” Mr. Arnold said. “I think people are being forced out of their Disney World vacations.”
The least expensive time for a family to buy and use their five-day park hopper ticket in 2024 will be in August and September. They are the only two months of 2024 where that five-day standard park hopper ticket is available for less than $120 per day.
“A Disney World vacation costs more than 60 percent” of what the average American household spent on travel before the pandemic, said Mr. Testa. That average household travel expense in 2019 was $2,100, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Rising Heat and Cooling Fad
The Fourth of July has attracted guests to Walt Disney World for years. Already known for its nightly fireworks displays, Magic Kingdom performs a special spectacular that is only performed on Independence Day. But this year’s crowds were reported to be noticeably smaller.
Mr. Arnold blamed the heat and highlighted the difference between annual pass holders and other Disney World guests.
“Annual pass holders stay home,” he said. “I don’t know many annual pass holders that want to go to the parks on a major holiday. And then you combine that with the fact that it feels like 110 degrees. Nobody wants to go, you know, sit at Main Street and Magic Kingdom all day. I bet the resort pools were packed.”
“Disney’s attendance bounced back on July 5 and remained above average for the rest of the week,” Mr. Testa said. “So I really think it was a combination of that heat advisory and the threat of thunderstorms canceling the fireworks that kept people out of the parks.”
But as the heat rises, the experts say the travel fad of visiting Disney World is cooling.
Disney created a “huge influx” of visitors over the past three years, Mr. Arnold said. It was a combination of visitors who rescheduled their trip because of COVID, post-COVID-shutdown visitors who were looking to travel somewhere safe, and visitors coming for Disney’s World’s 50th-anniversary celebration.
“We’re starting to see that level out, and you combine things like nasty weather this summer, and people can’t afford to go that’s kind of what you’re seeing over these past couple of weeks,” he said.
But families are still going on vacation, just not to Disney World.
“‘Revenge Travel’ is probably much less of a factor now. I think people have had plenty of time to get that out of their system,” Mr. Testa said. “At Disney’s fairly high price point, it’s pretty clear that families are trying other options. Cruises have done really well this year—including Disney’s cruise line.”
The Walt Disney Company did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.
From The Epoch Times