A trip to Walt Disney World or Disneyland with the whole family is too expensive. Former and current Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger recently admitted customer affordability issues at an investor conference.
And the direct consequences of price-gouging families, plus the ‘woke’ backlash, might have led to one of the slowest periods at Walt Disney World in Orlando on July 4 in a decade.
The Wall Street Journal cited new data from Touring Plans, a company that tracks wait times at theme parks, which reported Disney World and Disneyland in California had significantly lower wait times to get on rides on Independence Day weekend.
According to Touring Plans, Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park in Central Florida experienced the third-slowest day in the past year. The average wait time at the Magic Kingdom park was around 27 minutes, down from 31 minutes in 2022 and 47 minutes in 2019.
“It’s something that nobody would have predicted—just unfathomable,” said Len Testa, a Touring Plans data analyst.
Disney executives have warned about expected weaker earnings from the US park segment. Days ago, KeyBanc Capital Markets downgraded Disney over fears of stalled growth due to lower attendance at its theme parks and lower streaming viewership.
Disney’s market capitalization has been halved since peaking at $335 billion in March 2021.
To stoke demand, WSJ noted, “The Orlando-area resort is even offering hotel discounts around Christmas, typically a peak period.”
The drastic slowdown in visitors at its US parks comes as the company hiked prices and eliminated complimentary amenities.
Stephanie Oprea, an Atlanta-based senior planner and director of marketing for Pixie Travel, an agency focused on Disney vacations, said rising park costs had led some families to vacation elsewhere.
“People might be a little bit fatigued with price increases based on the economy at the moment,” Oprea said, adding clients ditched Disney’s parks for cruise or beach vacations because of high prices.
CEO Iger recently told investors at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference that price increases at theme parks had become too aggressive.
Meanwhile, a Star Wars-themed hotel at Walt Disney World is set to close in the coming months because of lackluster demand. Two guests can expect to pay $4,800 for a two-night package at the hotel. Add kids, and prices are just absurd.
Sliding park demand could be due to a combination of an affordability crisis and backlash sparked by Disney’s woke political agenda. We wonder what happens after student loan repayments restart in Sept…
Bulldoze the entire monstrosity and give it back to nature.
The combination of inflated ticket prices and the Woke no sense being shoved at children at every opportunity has driven the majority of families away . It’s common sense . Disney sealed its fate when they tried to make fantasy into real – nonsense / on one’s buying the bs .
TO BAD! Your Management style has KILLED WALTS DREAM!!! GET OUT of Politics, especially in Florida, get out of WOKE CARTOONS for your Youngest Audiences, AND HAVE SOME RESPECT for the Families that BUILT your MAJIC KINGDOM in the first place!
Put BlackRock in their place, investor input from them is UN_American!
Don’t know if it’s because of Disney’s agenda or the high prices but I live close to Orlando and it has been unbearably hot here and I don’t blame people for not wanting to spend a day outside.
With these greedy SOB’s at Pedo world, they not only want to molest and groom your children, they also want to rape you with their high confiscatory prices. at the same time.