The holiday season has officially kicked off at Walt Disney World as of last week, and though there is still yet another week to go before New Year’s Day concludes this annual busy season, we’ve already noticed some interesting trends at the resort already over the past few days, when it comes to guest levels and attendance. Increasingly it looks like the Magic Kingdom has become almost immune to the periodic rises and falls of attendance at Walt Disney World. Though the Magic Kingdom has always been the most popular park at Walt Disney World, in recent years the distribution of guests has been extremely lopsided, with guests packing into the Magic Kingdom no matter what season it is.
However, though Walt Disney World’s flagship park continues to bring in impressive amounts of guests on a daily basis, the other three parks at Walt Disney World have actually seen some big declines this year, and so far the holiday season has continued this trend. From what we’ve seen so far this holiday season, attendance at Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom has been far below what we’ve seen in holiday seasons past, with attractions like the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Expedition Everest barely hitting 30 minute wait times during this past week.
The downturn at Epcot in particular is a little strange, especially as the popular Candlelight Processional show has not been as full this year as it has in the past.
Christmas week is the busiest time at Walt Disney World, and is typically accompanied by capacity closings at the theme parks. For the first time since we have been tracking closures, this is the first year where at least one park has not reached a capacity closing on Christmas Day.
On Christmas Day 2015, the Magic Kingdom reached a Phase A capacity close at 10am, and didn’t reopen to all guests until 4:30pm. The park also hit capacity on Christmas Eve, and later in the week nearing New Year’s Eve, and on New year’s Eve itself.
Disney introduced tiered ticket pricing earlier this year, pricing the parks differently for 1-Day tickets, depending on the season. Of course, the Christmas Week is priced at peak level, meaning an extra $19 for a day at the Magic Kingdom compared to Value pricing. Capacity closings are still a possibility, and of course the parks are very busy. New Year’s Eve in particular is very likely to see a closure at the Magic Kingdom. We will continue to monitor the situation, so stay tuned if you are visiting the parks this week.
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