Now might be one of the best times to visit a Disney park if you hate lines.
Walt Disney parks are some of the top vacation destinations for families, despite the high costs and the fact that they are often incredibly crowded. Type in “Disney itinerary” online, however, and you’ll find hundreds of social media accounts, websites, and forums, dedicated to planning out the perfect Disneyland or Disney World trip.
And while most of these sites suggest visiting the parks during the off-season to avoid the crowds, the thing that might surprise people right now is that the parks have been pretty dead this year on days that were formally “peak visiting times.”
According to Disney experts, summer is one of the most popular times to visit Disney parks, especially when holiday weekends roll around. From May until August, crowds tend to reach their peak. However, this year, the writer for the Disney Fanatic site wrote that Disney World was unusually void of people the weekend before this past July 4. Ahead of the national holiday, there were plenty of activities that the park had planned, such as the Heartbeat of Freedom at Epcot Center and the House of Mouse Independence Day celebration at the Magic Kingdom.
Unfortunately for the parks, there aren’t many people in the crowds to witness them.
According to the Most Magical subreddit, the lines at Magic Kingdom are about 30% shorter than they have been over the past few years.
One Redditor wrote that they often try to avoid visiting Walt Disney World on the 4th of July, though they were pretty surprised to see how short the lines were, especially considering the fact that it’s usually the busiest day of the year.
The same Redditor also wrote that other Disney parks at Walt Disney World were facing the same percentage drops.
One Twitter user wrote about their vacation to the Disney parks, talking about how they were surprised at how short the wait times were. They noted that Epcot Park was nearly empty when they visited on Sunday. Some cited the abnormally high temperatures in Florida as a possible deterrent, though many are skeptical.
Many people are now pointing to expensive airfare and inflation. Families are on much tighter budgets these days, and those that want a similar experience can go the budget-friendly route of visiting Universal and staying at their cheaper hotels.
Beyond external factors, some noted that the shorter lines could be a result of the new Genie+ add-on feature available in the Disney app, which gives more riders access to the front of the lines.
According to Fox Business, Disney might have some trouble in its future in general, as the KeyBanc Capital Markets recently downgraded Disney stock. With disinterest in Disney’s ESPN streaming service and little subscriber growth on the Disney+ and Hulu platforms, we might expect to see more layoffs in the near future.
