Domestic Disney Parks Income Increases 22%, ‘Resilient’ Despite Epic Universe Opening
The Walt Disney Company reported its third quarter fiscal 2025 earnings, with the company’s Experiences (Parks & Resorts + Consumer Products) reporting $9.1 billion in revenue through June 28. This covers the good & bad of these results as they relate to Walt Disney World & Disneyland, including comments about Epic Universe, park attendance, hotel occupancy and more.
Company-wide, Disney’s beat forecasts on earnings per share of $1.61 adjusted vs. $1.47 expected. Net income for the quarter was $5.26 billion, more than double the $2.62 billion that the company reported for the same period last year. Disney’s overall revenue rose 2% to $23.65 billion, barely missing analyst expectations ($23.73 billion) for the first time since May 2024.
Disney upped its fiscal 2025 guidance on Wednesday and now expects adjusted EPS of $5.85, an increase of 18% from fiscal 2024, after another record-setting quarter. This was a common theme of the earnings call, especially on the Parks & Resorts side, with results that exceeded expectations and causing Disney to revise forward-looking expectations upwards.
Disney’s Experiences division (which includes Parks & Resorts) revenue rose 8% during the quarter to $9.09 billion and operating income increased 13% to $2.5 billion. Domestic theme park revenue rose 10% to $6.4 billion on $1.6 billion income, which is a whopping 22% increase. International park income actually dropped 3%, marking another quarter during which the strength of Walt Disney World and Disneyland picked up the slack for the international parks.
The company attributed the increased operating results at its domestic parks & experiences to growth at Walt Disney World and Disneyland and, to a lesser extent, Disney Cruise Line. This reflected an increase in guest spending due to higher spending at theme parks, plus higher DCL volumes attributable to increases in passenger cruise days and occupied room nights. Additional passenger cruise days reflected the launch of the Disney Treasure in the first quarter of the current year. Costs also increased primarily due to new guest offerings, including the fleet expansion at Disney Cruise Line.
Drilling down a little deeper, Disney’s 10-Q showed that attendance was flat at the domestic theme parks, but resort occupancy increased from 83% to 86% at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Since there are exponentially more Disney-owned hotels in Florida than California, this is largely a story of Walt Disney World’s strength. Despite other decreases, international occupancy was also up, increasing from 82% to 87%.
Also interesting was the forward outlook for 2025. In the Executive Commentary, the company shared that they are “pleased with these results and encouraged by the continued resiliency of our domestic parks business, particularly at Walt Disney World given the increased competition in the Orlando market.”
Disney further shared that based on what they’re currently seeing across the Experiences segment, the company now expects segment operating income growth of approximately 8% for fiscal 2025 compared to the prior year. As you might recall, Disney had previously reiterated that it expected fiscal 2025 growth for the Experiences segment during the full-year to be 6% to 8% as compared to last year, with growth weighted in the second half of the year.
This is growth now coming in at the higher end of expectations. Just to emphasize, it’s happening despite Universal Orlando opening Epic Universe. And it’s happening at a time when Walt Disney World and Disneyland are picking up the slack for the international parks. Not only that, but it’s largely being fueled largely by higher hotel occupancy–numbers that are necessarily driven by Walt Disney World bookings since that’s where the hotels are (mostly). No matter how you slice it, Walt Disney World performing well. Stronger than expected.
During the earnings call itself, Disney CFO Hugh Johnston expressed enthusiasm for the Experiences segment, indicating it performed better than expected for the fiscal quarter. In response to an analyst question, Johnston revealed that “Walt Disney World just had a record Q3 revenue number…we certainly feel great about that.”
He shared that Disneyland Paris also overperformed, but conceded that was due to “easier overlaps due to the Olympics last year” (last summer was slow due to tourists avoiding Paris during the Olympics). Conversely, he shared that the biggest problem point is China, as the Chinese consumer is “challenged,” resulting in lower per guest spending even as attendance remains strong. This has been a trend over the last couple of calls.
