Universal Orlando’s theme parks are seeing an “uplift in admissions” especially on Saturdays when attendance is down 64% from 2019 crowds, the best figures since the parks re-opened, according to an analyst note from Deutsche Bank published Thursday. But Disney theme parks are operating at 80% less than last year, said Deutsche research analysts Bryan Kraft and Benjamin Soff, who looked at proprietary geolocation data to make their estimates. The attendance figure appeared to represent Disney World as well as Disney’s other international parks that are open.

“At present, Epcot and Animal Kingdom are outperforming Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios,” their note said.

Universal Orlando theme parks reopened in June 5, weeks ahead of Disney World, which waited until mid-July to bring back its attractions. By then, Disney’s return came during an uptick in coronavirus cases. But earlier this week, an Orange County health official said the death rate is finally dropping. The virus rate has also been on a declining trend for several weeks, the Orlando Sentinel reported Monday.

“For the week that ended Sunday, 6.9% of coronavirus tests returned positive. That marks seven weeks of decreasing rates edging closer to the 5% threshold experts consider a manageable level of virus for hospital systems,” the Sentinel’s story said.

The earlier rise in cases made tourists hesitant to travel during the pandemic, Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek said this month. Chapek acknowledged Disney World had a higher than expected number of reservation cancellations when he spoke during a quarterly earnings call that showed Disney theme parks took a $2 billion hit from the pandemic. The decline in cases could help Disney’s attendance, the Deutsche note pointed out. “Given this ongoing improvement in Universal’s attendance and declining new daily COVID cases in Florida, we believe that Disney World will also soon see some benefit,” it said.

grusson@orlandosentinel.com