Disney Domestic Attendance Down, Epic Universe & Hurricane Impacts, and More Parks News From Earnings

Disney reported earnings this morning for the first fiscal quarter of 2025 which lasted from October through December 2024. Earnings beat analyst projections and Disney Experiences which consists of the theme parks and consumer products groups contributed $9.4 billion in revenue for the quarter.

The earnings news also provided interesting information about attendance across Disneyland and Disney World this quarter and information about the success of Lightning Lane Premier Pass, how Disney views Epic Universe, and the impact of the hurricanes on Disney.

In this article, I'll break down all of the specific parks news from the release and the earnings phone call from earlier this morning.

Here's What Disney Theme Park Fans Need to Know From the Call

Generally, Disney delivered. So much to the point that our friend Brooks Barnes at the NYTimes exclaimed in his headline about earnings “Disney Returns to Its Steamrolling Self”. The company beat expectations with $1.76 earnings per share vs $1.45 expected and revenue of $24.69 billion versus $24.62 billion expected.

The Disney streaming services also had a successful quarter with growth in US subscribers and sustained profitability for the service. Currently, there are 124.6 million Disney+ subscribers and 53.6 million Hulu subscribers (US only). Moana 2 was also a huge box office success for this quarter. All of this info is important context as we look at the quarter at Disney experiences.

The Disney Experiences segment made $9.4 billion in revenue and $3.1 billion in net income (the amount that is actually profit after expenses). This represented a small increase in topline revenue and lower growth of net income. Some one-off costs also impacted the quarter.

Some of these costs and hits to revenue can be attributed to the two hurricanes that impacted Walt Disney World during this quarter and the opening expenses for launching the Disney Treasure Cruise Ship. Hurricanes Helene and Milton were forecast to have made a $120 million impact on the resort. The Disney Treasure Cruise ship launch costs were around $75 million. Think of costs like moving the ship into position for the first sailings and hosting media and investors in New York City.

Domestic theme parks and experiences net income declined 5% in the quarter. Domestic attendance was down compared to the same time in the previous year. This is an overall look for both Disneyland and Disney World. The hit from this was likely all related to the impact of the two hurricanes at Walt Disney World. During this period we also shared that October was slower at Disneyland than previous years due to a pull forward from the summer discount. That may have been made up for in the end of the quarter when Disneyland crowds ticked up.

Hotel occupancy during the quarter was flat compared to the previous year and guest spending was up 4%. This comes right as we saw price increases on Disneyland tickets and price increases on Disney World tickets. The above graph is one of a number of graphs from our study that captures the price increases over the past decade at Disneyland.

Other aspects of the cost of going to Disney World and Disneyland have also gotten more expensive. Things like dining and the Lightning Lane Multi Pass add additional costs to trips which cause all guests to spend incrementally more per visit.

The international theme parks operating income increased 28% year over year. This can be attributed to higher attendance numbers combined with higher guest spending. New themed lands for Zootopia and Frozen have now had full years open at Shanghai Disney and Hong Kong Disneyland respectively. Seeing the positive impact there definitely makes me excited for new rides at Disneyland and Disney World and hopefully also is encouraging to Disney leadership as they look to spend more here.

Turning to the call itself and quotes from Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney CFO Hugh Johnston, there was lots of positive sentiment around this year at the the theme parks.

Generally about the theme parks for this year, fiscal 2025, they stated that they “continue to expect full year segment operating income growth to be in the 6% to 8% range compared to fiscal 2024”. I've written about how there won't be a ton of new offerings for the domestic theme parks in the next two years as work gets underway for the major expansions to open after that. We'll have to see how creative the (new) leadership at Disneyland and the leadership at Disney World can be in driving attendance. I broke down my expectations – Disney's Flashy New Rides Won't Open For At Least 2 Years. What We Can Expect Before They Open.

Also on the call, Johnston addressed Universal Epic Universe. Without going deep into the question analyst question that raised the topic, he said that there would be a small impact due to Epic Universe opening at Walt Disney World. Previously we have seen them say that the new park would lift all boats. It will likely do something in the middle as it brings in new guests to Orlando but also takes some of the Orlando theme park market.

Another question was on the usage of Lightning Lane Premier Pass, the new version of Lightning Lane that debuted during the quarter which allows guests to skip the lines for attractions without making reservations for them. Johnston stated that the service has met their expectations but they still expect further expansion there. He also went on to speak more about how they are rolling out this service. His quote kind of made it seem like they are generally trying to further expand Lightning Lane as a whole as well.

He spoke about how this is a premium product that Disney is still learning how to use. Disney is marketing the offering gently and moving slowly with their premium offering so that it remains a positive experience for those who use it and the rest of the guests in the theme parks. We will have to wait and see how they expand the service further. They recently expanded the offering to be open to more guests. The service is now available to everyone but marketing could be further expanded or a park hopper option could be launched at Disney World. Currently, the park hopper option is only available at Disneyland.

Here's are the general theme parks remarks from the call looking forward made by Disney CEO Bob Iger –

“Our Q1 results for our Experiences segment demonstrated Disney’s strong and enduring appeal in family travel. We continue work on a robust slate of new projects as we bring our most popular IP to life in innovative ways and execute against a carefully designed and planned investment strategy. We also remain deliberate about pricing and the guest experience, and are focused on providing guests great value with a vast array of options to visit our theme parks.

“This quarter we successfully launched the Disney Treasure – the sixth ship in Disney Cruise Line’s fleet – and we opened Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Disneyland Resort as well as the new Island Tower at Walt Disney World’s Polynesian Village Resort. Looking ahead, we are excited to kick off Disneyland’s 70th anniversary celebration in May and Hong Kong Disneyland’s 20th anniversary celebration later this year. And there are another seven cruise ships in development, with two expected to launch toward the end of calendar year 2025 – the Disney Destiny and the Disney Adventure – as we leverage this growing business to bring our beloved IP to more corners of the globe.”

“Overall, this quarter proved to be a strong start to the fiscal year. We are optimistic about the year to come, and we remain confident in our strategy for continued growth.”

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