Memorial Day weekend was full of surprises at Walt Disney World, but perhaps the biggest of them all was the fact that the parks were not full of people. People were able to endure a very decent queue of around 25 to 30 minutes to board the Seven Dwarfs ride at the Magic Kingdom. Epcot saw larger crowds, but that’s more attributed to the locals. Folks headed to the final day of the International Flower and Garden Festival. The new drone show was a bit of a fiasco.
On opening night, guests were very excited to watch the show over the water in Disney Springs. One of the main takeaways, though, was that the show was ultimately “too small” for the large crowds to see well. The next night, it was just canceled outright due to the strong winds in the area. Are the low crowds here to stay throughout the summer? Why aren’t people headed to Disney World in droves?
One of the theories that’s currently leading in the clubhouse is that the heat has just been unbearable in the last few days in South Florida. That could be one of those issues that persist throughout the summer. Does this mean that people are going to stay away from the most magical place on earth? That may not be the case, but the heat may have played a major role this time around. In the weeks leading up to Memorial Day, plenty of national news outlets talked about the number of people traveling over the weekend. This may have led to folks expecting massive crowds at the parks. That’s why they ultimately decided to stay away. The big winners of the weekend were those who were not deterred by the “negative news.”
Another theory is that the park just didn’t have too many “new” things to boast to attract guests. At least not the local crowd, which is the one that typically heads to Walt Disney World on holidays like Memorial Day. The Princess and the Frog attraction that’s coming in to replace Splash Mountain won’t be open for another month. Also, word seemingly got out about the drone show. People who may have been looking forward to heading to Disney Springs to see it stayed away after the poor reviews on opening night. Those reviews may have even led to the cancellation of the show the next night. It wouldn’t be odd to see alterations to the show in the coming days or weeks.
Plenty of Disney insiders were not too surprised by the low crowds on Memorial Day. A similar effect occurred around Spring Break. Many of the locals who are annual pass holders stay away from the parks on these dates, whereas folks from out of town tend to flock to the parks. These same insiders don’t expect the heat to be an issue in mid-June. This is when Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is scheduled to debut. There could be other surprises around the parks. Usually, these summer months, after school’s out in Orlando, the parks start adding special events and other surprises. This tends to drive up attendance.
