Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World
Industry
FoundedOctober 1, 1971 (1971-10-01)
Founders
HeadquartersLake Buena Vista and Celebration, Florida, U.S.
28°22′20″N 81°32′58″W / 28.37222°N 81.54944°W / 28.37222; -81.54944[1]
Key people
Jeff Vahle
(President)
Jason Kirk
(SVP-Theme Parks)
Maribeth Bisienere
(SVP-Resorts)[2][3]
Number of employees
77,000+[4]
ParentDisney Experiences
Websitedisneyworld.disney.go.com

The Walt Disney World Resort is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States. The resort is located within Orange and Osceola counties, and located closest to the cities of Winter Garden and Kissimmee in Greater Orlando. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of The Walt Disney Company. The property covers nearly 25,000 acres (39 sq mi; 101 km2), of which half has been developed.[5] Walt Disney World contains four separate theme parks, two water parks, two mini-golf courses, and four golf courses, a competitive sports complex and three shopping, dining, and entertainment areas. There are twenty-one Disney-operated resort hotels and one camping resort on the property, and many other non-Disney-operated resorts on and near the property.

Designed to supplement Disneyland in Anaheim, California, which had opened in 1955, the complex was developed by Walt Disney in the 1960s. Walt wanted to build a new park because Disneyland in California was limited from expanding by the establishments that sprung up around it. "The Florida Project", as it was known, was intended to present a distinct vision with its own diverse set of attractions. Walt Disney's original plans also called for the inclusion of an "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" (EPCOT), a planned community intended to serve as a testbed for new city-living innovations. Walt Disney died on December 15, 1966, during the initial planning of the complex. After his death, the company wrestled with the idea of whether to bring the Disney World project to fruition; however, Walt's older brother, Roy O. Disney, came out of retirement to make sure Walt's biggest dream was realized. Construction started in 1967, with the company instead building a resort similar to Disneyland, abandoning the experimental concepts for a planned community. Magic Kingdom was the first theme park to open in the complex in 1971, followed by Epcot (known then as EPCOT Center) in 1982, Disney's Hollywood Studios (known then as Disney-MGM Studios) in 1989, and Disney's Animal Kingdom in 1998. It was Roy who insisted the name of the entire complex be changed from Disney World to Walt Disney World, ensuring that people would remember that the project was Walt's dream.

Walt Disney World is also covered by an FAA prohibited airspace zone that restricts all airspace activities without approval from the federal government of the United States,[6] including usage of drones; this level of protection is otherwise only offered to American critical infrastructure (such as the Pantex nuclear weapons plant), military bases, the Washington, D.C., Special Flight Rules Area, Camp David, and other official presidential travels.

In 2018, Walt Disney World was the most visited vacation resort in the world, with an average annual attendance of more than 58 million.[7] The resort is the largest single-site employer in the United States,[4] the flagship destination of Disney's worldwide corporate enterprise[8] and has become a popular staple in American culture.

  1. ^ Walt Disney World Resort in Geonames.org (cc-by)
  2. ^ Reed, Molly (July 20, 2021). "More Disney World resorts, restaurants reopen after a year of updates". WKMG. Archived from the original on October 10, 2023. Retrieved October 5, 2023.
  3. ^ "New Leadership Team Announced At Disney Parks, Experiences And Products" (Press release). The Walt Disney Company. May 18, 2020. Archived from the original on May 26, 2020. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Fact Sheet" (PDF). Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. February 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 20, 2020. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
  5. ^ "Walt Disney World Fun Facts" (PDF). Walt Disney World News. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 3, 2020. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  6. ^ "4/3634 NOTAM Details". Federal Aviation Administration. Archived from the original on April 4, 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2018 Report was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "Disney Profile". Hospitality Online. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved July 7, 2007.