In terms of bookings for the Experiences division in the fourth quarter, right now they are up about 6%. Overall, Disney feels positively about these numbers and the strong outlook for the Parks & Resorts businesses as a whole.
During the Q&A, an analyst asked about the mix of attendance at the domestic parks of local, out-of-state, and international tourists, and whether there any diversions from normal trends given the “noise” around the opening of Epic Universe and inbound international visitors to the United States? (Presumably for the reasons discussed in Canadians Are Canceling Walt Disney World Vacations.)
Johnston responded that “nothing material” is going on with the attendance mix. “Overall we feel good, certainly with the per caps, but we also feel good about the attendance as well. In light of the fact that there is a competitive offering in the marketplace, the fact that attendance came in as well as it did is something that we feel terrific about.”
This isn’t a huge surprise. In Why Summer is the New Low Crowds Season at Disney World, we offered several explanations for the lower wait times, and international visitation was not a significant driver. It has accounted for a 1 to 1.5% pullback, per Disney’s previous earnings call. Subsequently, we’ve theorized that an increase in South American tourists could be offsetting decreases from Canada and Europe, but there’s no support for that beyond our anecdotal observations. In any case, it would seem that the worst of the international decline is already over.
Orlando International Airport (MCO) just released its visitor volumes for June, and those numbers corroborate what Johnston said about nothing material happening with foreign visitors to the domestic parks. International MCO passenger traffic was up 5.0% for the month, while domestic passenger traffic was down 2.0% for a combined decrease of 1.1%. The rolling 12-month total stands at 56.5 million annual passengers. Despite the overall decrease in passenger traffic for the month, Orlando remains the busiest airport in Florida for the 12-months ended June 2025.
It’s also interesting that per guest spending numbers are up for the first half of summer. This is probably mostly a hotel occupancy story, as going from 83% to 86% is a material improvement and resorts are one of the biggest guest expenses. Even with flat attendance, shifting stays from off-site to on-site is huge. That’s doubly true when Universal Orlando just opened 3 new resorts, and countless other hotels have debuted recently in Central Florida.
The company did not break numbers down on the earnings call, but higher per guest spending was likely further boosted by higher base ticket prices (2025 saw the first increase since December 2022), as well as higher Lightning Lane costs (and the introduction of Premier Pass), as well as food & beverage and a range of other price increases that occurred at the start of the fiscal year back in October.
But it’s also worth acknowledging that this higher per guest spending number came in the face of special offers for admission and room rates that were better than last year. As we’ve pointed out, Summer 2025 had the most aggressive discounts we’ve seen in a long time. By carefully taking advantage of the latest wave of discounts for this summer on tickets & resorts, we’re seeing the lowest prices for Walt Disney World vacations in over 6 years. (See How to Get the Cheapest Walt Disney World Trip Since 2019.)
It’s likely that Disney captured many guests at higher prices, before the aforementioned discounts were rolled out. Honestly, this is a blind spot for us–and probably many other fans. We all see special offers and assume that rational guests are booking–or rebooking–those. In all likelihood, there’s a high percentage of guests who price out and book trips once. Whatever rate they got back in late December or January on summer travel, discounted or otherwise, is the price they’re paying.
The aggressive discounting would nevertheless help explain the increase in occupancy, and there was certainly extra bandwidth last summer in that regard. What’s also interesting here is that attendance was mostly flat year-over-year. It’s not as if last summer was particularly strong, crowd-wise, but we’ve nevertheless seen wait times trend downwards over the last three months.
This means that there’s a non-attendance explanation for the decrease. Here was our big theory covered in a recent crowd report: “We’ve written a lot about the impact of the DAS changes on wait times at Walt Disney World. Most recently just last month in Is Lightning Lane Multi Pass Still “Worth It” at Disney World?” One of our main points with this has been that standby lines are shorter and faster moving, with wait times being lower year-over-year as a direct result of the DAS crackdown. Even if attendance is exactly the same, crowd levels (as reflected in wait times) would be lower than the same dates last year as a result.”
