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In response to
"None of us can read that article, Mr. Moneybags. -- nm"
by
Mop🧹
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Here
Posted by
David (aka David)
Jul 10 '23, 21:07
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My client is one of the people interviewed. He didn't get quoted more because he was too positive for the piece they were writing.
"Disney World Hasn’t Felt This Empty in
Years
Shorter wait times for rides and more discount offers are
signs of thinning crowds at the theme parks
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.
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.
Sign up for the new WSJ Travel newsletter for more tips and insights from the Journal’s travel
team."
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