I recently made a trip to the Walt Disney World for a little summer fun. I know what you're thinking: I must be out of my mind to go to the theme parks during the summer when the temperature is soaring in the mid-to-high 90s. And you'd be right. Except that its hot *everywhere* these days and there's no escaping it. Besides Disney does a decent job of helping guests find ways to mitigate the heat through shade and AC, and with afternoon thunderstorms it cools down some. So its not ALL bad. And we had fun, anyway.
But that's not really my intended point. Its that the parks until somewhat recently were populated by tourists from around the world, especially during the summer. You'd see people from very many walks of life, and hear very many languages. But I couldn't help but notice the parks were relatively empty, and they were offering a pretty good discount for Florida residents, underscoring that Disney is looking to attract more locals (which they never do during the summer).
The guests were predominantly white, and I rarely heard anything other than English. It was very .... weird. I haven't seen this since maybe the 1980s.
As for the parks themselves, Disney has done a decent job of making sure rides and shows are open, and though the construction walls are there in areas that are being constructed, I didn't feel like they were in the way for the most part.
We did have some maintenance issues in a few places, and there were a few ride breakdowns along the way - more than I typically see. So there is more opportunity for Disney to delight guests.
While it felt different in a way, and wasn't maybe quite what I expected, it was still an enjoyable experience.