Our extensive experiences in the parks over the last year have all reinforced this. If you’re wondering why the Lightning Lane field testing posts have dried up, it’s because I don’t really see the point. Line-skipping is less necessary and less useful than ever, which is a rare win for the base, non-monetized guest experience. For all of the complaining there has been about upcharges and other guest unfriendly changes, Walt Disney World quietly made one of the biggest improvements to the guest experience in ages, and it’s gone almost unnoticed by the fandom. We’ve done our part with multiple articles on the topic, but it’s still oddly under-discussed.
Although the next month-plus is typically the slowest stretch of the entire year at Walt Disney World, and October has been showing signs of softness in the last few years due to the loss of convention business, there’s no reason to expect anything different from the current quarter.
For one thing, because Disney reiterated its previous guidance for the domestic parks & resorts, and indicated they’d be at the higher end of the spectrum. There were also new openings in this quarter that could help buoy attendance, including Disney Starlight Night Parade at Magic Kingdom and Test Track in EPCOT. Not to mention the normal seasonal stuff that happens annually.
For another thing, because we’ve seen no signs of further slowdown in August through October. We expected to see aggressive discounts on par with the Disney+ deal for summer, but that never happened. There was a Priceline promo over Prime Day that had some great rates, but it was largely hit or miss; it’s hard to believe that moved the needle much.
Otherwise, discounts are completely in line with historical norms for the next couple of months. So even if they were up for July (the first month of the current quarter), that may not make much difference. Especially since that aggressive deal was a targeted one. Beyond that, Walt Disney World “benefits” from an easier comparison last year, when there were hurricane scares that resulted in a deluge of cancellations and hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue.
Looking forward even further, it’s our expectation that October through December is actually up year-over-year. For one, those aforementioned hurricanes also adversely impacted October. For another thing, we saw materially weaker general public discounts in the latest round of special offers, with most resorts offering significantly lower percentage savings (e.g. 10% off this year vs. 20% off last year).
Not only that, but there’s limited availability for some resort/room/date combos. That’s fairly common with the October through December promos, as it’s a fan-favorite time to visit. It’s difficult to complain that this discount isn’t that good on the one hand, and then turn around and also complain that availability isn’t that good. The latter complaint is precisely why Disney isn’t offering particularly stellar savings. They don’t need to.
The final few months of the year are very different from the summer. Even during lower attendance dates from October through December, hotel occupancy (which is not indicative of crowds since most guests come from off-site) is high. It certainly appears that the end of the calendar year–or start of the next fiscal year–is going to be a strong one for Walt Disney World. Honestly, that’s probably less impressive than the strength of this summer given the surrounding circumstances.
Ultimately, it was a strong quarter for the company as a whole, but especially the Disney Experiences division and the domestic Parks & Resorts, in particular. Walt Disney World and Disneyland, as well as Disney Cruise Line were real bright spots. Hopefully that reinforces the company’s bullishness in the business, and investing in Parks & Resorts over the next decade.
Walt Disney World’s record quarter despite the opening of Epic Universe should not be overlooked. While Comcast’s recent earnings call expressed excitement and optimism for that new park’s opening, it also hinted at some of the same issues (capacity and reliability) that we’ve been discussing for a while (see Why You Should Skip Epic Universe Until 2026). Some fans so badly want to see Disney taken down a peg or go back to how things were in the ‘good ole days’ that they are willfully ignoring the weaknesses of Epic Universe, or at least the challenges presented by a new theme park.
As should be painfully obvious by now, Universal is not going to eat Disney’s lunch and Epic Universe isn’t hurting Walt Disney World. To be sure, Epic Universe is a great theme park that will be a formidable force over time. Honestly, I still don’t think the “rising tides” thesis is correct; Epic Universe is still scaling up and the park’s demand and capacity normalizing over time will likely give Universal Orlando a hotel occupancy boost. But nothing we’re seeing right now offers any support to claims that Epic Universe is negatively impacting Walt Disney World in any way, shape or form.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on the Walt Disney Company’s Q3FY25 earnings? Thoughts on the growth of the domestic parks versus the underperformance of the international parks (namely China)? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any other thoughts or commentary to add? 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!
