Disney continues to keep peak attendance at 20 percent below pre-pandemic levels at Walt Disney World

Feb 10, 2023 in "The Walt Disney Company"

Posted: Friday February 10, 2023 12:19pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

During this week's quarterly earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger and CFO Christine McCarthy spoke briefly about Walt Disney World's attendance capacity caps that are still in place in the parks.

According to Disney, attendance during peak holiday weeks is now kept at nearly 20% below pre-pandemic levels, which the company says improves the guest experience.

Notably, Disney seems to have settled on the concept of having fewer guests in the parks than pre-pandemic, but having those guests in the parks spend more than they used to. Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products revenues for the quarter increased 21% to $8.7 billion. Disney says that guest spending growth was due to an increase in average per capita ticket revenue driven by Genie+ and Lightning Lane.

Elaborating further on improving the guest experience, Disney executives referred to increasing flexibility and value at the theme parks. Disney has pointed to the increased availability of lowest-priced tickets at Disneyland, more access for annual passholders and park hopper tickets, more complimentary digital photo downloads, and eliminating the Walt Disney World Resort hotel parking fees.

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Tuvalu3 days ago

Agree.

Dr.GrantSeeker3 days ago

Definitely agree about onsite APs. But at this point it needs to just be 100% completely dropped for all remaining ticket types that require reservations. There is absolutely no need and I can't imagine that the number of APs going into the parks with reservations on a daily basis is really helping Disney staff accordingly compared to the number of other ticket types going in and out of the parks without reservations.

Tuvalu3 days ago

Those using military or group tickets also have to make park reservations. I am in 100% agreement that APs staying on sight should not need to make park reservations. It annoys me to no end….

Disstevefan13 days ago

Well if they see a large enough drop in per capita spending in the parks, maybe they will drop the PPRs for APs

Vacationeer3 days ago

At absolute minimum, park reservations for APs staying onsite should be removed. After spending crazy money on multi-day tickets the past several years (25 month span - individual cost breakdown over $3.5k for ticket, hopper, share of memory maker), to finally finding a good opportunity to buy APs again, but now getting smacked with being the only group left needing park reservations, when every trip we stay onsite too. There’s gotta be a better way to make it feel less done dirty 😆 I prefer happily parting with money. They used to have much greater finesse in that department.

DCBaker3 days ago

3 more Annual Passholder good-to-go days have been added to the calendar: August 6, 7, 11.

Brian10 days ago

The MEP holders are the ultimate undesirables. They're also included in the GTG days.

Jrb197910 days ago

It's more like we can't fill the parks those days so the unfavorables can come visit

Brian10 days ago

Insert 'requisite rant about reservations and the way it used to be' here.

Fido Chuckwagon10 days ago

Huzzah!

DCBaker10 days ago

Disney has added more Annual Passholder good-to-go days in July and August: July: 22, 27, 31 August: 4

Fido Chuckwagon21 days ago

Incredipass can only hold 5 at a time when staying offsite.

Fido Chuckwagon21 days ago

I say this as someone who travels to WDW during Christmas & Easter: Just scrap park reservations except for Thanksgiving Week, Christmas Week, and Easter Week. They are clearly not needed at any other time now since they're always available and they're just an added annoyance with no benefit to anyone, including Disney at this point. Or, if you **must** use park reservations because you want to have an idea of where your AP's who don't buy LL will be (even though they can easily change their mind at the last minute anyway), then still require park reservations, but just don't cap the number than an AP can make.

Liloandstitch321 days ago

But if you have an annual pass as long as it doesn’t block out that/those date/s then it shouldn’t matter. An annual pass is in fact valid admission.