Disney Fourth Quarter Earnings Call Notes - Slow Playing Parks Investment

 

Disney had their fourth quarter (and therefore entire year) earnings call yesterday.  As always, a lot of what is talked about there is dense and numbers heavy, so I don't want to go into too much detail as it relates to the company as a whole.  This blog is focused on Walt Disney World, so I wanted to talk about a couple of things that came up related to the parks, as well as Disney reiterating yet again their plan to "turbocharge" investments into the parks.

In the "Experiences" segment (which is really Parks, Resorts and Experiences - I think the name keeps changing but it means large the same thing), operating income was up year over year.  This is good news!  The parks continue to be Disney's most successful sector, and Bob Iger once again commented on CNBC that the parks are "a great place to place our bets."

After Hours vs. Extended Evening Hours

 

Disney recently announced the return of the popular Disney After Hours parties for dates in early 2024.  I wanted to talk about that here, but also put it in the context of Extended Evening Hours, which are both similar and different from the After Hours events.  We'll compare these and try to answer the age old question of whether one or both of these are "worth it" for the average visitor.

Disney loves to use similar terminology for their different offerings, so let's first be clear about what we're talking about here.  Disney After Hours (DAH) is a paid after party (separate from your daily admission to the parks) where guests can enjoy three hours of late night attractions, with lower crowds (and often much better temperatures).  Extended Evening Hours (EEH) are two hours that can be enjoyed by certain resort guests (which we'll get to below).  This is NOT a separate ticket - the only thing you need to show in this case is proof that you are staying at a qualified resort.  Neither of these offerings are themed, like a Halloween or Christmas party; there was a brief time where DAH had a villains theme, but that went away and had not yet returned, so for our purposes, we're only discussing the original, come as you are After Hours.

Columbus Day Crowd Report

 

Columbus Day (or Indigenous Peoples' Day, as some might call it now) is kind of a sneaky holiday at Disney World.  It's only one day, and not multiple days or an entire week, so most people think it won't be crowded.  But this is often incorrect - Columbus Day usually spikes crowds leading to long lines and frustration among guests.

I haven't done a crowd report in a while, so I thought I would take a look at the crowds from last week, leading up to and beyond Columbus Day.  I wanted to see what the crowd levels were like, how they compared to last year and what this might all mean for the coming, always busy holiday seasons.  I found a few things that surprised me this year, so let's dig into the numbers.

FULL Park Hopping Returns (Plus Price Increases)

Disney put out a bunch of announcements yesterday about its parks, and as is often the case, there is both good news and bad news.  We're going to look at both here, and talk about why they are happening now and what it might still mean (in terms of bad news!) in the future.

Disney has a habit of "softening the blow" by announcing price increases or cutbacks along with some news that is objectively good.  In this case, it's no different, and I'm going to start with that good news - all day park hopping is back at Disney World!  Starting January 9, 2024 (remember this date), park hopping is really, truly back to normal for those that have hopper tickets or annual passes.  

New Things Coming to Disney World: Expectations, and the Art of the Spin

 

Last weekend saw a whirlwind of news announced for Disney World (as well as the other parks throughout the world) at Destination D23.  I wrote a post that day that noted everything that had been announced, as well as my immediate reactions to them.  I've had a chance to digest all of these things over the past week, and I wanted to write another post with some more thoughts on what's coming, when and why things were done in this particular way.

If you haven't already read it, please look at the D23 post linked above, as that talks about all the announcements in list form.  I'm going to refer to all of these things in this post with the expectation that you know what I'm talking about (a leap of faith many times, I'm sure).  

Destination D23 Announcements

 

Destination D23 is taking place this weekend at the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World.  This is a convention with numerous panels discussing everything coming up for Disney as a company. We're going to focus only on news related to Disney World, as that is this blog's focus, and there are plenty of new items to discuss.  So let's get to it!

We'll start with some updates on previously announced information, now with more solid dates.

 

Figment Meet and Greet starting September 10 at Epcot

Back in March, the Figment meet and greet was announced as coming "later this summer" along with a few others, most of which have already opened.  I'm not sure why it took so long to get a costumed character to meet in his home park, but here we are.  I do kind of like that this one was announced, along with Figment actually appearing on stage with the presenters, and it will be open right away.  The wait for Figment is over!

 

Top Five "Moments" At Walt Disney World

How do you measure the success (or lack thereof) on a vacation?  Everyone will likely have different measures, though in the case of a Disney vacation, "saved money and avoided crowds" are not likely to be on that list.  I like to think back on our vacations as a series of moments, frozen in time in my brain (and sometimes even in a photo).

Some moments, you simply can't get back.  For me, a lot of those moments revolve around our first trip with the kids.  You can't ever recreate the magic of them seeing the parks for the first time, and I have plenty of "unrepeatable" moments that come from that trip (first time for them on an airplane, first ride at Epcot, first time seeing Illuminations, among many others).