It sure is an interesting time. On many levels, it will be interesting to see what happens with the parks, given Disney’s long-term plans and the unprecedented convergence of circumstances we have so far skirted worst effects of, but will likely be forced to confront sooner rather than later.
Maybe it’s all going to be just fine. But I could also see, more than any other point in my lifetime at least, this being an odd inflection point. At the same time I can’t remember there being more confidence about the future of Disney and Universal parks, which in itself seems like a red flag.
I’ve always been pretty bad at predicting transitions and even worse the timing of transitions, however I don’t think having Rivers of America replaced with a Cars mini-land is going to be the biggest challenge facing Disney park fans in the future.
Speaking of fans, whenever the “resilience of consumer spending” comes up, I can’t help but question what that resilience really means. Earnings events like these seem to suggest we should take it at face value, yet there’s a clear gap between reality and behavior. When what goes up never seems to come down, there has to be an explanation. And when that resilience of behavior runs counter to reality, well…
I do think theme parks are uniquely well positioned to withstand the rapid, unpredictable pace of technological change – along with its intended and unintended consequences. (Perhaps Disney’s leadership has reached the same conclusion.) At the same time, Disney’s heavy embrace of social media hype, “Disney adults,” FOMO, and exclusive, limited-access experiences feels more like a short-term numbers play, sacrificing the very idea of a broadly appealing, accessible, and culturally resonant shared “rite of passage” that once defined Disney – the kind of experience that elevated it above pop culture trends. So, Disney has shown remarkable resilience, to borrow their word, but its commitment to what people have long thought of as “Disney” has changed.
In my opinion, the investments being made at Disney parks resemble the sort of rapid but hollow suburban sprawl of the 1990s and 2000s —McMansions and other uninspired developments that give the illusion of growth without real ambition. Disney’s expansion from the 2000s to today follows much the same pattern: changes that suggest progress while masking the lack of substantive innovation.
Whereas once Disney relied on genuinely positively experiences and engagement, and long term relationships between visitors and the parks to drive the business, it’s now, to a significant degree, about artificial relationships and curated performances of fandom.
The real trouble I think starts when the company itself starts getting lost in the confusion of it’s own making. Even if it knew from the start that its successes were engineered or artificial, it’s easy to lose sight of that when interpreting results, and before long, it can spiral into a cycle of compounding mistakes.
I can’t help but nod in agreement with your assessment of the Lightning Lane situation. The way the standby lines were consistent with the crowd levels last week was very nice.
Whenever we hit a LL merge point, I had two thoughts:
1. Acknowledging the unfortunate collateral damage to those impacted by the DAS change, it was refreshing to know that the LL guests were not disproportionately those that were trying to game the system as in the past.
2. How many of the people that bought LL knew they could have just as much of a successful day without the extra expense?
Sure, it takes a bit of prep work and know-how to maximize your time, but I’d argue it takes just as much to maximize your LL effectiveness. That was evidenced by overhearing other guests choose their next LL on an attraction with multiple return times available, not realizing that’s indicative that it doesn’t need a LL. Or when you’re in line but have to worry about missing your return time. Or when your next return time is on the other side of the park and it disrupts your natural path of travel.
Then again, maybe you don’t need so much planning, just know to “zig when they zag.”
We were at Disney world July 26-Aug 1, and definitely felt light crowds! Specifically at Epcot and Magic Kingdom. I know this earnings call covered the quarter ending on June 28. Wondering if the record-setting heatwave impacted anything? At Magic Kingdom only Main Street was crowded for the night parade, but other parts of the parks were uncrowded with low waits. On our Epcot day of course the big rides were busy, but just casually walking around the showcase in the morning there was one point where I looked to my right and then to my left and could not see a single person. That has never happened to me before! So I’ll be curious to hear about July at the next quarterly call. Agreed that summer is now slow season! I did feel like standby lines moved better than they have since pre-pandemic times. I was expecting to hear less international accents this trip because of rumors of less international travel but they were out in force! Especially British and Brazilians! Not as many accents from other European countries as from previous years but still felt like some days I heard more international accents than domestic!
