Walt Disney World is extending their operating hours during the month of April, likely due to stellar attendance. Magic Kingdom is extending a number of April evenings until 11 PM. Hollywood Studios is opening earlier. Epcot is doing the same.
For a look at the latest hours for the Walt Disney World theme parks, check out WDW Info.
The Orlando theme parks have been very crowded lately. Many analysts are surprised at how well the parks are doing with increased costs and rising inflation. Still the numbers keep going up and reservations for the parks can sometimes be difficult to acquire. Check out some of the tweets commenting on just how crowded (i.e. financially successful) the Disney World theme parks are becoming this Spring Break Season:
Crowds at Disney World before and immediately after they reopened from Covid shutdowns. We went to EPCOT last Sunday and we could hardly get around the park because it was so crowded. I enjoyed when more people were fearful. pic.twitter.com/bBf8KD5bQD
— JPEEPS (@peeples02) March 19, 2022
Spring Break Crowds Have Arrived at Disney World https://t.co/yDQZJ8ge4l
— MickeyBlog.com (@MickeyBlog_) March 16, 2022
The parks are sold out and many restaurants are full despite huge price increases, longer lines, awful crowds, less entertainment, and the debacle that is genie+. Seems like the worse WDW gets, the more demand it creates.
— mitchell frost (@mitchfrost) March 22, 2022
There isn’t one. Look at the crowds. Average guests don’t care.
— Justin (@goonie5555) March 16, 2022
Whatever you may think of Genie+, Harmonious, Lightning Lane, loss of live entertainment, DVC additions, etc… it all appears to be working for Disney. The parks are seeing huge attendance, and increased pricing for foods and line skips are all adding to the profits the company is sure to show in this quarter.
Are you planning a trip to Disney World in the near future? Let us know what is driving you to visit the happiest place on earth. As always, keep checking out That Park Place for all the news that should be fun!
It’s comical that people complain about the prices and crowds and threaten to not come back. Who exactly is not coming back? There’s reason to go and continue to keep going.
It’s also weird that this recent LGBT eruption didn’t cause anyone to boycott the parks or cause protests. Employees are on their own with this.
I don’t think you can conclude that people are going, because of worsening conditions, or that they don’t care about the worsening conditions/increased costs. I think people are going, en masse, because they’ve been forced to hide away for two years… since March 2020, people have been prevented from vacationing and now they’re free to spend that vacation money they had burning a hole in their pocket.
This will eventually settle. Those that had the money and were cooped up for almost 2yrs are going to get their chance back into the world, and the excitement will wain. The price shock will hit them and they’ll likely re-think their travel plans the next time they’re ready for vacation.
This is going to be temporary, and if Disney thinks it’s not… they’re extremely short-sighted.