Why Disney World is Wrong About Holiday Ride Overlays.

Shortly after the “new” Haunted Mansion interactive queue debuted (almost 15 years ago) at Magic Kingdom, I had the chance to attend an event during which Imagineers talked up the additions, inspiration, etc. It was the start of Walt Disney World’s now-infamous NextGen project, which viewed interactive queues as the future of theme parks with the plan to bring them to most attractions as a way to, I don’t really know, improve guest satisfaction, I guess?

Interactive queues being the future weren’t the only thing they were wrong about that evening. Being a Halloween-time event revolving around Haunted Mansion, the question that always comes up eventually came up: When will Haunted Mansion Holiday finally come to Walt Disney World? 

At that time, it seemed like a reasonable-enough question. The Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay at Disneyland was not that old and had proven a smash success for several years running. It thus stood to reason that Walt Disney World management would eventually want in on that, right? Wrong.

According to ex-Imagineer Jason Surrell, the company felt it inappropriate to bring Haunted Mansion Holiday to Walt Disney World. He went on to explain that, compared to Disneyland, most Walt Disney World guests were infrequent or once-in-a-lifetime visitors, and as such, Disney wanted to present the original Haunted Mansion to them.

Normally, I’d leave out the name of the Imagineer in question, especially in a topic like this that calls out the company for being wrong. However, it’s germane here because Surrell had a history of speaking his mind, and made Imagineering’s PR people sweat every time he took the stage. He was not one to tow the company line–meaning his answer wasn’t simply a regurgitated talking point. Or at least, to the extent that it was, it’s one people within Walt Disney World and Imagineering actually believed.

For whatever it’s worth, a version of this explanation is what I’ve heard repeatedly over the years. Not just that Walt Disney World wants to present the original Haunted Mansion, but that they want to avoid guest complaints. These would be caused by having an iconic attraction down several weeks each year for the changeover and also by supposedly-lower guest satisfaction for Haunted Mansion Holiday as opposed to OG Haunted Mansion.

One persistent rumor is that Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare at Tokyo Disneyland was originally intended for Magic Kingdom. Not just the concept, generally, but the exact overlay that’s presented in the park to this day. Supposedly, the overlay plans got as far as fabrication, only to be rejected last-minute by park leadership on-the-ground in Orlando. (I cannot speak to the veracity of this, but it lines up and the overlay would fit Florida’s Haunted Mansion perfectly.)

I’ve heard this same “guest-friendly” explanation for Walt Disney World eschewing seasonal overlays on countless occasions to excuse countless things. Same goes for “it’s a small world” holiday, Country Bear Christmas, and Space Mountain. Ditto attraction overlays that are currently exclusive to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.

It’s also been extended to seasonal entertainment and overlays that aren’t even to attractions. Even today, some people within Walt Disney World claim that the Cinderella Castle Dream Lights are not presented due to guest complaints about the crane that installed them. The complaint part is true…which is precisely why Disney started lowering the cranes during the day in the last two years the icicle lights were presented. Guest complaints are absolutely not the reason why the Dream Lights display is dead. Money is.

Frankly, I suspect Walt Disney World’s infamous cheapness is also the real reason why holiday ride overlays have been rejected. Regardless of whether it comes down to money or guest expectations, Walt Disney World is wrong.

For years, the average wait times for Haunted Mansion Holiday at Disneyland have far exceeded those for the regular Haunted Mansion. In fairness, the seasonal overlay does run during the busiest stretch of the year, but the story is the same when comparing summer stats for Haunted Mansion with the early fall off-season. It’s the exact same story with Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare at Tokyo Disneyland.

Speaking of Tokyo Disneyland, another good example there is the Jingle Bell Jamboree/Country Bear Christmas and Vacation Jamboree/Hoedown versions of Country Bear Jamboree that the U.S. parks long ago abandoned. We had the opportunity to watch both of these overlays playing to absolutely packed houses this summer and holiday season. They’re so popular that Tokyo Disneyland even sold merchandise based on the seasonal shows a few years back.

Then there’s the “it’s a small world” holiday version of the iconic boat ride at Disneyland. To call this more popular than the regular “it’s a small world” would be a massive understatement. Again, this isn’t a perfect comparison, because part of the overlay is the exquisite exterior light display, which draws crowds (and wouldn’t even be possible in Magic Kingdom). But wait times are elevated evening during daylight, indicating it’s the substance of the seasonal overlay that’s popular–not just the bright lights.

One excuse we’ve heard WDW diehards offer for the Florida parks not doing seasonal overlays is that guest demographics are different at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland versus Walt Disney World. The thinking goes that there are many more locals, repeat visitors, and Annual Passholders at those parks. By contrast, Walt Disney World is more reliant on one-and-done tourists.