And I’m one of the people that booked my trip in a resort that I like in a package with the bounce back discount and never changed it for other discounts. I wanted the friendship boats, Skyliner, and location of my resort so even though the deal for animal kingdom lodge was amazing, I decided to pass. I guess we just like what we like sometimes.
I find the whole situation quite paradoxal with low attendance, many discounts and yet high earnings. I am not sure how to interpret it – of course I understand it is a mix of volume and spending but still.
Not easy to see where this is going
Interesting that Disneyland Paris has shown strong performance. I thought perhaps this year would be weak with people putting of a visit until the Studios Expansion opens next year. I’m glad to see it do well though as it can only mean more investment and maybe more new rides in the future.
It doesn’t surprise me too much that international travel to the US parks has stayed the same. In the UK, Disney World packages go on sale the year before. Many people book trips over a year in advance. If there is to be a downturn in European visitors to Disney World, it will be next year.
Earnings calls largely revolve around YoY comparisons, so the fact that DLP had an easier comparison is probably the biggest explanation there. Without looking, I seem to recall DLP underperforming for a few quarters last year due not just to the Olympics, but also “lapping” the 30th Anniversary. So working against a lower baseline also helps.
It’s a somewhat similar story with Walt Disney World. The last two years, they’ve seemingly been surprised by the soft summer numbers (which also provide a lower baseline that’s easier to beat). This year, they got more aggressive with discounts and that did the trick. That’s not to be dismissive of the results, as it was WDW’s best-ever third quarter, which didn’t happen by accident.
I wonder how many years until we get a new resort hotel added to the loop in that open spot between the TTR and the Contemporary? Even if the land there is really swampy and ill-suited for construction, it’s such a prime location that it just seems like a new build is inevitable based on how profitable it would be. These results seem to hammer home that the WDW on-property resorts are VERY profitable. I would assume ESPECIALLY the ones on the magic kingdom monorail loop, given their premium pricing.
Tom, I do think if you made a post speculating about a new Magic Kingdom monorail loop hotel, it would be totally worth reading. I have no idea what the theme would be. I would have said Mediterranean style, but they already kind of tried that with the mostly-ignored “Riviera” that’s not exactly lighting up social media. Wouldn’t they want something distinctive and iconic, like the Poly, Contemporary, and Grand Floridian all are, each in their own way? If so, what would that be?? Please speculate. If you want to wait until credible rumors start swirling, I certainly understand. I’m just saying this sort of speculation is more interesting to me than the “5th gate” stuff that I agree is definitely not happening.
I agree that new hotels are definitely more interesting. I have a few outlines for a post like this in my head, but want to start with another topic first about why WDW building more hotels is *not* bad for crowds in the parks. Obviously two different topics, but that topic would prompt replies along the lines of “don’t build more hotels, the parks are already too crowded” so I want to preemptively address that.
I think it’s also tough to speculate about whatever the next hotel will be because it’s coming after there’s a new CEO, which could mean different design preferences. Or maybe not? I suspect a combination of “evolving” guest preferences along with rising labor and maintenance costs are a very big part of the calculus.
Love the speculation about a new deluxe resort near the TTC. A good fit for luxury travelers would be a “Lake Como” style vibe (that’s not new… the Bellagio in Vegas nailed it years ago). The Riviera resort would overlap a bit but that’s more of a generic Italian/French hodgepodge.
Conceptually there are also many ways they could go with an Atlantic or Mediterranean village theme. Portugal, Croatia, and Greece are all the rage on the travel scene and aesthetic elements of coastal cities/villages from those or other areas would fit nicely in a lakeside context.
