Disney World attendance plunged in September to its lowest three-week slump in four years.
The drop comes at the company’s flagship park in Orlando, Florida.
Crowd tracking data between August and September shows average wait times for rides fell to 24 minutes. That’s the lowest since 2021, according to Fox News.
Wait times were even shorter than during the July 4 holiday, based on Disney’s My Disney Experience app.
The data was aggregated by third-party tracker Thrill-Data and analyzed by Disney Tourist Blog.
A number of TikTok visitors described the park as “deserted.”
“I’m at Magic Kingdom right now, and this place is a tomb,” one user said. “There is literally nobody here. There is no wait time for anything. Space Mountain — walk on. Haunted Mansion — walk on. Pirates of the Caribbean — walk on. The longest I have even seen a wait time for … 30 minutes.”
Disney’s recently disclosed financials paint a different picture.
The company has reported mostly unchanged attendance and revenue growth, per Trending Politics.
August was the slowest full month of the year so far, averaging 28 minutes per ride.
July followed at 30 minutes, Disney Tourist Blog noted. Weekends were busier than weekdays.
Disney rolled out aggressive deals to fill slow weeks after Labor Day. Offers included an $89-per-day three-park ticket that excludes Magic Kingdom, 50% off children’s tickets, and the return of free dining for certain dates and packages, Fox News reported.
Some travelers have cited park prices as a factor in attendance drops. Similar declines were observed this past summer, according to Disney blogs.
“Disney executives have acknowledged the concern but have been slow to adapt their pricing strategies in light of these economic difficulties,” Disney Dining reported in June.
“The sentiment among consumers suggests an ongoing reluctance to spend on extravagant trips like Disney World, marking a troubling shift for the beloved theme park,” the report added.
Earlier this year, reports emerged that Disney executives were debating whether continuous price hikes are alienating middle-class families.
The price of attending a Disney park has soared in recent years. A four-day stay now costs roughly $1000 more than in 2019, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.
The data suggests even with deals and promotions, the park is struggling to maintain pre-pandemic crowd levels.
Disney’s challenges highlight a potential shift in consumer behavior.
Rising prices and economic pressures may be forcing families to rethink visits to the Magic Kingdom.
It should also be noted that the drastic collapse in attendance for Disney World comes as the entertainment conglomerate continues to push “woke” ideology on its consumers.
Disney has suffered not just at the ticket booth but also at the box office, where it has seen many of its LGBT-friendly films underperform drastically, given that Americans oppose implementing such an ideology in their movies, which are made primarily for children.
