It’s not often that Disney takes us by surprise. This week, Disney DEFINITELY took us by surprise.
On February 27th, vacation booking opened for 2025 at Disney World. While it’s normal for Disney to open vacation bookings for the next year with ample time in advance, they usually don’t open them THIS early. For example, vacation booking for 2024 opened on May 31st, 2023 — roughly seven months in advance. Bookings for 2025 opened 10 months in advance, which is definitely out of the ordinary. Now, Disney fans have a few theories as to why this could be the case.
We’ll start with the April 3rd shareholders meeting. Here, shareholders will have the opportunity to vote for Disney’s next Board of Directors. Currently, Disney is in a proxy battle with activist investment firms Trian Group and Blackwells Capital.
Both firms have made their suggestions as to what Disney could do to bolster shares, from utilizing AI to making strategic business deals with other media giants.
A lot of folks are guessing that Disney could be opening up 2025 reservations as part of a strategy to increase 2024 revenue. This could in turn convince shareholders that Disney has their sights set on bolstering revenue to in turn increase shares. The could also give Disney’s 12 Board of Directors nominees a better chance at getting shareholders’ votes.
Another theory is that Disney is looking for ways to boost revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2024. Disney has a lot of goals to meet this year as far as Parks and Experiences revenue goes, and quarterly boosts could be their strategy in doing so. For example, the second quarter boost could come from 2025 vacation bookings, the third quarter boost could come from Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opening this summer, and the fourth quarter boosts could come from Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas crowds.
If this is the strategy, it could ALSO help convince shareholders to vote for Disney’s nominees at the meeting in April.
Finally, a lot of folks think that Disney could be trying to snag folks’ reservations ahead of when reservations open for Universal’s all-new Epic Universe theme park that is set to open in 2025. The park will feature five lands — including ones that feature Harry Potter and Super Mario Bros., so it’s expected to be pretty popular. We don’t yet know when hotel and ticket purchases will open. This could be Disney’s way of ensuring that Universal doesn’t steal their thunder!
Regardless of why reservations opened so early, there are many of you who can benefit from it! Snag reservations early so that you won’t have to worry about scrounging for rooms on notoriously busy times. Book now so that you have over a year to budget. Grab your rooms and tickets so that you can plan the wardrobe of your dreams between now and then!
We’re always monitoring theme park and travel news, and we’ll be sure to keep you up to date here when we have more. Make sure to follow along so that you’re always in the loop!
Looking for more on the shareholders meeting that’s coming up? Click here!
Join the AllEars.net Newsletter to stay on top of ALL the breaking Disney News! You'll also get access to AllEars tips, reviews, trivia, and MORE! Click here to Subscribe!
What do you think of Disney’s choice to open reservations so early? Let us know in the comments!
Revenue collected in 2024 but not earned until the stay is completed in 2025 isn’t reported on the income statement so theory 1 and 2 don’t play out in fact. The 3rd reason is more realistic to capture that business before Universal’s new park opens.