However, it’s clear now that IP reigns above all (Mary Poppins in the GF, Moana at the Poly), so any new resort in the MK area would need to facilitate a tie-in to popular characters. That makes this a trickier proposition. Maybe they’d just build a “Disney’s Royal Resort” that contained nods to the various castles and palaces of Disney films, and special rooms and experiences (and Instagram-friendly “scenes”) dedicated to almost any princess or hero imaginable? It would have to be tasteful and restrained to appeal to the luxury travel crowd, but I’d imagine it would be a big deal for many people to say they’re “Staying at the Royal” on your Disney vacation.
They increased revenue by increasing costs.
I mean, costs to all of us.
“For all of the complaining there has been about upcharges and other guest unfriendly changes, Walt Disney World quietly made one of the biggest improvements to the guest experience in ages, and it’s gone almost unnoticed by the fandom. We’ve done our part with multiple articles on the topic, but it’s still oddly under-discussed.”
It’s under-discussed for I think two big reasons:
1. Nearly every “fan” I know has someone who was affected in a real way by the DAS changes (not in a positive way). It might have made it better, but I know of two or three older people that are basically just done with the resorts without the accommodations that they needed. We all benefited from their loss in the name of the machine. I can’t celebrate that.
2. The LL mix can still massively break things and attractions, especially with downtimes. Look at Test Track, Space (Disneyland), Guardians (DCA), or Tiana’s (Both) – these attractions become a mess the moment they have any downtime, because the LL ME creates an awful situation. Not much working around it, but the paid factor leads to more redemptions, and this can tank a wait time for hours. It’s a major glitch they need to fix with this system now. Disneyland still uses the “Lighting Lane has priority” speeches in queues and such when there are extended wait times, because that’s still clearly the goal to work through the backlog.
1. This is a very fair point. It’s definitely a sensitive subject, and all of our discussion stops well short of “celebrating” it and always includes an asterisk along these lines (from the LLMP post linked to in the article): “We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention here that this DAS crackdown came at the expense of disabled guests who need DAS in order to enjoy Walt Disney World. While it’s good to see the abusers being denied, there has been collateral damage. Many guests who are actually disabled have been swept up in the crackdown–it’s unfortunate there’s no way to narrowly target the abusers. I won’t pretend to know what the “perfect” solution is–but some of the stories to come out of the status quo are heartbreaking.”
2. From everything I’ve seen and experienced in the last year, this is almost exclusively a Disneyland issue. Even outside of the DAS changes, the switch from G+ to LLMP has been more substantive at WDW in terms of fewer LLs distributed. I haven’t dug into the data on Test Track since it reopened, but I know that TBA at MK significantly throttles advance LLMP for this very reason. If ops are going well, there’s a ton of pop-up availability. If not, there isn’t.
On Aug 9 at guardians in epcot there was a posted 225 minute wait at 8:30 ish (it had been climbing all evening). We purposely walked by there on our way out to see what kind of craziness that line would look like and were surprised to see NO ONE in the outdoor queue. Couldn’t resist asking the ride attendant what was up and was told because of on and off downtime during the day they were sending a lot of LL guests through and it really was a pretty long wait. So it appears this is happening at wdw as well as disneyland. I still kind of question the reality of 225 minutes but wasn’t about to get in line to test it!
I also wonder if, beyond bypassing the line, accommodating disabled guests took « too long ». It is very cynical but ambulatory guests are quicker to load and unload.
So do you think we will see any discount tickets deals for the rest of the year coming from Disney? I’ve been holding off buying my tickets for October and December. I’ve already bought my party tickets but that’s it.
It’s not common for ticket deals from October through December.
Not saying there’s no chance of one, especially if the thinking is that they have the bandwidth for added attendance during some of those weeks. But I don’t think it’s likely, and if a deal were to happen, it would be aimed at Florida residents (and pricier on a per day basis than the summer deal).
