One of the biggest dates on the calendar for any theme park fan is Memorial Day Weekend. The unofficial start to summer, this three-day weekend at the end of May is typically a big one for theme parks, with visitors coming from all over to get that first taste of summer fun at some of the world’s premiere tourist destinations. But while the Orlando International Airport reported that travel was up for this holiday in 2023, something peculiar was happening at Walt Disney World: People weren’t showing up.
Images flooded social media on Memorial Day weekend of empty walkways, queues with rock-bottom wait times, and an overall vibe that seemed… quiet. BlogMickey crunched the numbers after the fact using wait time numbers from Thrill-Data, and found that this year’s Memorial Day was one of the slowest in the last decade, with the average attraction wait time of under 30 minutes coming in at the lowest they’d seen since 2016, not counting the pandemic era.
Longtime Disney fans flagged that this attendance slump might happen weeks in advance, as Disney’s own reservation calendar continued to show availability for all ticket types right up until the holiday itself. A less-than-expected price jump for the Genie+ service also helped signal that things were going to be quiet during this past weekend.
And while it may be easy to simply write off Memorial Day Weekend as a one-off for Walt Disney World, it seems like Disney is bracing for the possibility of slower attendance, not just for this summer but in 2024 as well, by changing their strategy in some significant ways over the coming months to try and make the parks more attractive to guests. Here’s how:
Getting annual passholders back to the theme parks in 2023
Being a Walt Disney World annual passholder has had some serious ups and downs over the past few years. Sold-out reservations, unpredictable pass availability, and increasing cost have caused some real headaches for passholders, with many voicing their discontent online. However, Disney is hoping to improve their annual passholder program with some immediate changes happening now at the resort that are designed to get annual passholders back in the parks.
Several weeks ago, Disney finally re-started sales of all its annual pass types (not just the weekday select annual pass) and though demand was initially high (crashing the Walt Disney World website several times), all pass types continue to be available for sale, which is great news for those who want to join the annual passholder family. And in even better news for passholders, Disney has increased the merchandise discount from 20% to 30% during the month of June, and has dropped the reservation allocation requirement entirely for this month, as all dates for all parks are now available as part of annual passholder “Bonus” days.
Add these to deep discounts on hotel stays, free magnets, and other limited-time passholder perks this summer, and it is clear that Disney is looking to boost its attendance tin the short term by trying as hard as possible to get its annual passholders back in the parks (and hopefully spending money!). And while this may help prop up numbers over the next few weeks, Disney has an eye towards 2024, and is making some big changes that will affect ALL guests…
Making the parks easier to access in 2024 and beyond
Though all COVID-19-related restrictions are long gone, many longtime Disney fans were upset when Disney announced that the reservation system that they introduced during the pandemic would be sticking around for the foreseeable future. However, Disney has seemingly heard this criticism and has announced that theme park reservation requirements for date-based tickets will be phased out, and will no longer be required after January 9, 2024. In addition, it was announced earlier this year that annual passholders can visit the theme parks after 2 p.m. without needing a park reservation, except on Saturdays and Sundays at the Magic Kingdom.
All of this will hopefully make guests less wary about trying to juggle reservations in the future and make the parks easier for guests to access overall.
Bringing back the Disney Dining Plan
Another pandemic-era change that stuck around for far too long was the unavailability of the Disney Dining Plan, which allowed guests staying at Walt Disney World resort hotels to pre-pay for their meals in advance and potentially save a little money as well. And though it took nearly four years, Disney has announced that both the Disney Quick Service Dining Plan and the Disney Dining Plan are making their long-awaited comebacks on January 9, 2024.
Both Disney Dining Plans are available to book now for stays in 2024, but as you might expect, prices have changed significantly. Now, the Standard Dining Plan will cost $94.28 per adult, per day and $29.69 per child (ages 3 to 9), per day, and the Quick Service Dining Plan will cost $57.01 per adult, per day, and $23.83 per child (ages 3 to 9), per day. These price changes are much higher for adults, which reflects the higher cost of food at the resort since the last time the Dining Plan was offered in 2020. You can learn more about the Disney Dining Plan’s return here.
Making changes to Genie+
Though Genie+ continues to be a popular service at Walt Disney World, frequently selling out even when guest levels are soft, no one who has used the service would likely call it intuitive or user-friendly, and as frustrations with the service have been well-documented since its inception. Fortunately, it looks like the lull in guest levels has given Disney time to re-think its strategy with Genie+, and Disney has acknowledged that they will be taking a cue from the legacy FastPass+ service and will be allowing guests to plan what attractions they want to experience with Disney Genie+ service and individual Lightning Lane selections before the day of their park visit, starting in 2024.
This should hopefully alleviate a lot of stress for visitors who don’t want to worry about waking up super early on their vacation to make Genie+ and Lightning Lane selections, or deal with disappointment when the attraction they wanted to experience is unavailable.
Though a lot of these changes aren’t taking effect until next year, its clear that Disney has heard guest complaints about some of the barriers that are keeping guests from coming back to the theme parks, and perhaps get things back on track in 2024 and beyond!
