Did Disney Parks Attendance Bounce Back This Quarter? Well Not Exactly.

WHAT is going on with the crowds in Disney World?

Entrance to EPCOT

During the Q3 earnings call in August of 2024, Disney revealed that demand for its domestic parks had been “flat.” (CEO Bob Iger had actually predicted that attendance would go down.) One Disney executive explained that higher-income consumers are traveling internationally more, while lower-income consumers are feeling a little bit of stress. Disney also warned that there could be a continuation of those trends in terms of the “top line.” So just what’s happening with the crowds now? Has demand gone up or down since we last heard from Disney? We’ve got an update.

On November 14th, 2024, Disney held its earnings call (and released its earnings report) for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024. In that report, we learned that the operating income for domestic parks & experiences increased by 5% year over year. While the operating income for international parks & experiences decreased by 32% year over year.

Hollywood Studios

Disney attributed the increase in domestic operating income to an increase in guest spending at their theme parks and cruise lines. Disney did mention that they experienced higher costs due to inflation, new guest offerings, increased technology spending, and higher operations support costs.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

As well, Disney noted that there were lower sales of Disney Vacation Club units. However, some of those increased costs were offset by the comparison to depreciation related to the closure of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.

Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser

The international park & experiences had a significant decrease in operating income due to declines in attendance and an increased cost due to new guest offerings and higher depreciation. As well, there has been a decrease in guest spending at the theme parks, but that was partially offset by an increase in per room spending at the resorts.

Disneyland Paris ©Disney

Disney had previously warned that Q4 would be consistent with what was seen in Q3 in terms of “flat” demand for its domestic parks. But Disney CFO Hugh Johnston seemed unconcerned about the expectations, noting “this is just going to be a few quarters, and we’ll be fine coming out of it.”

EPCOT

In recent weeks, we have seen some wait times plummeting to some of the lowest of the year, combined with some increases in wait times at certain rides — so things can vary and change.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Disney certainly seems to be expressing at least some level of confidence in its domestic parks with the large expansions and major rethemes announced for Disney World and Disneyland.

We’ll be keeping an eye on crowd levels, wait times, and more in the parks to see just how the financial spending trends may impact the park experience.

Stay tuned for the latest updates.

Click here to read about the 1 thing we HATE about the Magic Kingdom expansion

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