Disney’s theme parks and cruises help carry company’s financials

Disney’s theme parks and cruises helped prop up the company’s latest earnings report.

Revenue jumped 6% to nearly $8.8 billion for the division that includes theme parks, cruises and consumer products, while the division’s operating income rose 13% to a record-breaking nearly $1.9 billion year over year.

Meanwhile, the rest of the company failed to meet analysts’ expectations as the Walt Disney Co. reported a flat $22.5 billion in revenue for its fourth quarter.

Disney leaders acknowledged the strength of their theme parks.

“With expansion projects underway way at every one of our theme parks, five additional cruise ships scheduled for launch beyond fiscal ’26, and a new theme park planned for Abu Dhabi, the strategic investments we are making now will help ensure our offerings remain best-in-class and appeal to audiences worldwide well into the future,” CEO Bob Iger told financial analysts during Thursday’s earnings call.

Those expansion projects include building a new Villains Land in the Magic Kingdom and other projects, while Disney World also closed several longtime attractions, including the Liberty Square Riverboat.

Disney disclosed that theme park attendance actually dipped 1% in 2025, but overall guest spending increased by 3%, according to an SEC filing.

“I wouldn’t characterize it as light,” CFO Hugh Johnston told analysts when asked about attendance as he brought up Disney World’s newest competition in Orlando from Universal’s Epic Universe. “We’ve talked about Epic in the past, in particular as something that we knew was going to be a factor in domestic parks, and in fact, (this) was very much in line with our expectations. If anything, it seems to be, in fact, impacting the rest of the competition down in Florida more than it’s impacting us.”

Disney is also adding new ships to its fleet. Disney’s seventh ship, the Disney Destiny, is sailing on its maiden voyage soon from Fort Lauderdale.

“We’ve made big investments in cruise,” Johnston said. “We’re filling all of that capacity as quickly as we can add it. … The guest satisfaction scores are higher than basically anything else in the company.”