There’s no denying this is true…to an extent. Los Angeles and Tokyo are two of the largest metro areas in the world, and these fanbases are unquestionably more diehard than Walt Disney World. Those Disneylands are ingrained in the local cultures, and both parks skew more towards locals than tourists.

However, Tokyo doesn’t have Annual Passes anymore and it’s still been true. Both have done more to court non-locals, and we suspect it’s worked in California. Anaheim hasn’t seen an explosion in hotels since Cars Land opened for no reason–it should go without saying, but LA and Orange County residents aren’t booking those rooms. And we know Tokyo has been successful in broadening its reach as a tourist destination, as OLC releases these stats in its quarterly reports.

Meanwhile, demographics are also shifting at Walt Disney World–and in the other direction. Disney Vacation Club membership numbers continue to grow, and those developments are disproportionately in Florida. It’s at the point know where a sizable chunk of Walt Disney World’s room inventory is DVC, and those are all repeat visitors. That’s how Disney Vacation Club works!

Perhaps most significantly, there has been a population explosion in Central Florida. This has been a nationwide story in the last few years, but it actually started pre-COVID (that link is from 2019!). The trend has only accelerated since then (here are Census numbers published this year).

Several cities in Central Florida are among the fastest growing in the United States. Many of these new Florida residents are people fleeing the Northeast, Midwest…or California. This is significant because it means Walt Disney World, traditionally a tourist destination with a far lower AP pool than Disneyland, has increased its Annual Passholder population in the last few years. Wonder how Walt Disney World has managed to increase AP prices so much? Or why the week after New Year’s is now so busy? More locals is the answer.

All of this is probably self-evident to Floridians living near Walt Disney World. During our time residing in the Sunshine State, empty fields transformed into seas of subdivisions, single-lane roads became multi-lane, stop lights proliferated, schools were built…and it all still wasn’t enough. There’s still a housing shortage, traffic is terrible, schools instantly need modular classrooms, etc. And an incredibly common sight while sitting in that traffic? Walt Disney World Annual Passholder magnets on maybe one-third to half the cars. (No judgment–like so many, we moved to Florida because of Walt Disney World!)

The point is that conventional wisdom about tourists vs. locals at Walt Disney World (as opposed to Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland) is antiquated. It might’ve been true two decades ago, but has been less and less accurate with each passing year. Every time there’s a new DVC resort or another subdivision–and there have been many of both–there are new diehard Walt Disney World fans who are regular or repeat visitors.

Frankly, I don’t think this “wisdom” was true during that Haunted Mansion event over 15 years ago. Bay Lake Tower had already opened, and Walt Disney World was in the midst of building or planning multiple new Disney Vacation Club resorts. The tides had begun to turn, but notoriously slow-to-adapt Walt Disney World leadership was still stuck in its ways and old line of thinking.

There have been countless examples since that underscoring the “power” of repeat visitors and Walt Disney World diehards. The lines for that Figment popcorn bucket that garnered national media coverage. The crowds for opening day of any seasonal event or new attraction, no matter how big or small. (A virtual queue with an 8-hour wait for Moana’s Journey of Water?!) The lines for pretty much any AP magnet, giveaway, or offering.

We just returned from Christmas at Walt Disney World and by far the most popular shirt we saw on guests was a not-so-ugly Christmas sweater that Figment wears in Journey into Imagination. This $75 shirt that doesn’t even say “Disney” isn’t being bought by first-timers. It’s being bought disproportionately by DVC Members (at one point, about one-third of guests in the EPCOT lounge were sporting one!), Annual Passholders, and Floridians. It’s alone noteworthy that people residing in Florida are dropping big bucks on a sweater.

But again, this also is not anything new! The prevalence of this fan-favorite Figment sweater gave me flashbacks to almost a decade ago, during the last year of the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. Not only was Disney’s Hollywood Studios insanely busy that Christmas with guests saying their goodbyes, but about one-quarter of guests (not even an exaggeration) were sporting red “That’s A Wrap!” passholder-exclusive shirts. For the next few Christmases, this shirt and the green general public version continued to be the most common shirts we’d see during the holiday season.

Perhaps the conventional wisdom was true for the first few decades of Walt Disney World’s existence. I’d believe that. But it really seems like, for the last two decades, it’s been a convenient excuse. A way for management to justify its own laziness and cheapness–the type of thing that has typified Team Disney Orlando leadership thinking for a long time, and that continues to work because, frankly, Walt Disney World fans don’t expect or demand more. Instead of holding Disney to high standards, they parrot the excuses.

I haven’t believed the talking points about seasonal overlays at Walt Disney World for a long time, but what really sealed the deal for me was the lines we encountered this year for Living with the Land – Glimmering Greenhouses. This is the rare overlay that Walt Disney World actually does do, and to their credit (and in the interest of fairness and balance), it has gotten bigger and better every single year since it started.

