BREAKING: Disney Drops HUGE Theme Park Attendance News

Disney just dropped some major updates about attendance at its theme parks! Looking to get in on the latest news? You’re in the right spot.

On August 6th, Disney released its earnings report and held an earnings call for Q3 of fiscal year 2025. We got updates about all kinds of things, like Disney+, ESPN, and more. We also got updates about Disney’s theme parks and just how they’re doing financially (and what attendance is looking like). Let’s dive into the news!

During the earnings call, Disney shared updates about its Disney Experiences division. This division includes Disney Cruise Line, merchandise, and the theme parks (both domestic and international).

For Q3, Disney announced that operating results for the company’s experiences division had increased compared to the same quarter in 2024, due to “growth at our domestic parks and resorts and, to a lesser extent, Disney Cruise Line.”

According to Disney’s release, the overall revenue for the Experiences and Consumer products division was up 8% during the quarter, driven by a 10% increase in Parks & Experiences growth, with a 6% of while being attributed to growth at the U.S. domestic parks. Operating income for the division was up 13% overall, and a staggering 22% over Parks & Experiences specifically. Overall, the division saw over $9 billion in revenue.

TRON Lightcycle / Run

According to Disney’s these gains were due to several factors including higher levels of guest sending at the company’s theme parks, as well as an increase in passenger cruise days and occupied room nights on the Disney Cruise Line.

@disneycruiseline via Instagram

Accompanying the numbers, Disney released an executive commentary, which read in part “We are pleased with these results and encouraged by the continued resiliency of our domestic parks business, particularly at Walt Disney World given increased competition in the Orlando market.”

Walt Disney World

This comes after Disney had previously said that bookings were “up” in the summer (they made that statement during the Q1 earnings call).

During the Q2 earnings call, Disney also said that they were “encouraged by the strength and resilience of our business, as evidenced in…the second-half bookings at Walt Disney World.” Disney explained that, at that time, bookings for Disney World were up 4% (with about 80% of the bookings in).

During that same Q2 call, Disney discussed how international attendance at the domestic parks still isn’t back to pre-COVID levels. But, the CFO for the Company (Hugh Johnston) said that Disney is “clearly more than making up for it with domestic attendance. So, attendance at the parks has been terrific.”

What’s interesting is that this is all mixed in with numerous discounts and deals Disney has also announced for upcoming months, presumably to entice more visitors. This includes a special gift card promotion for new Annual Passholders.

During the Q3 earnings call, CEO Bob Iger touted that Disney’s theme parks are in a big stage of expansion and change right now, a reference to various Disney World, various projects that are currently underway, including Pueblo Esperanza for Animal Kingdom, a Monsters, Inc. land for Hollywood Studios, a Cars-themed land for Magic Kingdom, a Villains-themed land for Magic Kingdom, a new hotel, and more.

At Disneyland, work continues on the Disneyland Forward endeavor, and they’ve announced an Avatar land.

At the same time, new ships are being built for Disney Cruise Line.

It’s a lot going on at once! Do you keep your current trip and experience the Disney parks as-is? Delay your trip for a few years so you can see the parks in their newest state with updated attractions? Or do both? It’ll be interesting to see what folks do in the coming months/years and just how these new projects impact visitor attendance.