Make money and then make more money than screw the quests
Given all the complaining that Disney is a greedy corporation at some point someone will create a theme park that has really low prices for entrance and food then simply breakeven. The hotels as well would charge really low prices. Screamscape might be a good source for these types of parks. Knoebels in Pennsylvania might be someplace you might want to check out – no entrance fees and there is a campground right next door. Hotels nearby are basic places (think like a Red Roof). It’s not Disney but it is inexpensive, and I would assume ownership is not greedy
I think the untold story is in the weakness of Disney’s media businesses, including Disney+ as Jack mentioned, and in its linear media businesses (broadcast and cable). The success of the Experiences segment domestically is very interesting in light of the poor numbers coming out of the Las Vegas tourism industry.
Linear is definitely a big problem, and one that’s only going to get worse over time. I don’t think there’s any avoiding that. But streaming continues to improve profitability, so I’m not sure how that’s cause for concern.
I’ve only followed the Las Vegas story loosely, so I don’t purport to be an expert on that. One thing I see mentioned a lot is how the hotels and casinos have gotten really bad about nickel & diming guests. From the outside, it’s impossible for me to tell whether this is just Vegas enthusiasts venting, or an actual cause of the problem. I did see that international traffic was down fairly considerably to the local airport–but MCO is seeing the opposite of that.
ETA: Just saw this meme, which doesn’t add much of substance, but I found it amusing and arguably applicable to a similar conversation about WDW: https://x.com/RobertMSterling/status/1952924322500362650
“Some fans so badly want to see Disney taken down a peg or go back to how things were in the ‘good ole days’ that they are willfully ignoring the weaknesses of Epic Universe, or at least the challenges presented by a new theme park.”
This is an important point. Facts and data matter, not clickbait and hate. There were (and continue to be) so many saying that Epic is going to crush WDW. The evidence so far has been precisely the opposite. We will see over the next year or so how the data continues to unfold. I am no reflexive Disney fanboy by any stretch, but I’d say the smart money would be on Disney ultimately overshadowing Epic with its new expansions and remaining firmly in the number 1 slot.
Beyond everything else that we’ve already discussed, inertia and the cultural foundation of Walt Disney World are hard to overcome. There’s also the reality that Universal’s two legacy parks have some areas that are in rough shape. It’s going to take another decade-plus of investment and expansion before they’re in a truly competitive position as a bona fide vacation destination. And by that point, Disney presumably has its own slate of major new additions.
Epic Universe and the resorts that Universal Orlando has built out over the last decade provides a strong foundation, and they’re absolutely in a position to poach some overnight hotel stays in the next few years. But the notion that “Disney is doomed” or whatever as a result of Epic Universe is lunacy. If Disney fails at this point, Universal goes down right along with it.
In the end, we should all just be happy to enjoy the ride. Theme parks are viewed as a growth area by both Universal and Disney, and the two are going to fuel a boom for the industry in Central Florida. We all benefit from that!
Tom–agreed on all those points. The customer always benefits the most from strong competition. In addition to the rough shape of Universal’s legacy parks, I would add: (1) their hotels, except for Portofino, are not able to compete with Disney’s deluxe or even moderate resorts, and (2) the Disney-bubble vacation feel caused by the vast tract of land Disney owns is an almost insurrmountable advantage. That second point hit home for me the most when I was standing on the loading platform for Stardust racers, looking out on the convention center, the industrial plant, and other parts of urban Orlando.
I think that if I were to mention a newly-opened Universal park to my coworkers, neighbors, etc, the general response would be, “I didn’t know there was a new park.” We theme park nerds do not make up the majority of theme park goers.
Dive deeper and you find that lots of this is fiscal gerrymandering, especially with its non-park content such as Disney Plus. Disney still has attendance problems.
There are countless instances in this earnings report of the company reporting decreases in revenue or income. So if you truly believe they’d make those admissions but then lie about Walt Disney World being up for reasons unknown, I guess that’s your prerogative.
Maybe it’s also possible that some people or outlets have such a vested interest in the “Disney is doomed” narrative that they morph their message to explain away the results. I just know that for the better part of a decade, I’ve been hearing about how Disney is on the precipice of financial disaster, is cooking the books, etc. And yet, here we are.