
Disney has invited me to a preview on Wednesday and to return to the Festival on Thursday, so I'll be sharing the latest details on our social media channels later this week (limited, at least in part, by trying to keep myself and my phone from overheating when outdoors) with a recap in next week's update. Having said all that, the 2023 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival gets underway this Thursday, July 27. Then again, I've seen plenty of social media posts of large numbers of guests awaiting Magic Kingdom's gates opening on some mornings, so on any given day, attendance will vary.

Whether or not that's a wider trend, or whether post-pandemic "revenge travel" to Florida has finally ended, or whether any other theories are responsible are all just conjecture. I can't personally verify that emptier feeling some folks have been reporting from the parks because, honestly, it's been too hot and muggy for me to go to the parks as a recreational activity with as much regularity as I did in past summers. I've seen all sorts of discussion online and in the mass media these past weeks about the downturn in attendance at the parks. In other words, it's been hotter around the Walt Disney World Resort area this summer than the recent past as far as I can tell.

As a Central Florida resident experiencing my tenth summer, I know that 90°-plus days are common at this time of year around here, but the heat advisories are not. We're deep in to Central Florida's summer, and it's been so hot we've actually had a few heat advisories issued by the National Weather Service in recent days. Walt Disney World Resort Update for JWriter's Note, News & Views
