Disney Issues Unintentional Warning to Guests: Stay Clear for Spring Break

Disney has defied the odds when it comes to spring break with their unprecedentedly low crowds, after they essentially warned guests to keep out of the parks during high seasons.

While Disney World used to have “slower” seasons, nowadays, the parks are packed whenever you go. Not only are there one-off holidays year-round that cause guests to visit, but there are also special events like runDisney, after-hours events, Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, and more that have guests flying in specifically for that experience.

There are times of the year that are expected to kick it up a notch when it comes to that shoulder-to-shoulder contact, however. You know, when you are trying to get through the bottleneck in Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom between Peter Pan’s Flight and “it’s a small world”, and you are bumping into strangers over and over while trying to make sure you are not separated from your party — that kind of crowd. These instances take place during holidays when kids are out of school, and parents are off of work, just like spring break.

Across America, spring break takes place during different weeks depending on the school board, making essentially the entire month of March a busy time in Florida, the theme parks even block out nearly every tier of their Annual Passholders except for Incredi-Pass Holders in order to accommodate the influx of tourists that will be coming into the theme parks.

This year, Orlando International Airport reported that they were expecting 7.6 million guests to visit this month, with many of them assumingly going to Walt Disney World Resort at some point during their vacation.

Earlier this month, Yahoo reported, “With spring break travel season starting on Thursday, the Transportation Security Administration advised travelers to expect major crowds — especially at Miami and Orlando airports. According to the TSA, the busy peak spring break travel season continues through March 25.”

TSA administrator David Pekoske said the agency screened a record number of passengers in 2023 and expects the trend to continue.

“So far in 2024, travel volumes are trending at nearly 6% above the same period in 2023. We always work closely with our airline and airport partners to plan for and meet the increasing travel demand while doing our best to maintain our wait times of 30 minutes or less in standard lanes and 10 minutes or less in TSA PreCheck lanes” Pekoske said.

“Orlando is the top choice for Spring Break travelers, while Fort Lauderdale and Miami are the two most popular domestic cruise ports,” Paula Twidale, senior vice president of AAA Travel said.

Knowing this, and that Orlando International Airport was expecting an influx of 11% in comparison to 2023 spring break crowds, one would assume Disney to be slammed, right? 

Oddly enough, they are not.

A few days ago, we at Inside the Magic reported that it seems Disney’s warning that came via price hikes worked, keeping crowds to a minimum as we have see low crowds this spring break. Disney tends to up the price of their tickets, hotel costs, and Disney Genie+ during the busy seasons as they anticipate higher demand, which means that guests will be more deperate to pay those costs, but this year, that plan has seemingly backfired.

These slower crowds have kept up for the majority of the month. If we even take a look at the My Disney Experience app at the time of this article’s publishing, we can see that iconic rides like Pirates of the Caribbean and Soarin’ are a mere 15 minute wait.

 

Even popular rides like Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Tower of Terror are under 35 minutes. Meeting the princesses is typically an hour on a regular day, but right now, it’s a quick half-hour.

 

Overall, it seems that the inflation that Disney has been placing on vacations during busier times (visiting Magic Kingdom has been at $184 per person this month, with Disney Genie+ costing each guest an additional $35 for 2-3 Lightning Lane uses a day) is now having an opposite effect, swapping the “slower” season to the more desirable season.

Do you think that Disney is too expensive of a vacation right now? 

This post Disney Issues Unintentional Warning to Guests: Stay Clear for Spring Break appeared first on Inside the Magic.