Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida has started see a demand drop. Some of this could be economic pressure, but Universal may also contribute.
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Prices Remain High, But There Are Signs
Disney has increased its pricing dramatically over the last three years. While daily park access has remained inline with 25% inflation since 2020, it’s also delivered its own kind of shrink-flation compounding the loss of value for more money.
As demonstrated before, corporate customers can rent out theme parks (or just sections of them) during evening hours, accessible only for their guests. This means that normal Disney visitors buy tickets but instead of receiving a full day of Mickey Mouse bliss, their day might end at 6 pm rather than 9 pm, 10 pm, or even midnight.
Annual passholders previously had a number of inclusions like fast pass (now lightning lane) and photo pass, but those are now extra costs and in the case of lightning lane, just access to the program can cost more than the daily ticket price.
Those prices have not come down despite dynamic pricing like hotel rooms and airfare. But wait times have dropped significantly. Going into the heavy summer cycle, reservations for multiple parks in the same day (a COVID era relic) is not being enforced for the next few months. Additionally, annual passholders can now save 40% on restaurant dining in the parks. Disney doesn’t publish daily visitor counts, but the next quarterly result and the one following the summer season will likely reflect lower revenue through the period.
Economic Pressure, Uncertainty
Live And Let’s Fly has covered the dramatic effects of foreign policy under Trump in the near term on the travel industry. Preliminary foreign tourism numbers for the year (this week President Trump crosses his first 100 days) are abysmal. Disney World is a major draw for people from around the world. The Financial Times outlined these pressures using US Department of Commerce data.
european tourism to the united states: freefalling pic.twitter.com/T5aPKdOW8r
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) April 11, 2025
There are data issues with the statistics in that source piece, some of which are addressed and some are not. The article notes that a portion of the drop in US tourism reflects an Easter holiday that occurred in March last year vs much later in April this year. It lists some horrific drops but also excludes other major European sources of tourism as well, like France, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland and the Netherlands for example. The population of those (heretofore unmentioned) five countries are equal to half the US population at 165MM so while a 30% drop from Iceland looks dramatic, it’s also a country of 336,000 people. In fact, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden have a combined 22MM, less than one third of France alone.
That’s not to diminish the very real effect that uncertainty, tariffs, and sharp rhetoric is playing on the travel industry. Canadians comprise a population of greater than 41MM, many of whom were frequent visitors to the United States and the drop off in US tourism is a far more dramatic decline than any of those listed.
But economic uncertainty has also affected Americans too. Consumer confidence in the US is down 32% since the election and sentiment dropped below 55 for the first time since COVID.
“US consumer sentiment plummeted in April after Donald Trump’s trade war threw the global economy into chaos, according to a new report…
Expectations worsened for vast swaths of the population across age, education income and political affiliation,” said Joanne Hsu, director of the surveys of consumers, in a statement. “Consumers perceived risks to multiple aspects of the economy, in large part due to ongoing uncertainty around trade policy and the potential for a resurgence of inflation looming ahead.”
In April, the index of consumer sentiment fell to 52.2, down from 57 in March. The last time the index fell below 55 was in the summer of 2022, when inflation rose to 9%. – The Guardian
That’s going to cause issues for Disney both at home and abroad.
Universal Epic Opens Next Month
The scope of Universal Epic, the third gate from Universal Studios theme parks in Orlando, lives up to its namesake. The grounds are nearly the same size as both Universal parks combined, City Walk (Universal’s shopping district), restaurants, hotels, and parking garages combined. There’s a ground swell of attention around the park which opens May 22, 2025 and already we are seeing the signs of guests buying tickets for future dates at Universal that coincide with Disney’s incentivized period.
Universal is more likely to capture the domestic market (plus Brazil) while Disney has a broader international base. That said, given the above tourism struggles, having a stronger domestic demand is likely to compound Disney’s pain for some time.
Conclusion
Disney is beginning to show signs of lower demand but is stopping short of discounting park entry. The question becomes, how much longer can Disney hold onto prices at these levels before it turns the levers on enticing visitors back to the parks? The long term consequences for the wider Disney Corporation could be substantial if the summer season falls below expectations with tariff wars potentially damaging merchandise sales throughout the year.
What do you think?
It will take rather more than a Disney price cut to entice Europeans back to Trumpton.
Disney was already in the decline so why is it shocking that it would be even further in the decline? It’s not worth the prices…
You sure this has nothing to do with their recent lack of innovation, absurd pricing and movie flops. Cuz I know a lot of people who are almost ready to give away their life savings to see universal’s epic universe.
People will continue to do what they want. Friends from Pittsburgh went to the world over the Easter holiday. ( they have a 5 & 7 years old ) I thought the timing couldn’t be worse but they enjoyed the visit and were accepting of the prices. In many ways, there is a new reality evolving.
Given what it costs to do multi-day visits to Disney parks in the US, many of the Americans doing these visits perhaps should cut their entertainment budgets and instead invest the money in order to be able to make higher education more affordable for their kids given how unaffordable the best colleges/universities have become even for households making $150,000-300,000 per year.
A Mickey Mouse Administration will not bode well for Disney.
A Disney or Disney/Universal vacation these days is pretty eye watering in price. It really feels like these little value with very high base prices and jaw dropping surcharges (I’d call it nickel-and-diming but it’s more like hundred-and-five hundreding) to avoid spending numerous hours a day in line. My wife and I paid almost $400 in Universal for a single day entry and short line passes. That’s $400 each. Disney is no better.
With the Universal/Disney duopoly’s war on value I’d rather spend the same amount and go to an all-inclusive in Jamaica or go to Europe for the same price. For that matter, using miles to fly I can Vacation in Bali for less money.
Remember the Disney-DEI crap and other like issues…last year..That was the start of people not buying tickets….and all downhill still but the CEO still makes multi-multi millions$$
Oh dee(r) . no the downfall started with exorbitant price increases. You must be confused with target.