Christmas 2024 seems like the coming out party for Living with the Land – Glimmering Greenhouses. Walt Disney World got better about marketing it, gave it a proper name and website presence (we’d always referred to it as ‘Merry & Bright Nights’ in the past), and really went all out decorating.

Living with the Land – Glimmering Greenhouses went from being what seemed like a passion project of Cast Members and the EPCOT team to something more–a true, fully-fledged seasonal overlay. The point of this post isn’t about how awesome Living with the Land – Glimmering Greenhouses is this year–and how it keeps getting better–but I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least acknowledge that in a post that’s otherwise negative towards Walt Disney World. (And perhaps recommend using a Lightning Lane on it, rather than the popular practice of an early morning throw-away LLMP at Living with the Land.)

Suffice to say, Walt Disney World really got Living with the Land – Glimmering Greenhouses right. And crowds responded accordingly!

Every single night we were there, Living with the Land – Glimmering Greenhouses had a peak wait time of 60 minutes or more. Its range in the evenings (the only time that matters since it’s a light display) was regularly 45-55 minutes, even at the very end of the night during the fireworks. To be sure, this overlay has been popular for the last several years, but I’ve never seen lines like this–and on random weeknights outside of peak season dates!

I don’t doubt there were tourists in those lines for Glimmering Greenhouses. After all, if there are two things with universal appeal, it’s Christmas lights…and greenhouses! It’s an awesome overlay, and there’s no reason to believe it would be popular exclusively with Walt Disney World fans, even if there was a higher concentration of Figment sweaters in line.

That’s sort of the point, though. Walt Disney World’s conventional wisdom seems to presuppose that tourists don’t care about or won’t like seasonal overlays. I don’t believe that’s the least bit true. I highly doubt Haunted Mansion Holiday or “it’s a small world” holiday have lower guest satisfaction numbers than their regular counterparts. Ditto the simpler ones in Cars Land or for Mission Breakout.

To the contrary, I think a majority of guests from all demographics enjoy getting to experience “something special.” Even if they don’t like the overlays, it’s fairly easy to avoid them. We live in an era of information. Approximately 13% of the world’s population has a blog or vlog about Disney. With even a modicum of online research, you can mostly avoid the overlays if it’s that important to you. Same goes mostly for the downtime to install them, which is fairly consistent year-to-year.

Speaking of which, the other argument concerns complaints about downtime to install and remove the overlays. I’m also skeptical of this. Walt Disney World’s track record of adding refurbishments to the calendar at the absolute last minute and poor preventative maintenance does not suggest to me they actually care about this. If they did, they’d publish the full refurbishment schedule at least 6 months in advance (a la Tokyo Disney Resort) or work harder to prevent unscheduled ride breakdowns. It’s another convenient excuse to justify not putting in more effort.

With all of that said, this post serves two purposes–one negative (but hopefully constructive!) and the other positive. We were really blown away by just how much Living with the Land – Glimmering Greenhouses has grown into its own, and want to show our appreciation for how this ride overlay has blossomed:

Ultimately, we have to give kudos to Walt Disney World for a job well done on Living with the Land – Glimmering Greenhouses. Whether it’s a labor of love among Cast Members working in the Land pavilion or park management giving them more resources–or both–the ride overlay looks fantastic this year.

This fairly simple overlay (compared to the ones Disneyland does) just scratches the surface of what’s possible, and demand for it also demonstrates why Walt Disney World’s convenient excuses for not doing holiday overlays are also self-defeating. It’s not just guests who benefit from seasonal overlays or offerings.

Disney is selling those Figment sweaters at $75 a pop, which is probably like $70 of margin. Living with the Land – Glimmering Greenhouses is getting locals to visit or keeping them in the park later, which probably results in food or $75 sweater sales. (If they made the Land logo ornament into an actual ornament, myself and thousands of other APs would drop $30 or whatever on it!) Fans would literally book trips for a return of the Cinderella Castle Dream Lights, which would also sell more PhotoPass packages plus all of the above.

The list goes on and on. So often, it feels like Walt Disney World’s lack of effort is truly due to laziness and little else, and that there’s plenty of reason to believe they’d come out ahead by trying just a tad harder to exceed guest expectations. Penny wise and pound foolish. But the steady stream of tourist dollars breeds complacency and offers a disincentive for trying harder, or putting in the level of effort of Disneyland. That’s unfortunate, and not just for us as fans. If Walt Disney World management is reading this and remains unpersuaded, I’d propose a simple, low stakes test: bring back Country Bear Christmas in 2025.

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Your Thoughts

What do you think of holiday ride overlays? Would you be disappointed about not getting to experience the regular version of the attraction, or happy about seeing something special and new? Would you book a trip to Walt Disney World at Christmas to experience an overlay? Or would you avoid the parks? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment of shifting demographics and WDW’s thinking on overlays being outdated? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!