Despite Large Spring Break Crowds, Disney World’s Attendance Still Takes A Massive Dive for the Year, And It’s Expected To Get Worse

This year’s spring break was a little wonky for the Walt Disney World Resort. With Easter coming so early this year, spring breakers flooded the Disney theme parks in March rather than the usual flood in April.

This led to crowds peaking in mid-March and then dramatically declining later in the month. Thus far, April has seen unusually low crowds despite the warmer weather in Central Florida.

Related: ‘Where is Everyone?’ Spring Breakers Flee Disney World, Leaving the Parks ‘Virtually Empty’

A recent report is shedding some light on just how low attendance at Walt Disney World has been in 2024. According to the tax reports from Visit Orlando, Orange County’s tourism development tax revenue is down one percent so far this year, an indication of lower crowds at theme parks across Central Florida.

The Orange County tax revenue jumped 4.3 percent in February over last year, primarily due to this being a leap year and February getting an extra day. The jump in February was also attributed to MegaCon at the Orlando Convention Center rather than a jump in Central Florida theme park attendance.

Despite that bump, the county still saw a significant drop in hotel room taxes for the remainder of the year.

While this is not a true comparison of what is happening at Walt Disney World, it is as close as possible. The Walt Disney Company does not release attendance figures for individual theme parks.

Related: Just How Low Were Disney World’s Crowds in 2023? We’re Finding Out

Remainder of the Year

While the start of the year is bad news for Disney World and the Universal Orlando Resort, Visit Orlando thinks it will get much worse. The tourism arm for Central Florida is expecting a three percent decline for the second quarter of the year, which includes April, May, and June.

Casandra Matej, the President and CEO of Visit Orlando, told Florida Politics:

Our recent data suggests that Orlando hotels will see a softening in the coming months, with on-the-books room nights for the second quarter slightly behind at -3% in the same period last year. Advance airline ticket sales into Orlando from origins worldwide are pacing just below the same time in 2023 by -0.5%, with April seeing the largest gap. Direct airlift to the Orlando area appears to be stabilizing, as the seat capacity is expected to grow slightly by 2% compared to 2023.

It appears that many Disney World and Universal Orlando fans are waiting until later this year or 2025 for their trip to Central Florida. Disney World will see the opening of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at the Magic Kingdom this summer, bringing in larger crowds.

However, the biggest draw will be Epic Universe at Universal Studios Orlando, which is expected to open in 2025. Disney World has announced new projects at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and Animal Kingdom to compete with Epic Universe, but none will be ready by 2025.

Disney World will have to get by with these smaller crowds as Disney fans wait for something new to draw them to the parks.

We will continue to update this story at Disney Fanatic.