Disney World at 50: A look at attendance, price surges over 5 decades

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Over 50 years Walt Disney World has seen massive changes in size and scale. See how attendance and price increases have grown since Oct. 1, 1971.

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Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary

Crowds fill Main Street USA in front of ’The Partners’ statue of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse at the Magic Kingdom on the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., Friday, October 1, 2021. Each guest received an anniversary keepsake poster and a commemorative park map. The Magic Kingdom opened 50 years to the day in 1971. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

 

 

Over 50 years Walt Disney World has seen massive changes in size and scale.

One of the most noticeable differences is the price for admission, which was $3.50 on opening day Oct. 1, 1971. Though this price granted you access to Magic Kingdom, there were additional costs for each of the rides through the purchase of a ticket booklet. The ticket booklet system wound down in the late ‘70s in favor of today’s unlimited access. Adjusted for inflation, the $5.75 for a booklet and $3.50 for admission would be about $63.58 today.

Though high, it is still lower than current single-day park tickets, which cost around $122.

Attendance to Walt Disney World has increased massively in the past five decades. The resort morphed with the opening of multiple parks including Epcot in 1982, Hollywood Studios (opened as MGM Studios) in 1989 and Animal Kingdom in 1998 as well as water parks, shopping centers and other features. With each additional park opening Walt Disney World’s attendance would grow in the millions.

Competitors to Disney have also opened since ‘71. The main Central Florida competitors began to open shortly after Magic Kingdom, starting with SeaWorld Orlando in 1973. Universal Studios opened much later in 1990 with its complementary park Islands of Adventure in 1999. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay had already been open for 12 years before Disney World finished construction.

The attendance data is only an estimate, as in the mid-80s, then Walt Disney Co. CEO Michael Eisner decided to black out these numbers as the company claimed the statistics were creating an emphasis on attendance to stock analysts, according to the Orlando Sentinel archives.

Growth continued fairly steadily until a slump in 1991, which was a combination of the success of the newly opened competitor Universal Orlando, and the First Gulf War’s effects on travel and tourism. The Los Angeles Times claimed tourism was down because would-be travelers were “glued to their TV sets.”

Five years later during its 25th anniversary in 1996, Disney claimed the Magic Kingdom shattered a worldwide theme park attendance record, according to Sentinel coverage. The company continued its policy to not disclose exact attendance numbers beyond this claim, though.

2005 saw Walt Disney World surpassing Disneyland in attendance and has maintained that position since, according to estimates from the now-defunct Amusement Business trade journal.

Since 2006, estimates have been more regular from the Themed Entertainment Association, showing Magic Kingdom attendance rising from more than 16.6 million to nearly 21 million in 2019.

The numbers for 2020, though, dropped as the coronavirus pandemic created problems for theme parks everywhere. Walt Disney World closed for an unprecedented amount of time. Magic Kingdom closed on the night of March 15, and the parks would not fully open again till July 15, a four-month closure.

Before this, Walt Disney World had closed a handful of times including five early closures for hurricanes, two full closures for hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004, and once on Sept. 11, 2001 after being open for 30 minutes.

The COVID closure hit attendance hard. The estimated percent change in attendance for Magic Kingdom from 2019-2020 was a drop of 66.9%.

For 2021, current Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek claimed “a slight dip” before a recovery in attendance through late September due to the increases in COVID-19 cases brought on by the delta variant.

 

Logan Dragone