The summer is often the busiest season at Walt Disney World Resort. Families flock to The Most Magical Place on Earth while school is out, leading many to dub it the world’s premiere vacation destination.
On any given day, you can find guests at Walt Disney World who have come far and wide to experience what has always been known as the “Disney Difference.” This once spoke to excellence in service, cleanliness, and overall consideration. Because of that “Disney Difference,” the company saw guests flocking through its gates from just about every nation on the planet.
Cinderella’s Castle in Walt Disney World via 4K WDW YouTube
The summer vacation month surge in attendance often leads to park reservations running low and wait times soaring well past 100 minutes for some of the more popular attractions.
However, that seems to be changing. Seemingly in response to lower than normal crowd levels this summer, Disney has released several “Good to Go Days” for Disney Annual Passholders. These are days in which passholders won’t need a park reservation to enter any of Disney’s four theme parks.
A photo of Main Street USA in Walt Disney World via LaReina Creole YouTube
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In addition to vacationers, Walt Disney World also hosts a large number of annual passholders regularly. This passholder crowd is composed of Florida locals and Disney fanatics from outside the state who take frequent vacations to the Orlando Resort. However, over the years Disney had made the pecking order clear.
It values out of town resort guests far more than annual passholders. While at one time Disney rolled out extravagant gifts for passholders like wooden cutting boards and tumbler glasses, today’s Disney passholders are lucky to walk away with a flimsy coaster set from special events. This is particularly true during busier times like the summer months.
That’s why the collective passholder community was shocked when Disney released Good to Go days right smack in the middle of July. These include July 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 21, 28, and 29. Four of these are even weekends, which are days one would expect the parks to be a lot more crowded. The last Good to Go passholder days took place in May, with many expecting not to see them again until slower days in September.
This leads many to wonder what exactly is going on at Walt Disney World. Why has attendance suddenly plummeted during what has always been a premium month?
Walt Disney World sign via Orlando Streets YouTube
Many point to Disney’s price increases. In recent years, the entertainment juggernaut has been nickel and diming its parks division (one of the last profitable departments in the entire company). The Disney motto in recent years seems to be “offer less but charge more” leading many to believe that the value of a Disney vacation is no longer worth the cost.
For example, Disney used to offer “complimentary” bus service to and from Orlando International Airport for resort guests along with a “free” fastpass service that would allow guests to skip some of the longer lines. The reason we put these words in quotes was because they were never truly free at all. The price of these perks was baked into the price of a Disney vacation.
But now, Disney has removed these perks completely while also raising vacation pricing. Now, guests needing transport to and from the airport will have to take a paid Mears shuttle or rideshare service like Uber. The free FastPass system became the paid Genie+ service, which will change into the Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane single pass system later this month.
Then you have resort perks like turndown service. Disney once did in-room maid service like no one else. Now, even as resort prices skyrocket above the rate of inflation, guests only receive turndown service every other day.
A photo of Main Street USA in Walt Disney World via La Reina Creole YouTube
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These changes were blamed on then Disney CEO Bob Chapek, who took the brunt of Disney fan anger for “ruining the magic.” But when Chapek was fired in the middle of the night on a Sunday while attending an Elton John concert, former CEO Bob Iger was given command of the company once more and has yet to overturn a single Chapek change.
Another possible reason for the decline in attendance could be that many are unhappy with Disney’s social and political statements. The company has become the poster child for “woke” content, injecting identity politics into its movies, television shows, games, and theme parks. This has led many families with differing political views to declare Disney “unsafe” for their children.
The Evil Queen poses with a family at Wilderness Lodge Resort in Walt Disney World Resort
What do you think? What’s causing this drop in park attendance? And what will Disney do to fix the issue?
Marvin The Movie Monster is a YouTube Commentator, Puppeteer, and Comedian with channels dedicated to movies, TV, and professional wrestling. Check out his channel Tooney Town TV and Tooney Town Wrestling. He is also a regular contributor to That Game Place, the video game channel for That Park Place.
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