Disney officials expect parks capacity, staffing to increase

New planning technology also coming to parks

Walt Disney World is still operating at a reduced capacity as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, but Disney officials hope to increase that steadily by the end of the year, company management said Thursday.

During a third-quarter earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy said while Disney leaders are monitoring the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus — considered more contagious than other variants — they are increasing Disney parks’ capacities as demand grows.

“We’re expecting to have our parks, domestically, be fully staffed up by the end of this calendar year,” she said. “And we’re going to be increasing capacities as we have the demand and we’re also being able to train, thoroughly train, our employees as they come back in.”

She added capacity would be brought back “aggressively,” but in a “measured” manner while considering the health and safety of park guests and employees.

Neither McCarthy nor Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek quoted specific park capacity figures, but Chapek said 70% of available hotel rooms are open at Walt Disney World.

“We’re not quite 100% available at this point,” he said.

Though park demand is high for independent visitors, large groups and conventions are canceling their reservations amid concern over the Delta variant and the COVID-19 pandemic continuing, Chapek said.

“Our park reservations now are above our Q3 attendance levels,” he said.

He said the park reservation system introduced during the pandemic will continue and praised it for, among other things, improving guests’ experiences.

Chapek and McCarthy said upcoming technological advancements will enhance visitors’ time in the parks and continue the company’s focus on guest experiences.

Disney is preparing to launch a new mobile service for the parks called Disney Genie, first announced in August 2019 with an initial planned launch in late 2020. The “user-friendly app” will offer park guests the opportunity to better customize their time as they go, using “industrial engineering data,” Chapek said.

“Disney Genie will enable our guests to more easily and efficiently navigate everything our parks have to offer,” Chapek said.

Chapek said the MyMagic+ program was Disney’s way of exploring interactive experiences at the parks, but the upcoming Disney Genie program is MyMagic+ “on steroids” with more options and personalization.

“This is going to revolutionize our guest experience,” he said. “Guests are going to spend less time waiting and more time having fun in our parks with a dramatically improved guest experience that’s going to make their navigation of their day and their planning of their day much easier.”

Further details on the program were not available Thursday, but Chapek said the company would be releasing more information soon.

In the company’s third quarter, which ended July 3, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products revenues increased by $3.2 billion compared with the same quarter last year, with a total of $4.3 billion reported, financial documents show. The division generated operating income of $356 million this quarter, compared with a nearly $1.9 billion loss last year during the same period.

The company attributed that growth to the reopening of parks and resorts, noting Walt Disney World was closed for the entire quarter in 2020.

But Disney is still experiencing ongoing challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the division, the report noted, citing the lower capacities at the theme parks and previous cruise ship sailing suspensions.

The company also saw growth in their streaming service, Disney+, which had 116 million paid subscribers as of July 3, the report showed.