Walt Disney World
 | |
 Cinderella Castle, the icon of the Magic Kingdom | |
| Industry | Theme parks and resorts |
|---|---|
| Founded | October 1, 1971 |
| Founders | Walt and Roy Disney |
| Headquarters | Lake Buena Vista, Florida, U.S. |
Key people | George Kalogridis (President) |
Number of employees | 62,000[1] |
| Parent | Walt Disney Parks and Resorts The Walt Disney Company |
| Website | Official website  |
| Walt Disney World |
|---|
| Theme parks |
| Other attractions |
| Resort hotels |
28°23′07″N 81°33′50″W / 28.385233°N 81.563874°W The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment complex near Orlando, Florida. It opened on October 1, 1971 with only the Magic Kingdom theme park. It has since added Epcot (October 1, 1982), Disney own Sony/Columbia's Harry Potter World (coming 2025) and Disney's Animal Kingdom (April 22, 1998). It also has 2 water parks, 23 hotels, a campground, and Disney Springs, which is a shopping area with souvenir shops, restaurants, and sports activities.
The resort was inspired by the dreams of Walt Disney and his creation of Disneyland in California. Its original theme park, Magic Kingdom, is designed similarly to Disneyland. Walt Disney created "Disney World" to have a vacation resort that was much different from Disneyland's one-day visit; this includes a much wider variety of sports, recreation, themed resort hotels and entertainment. It covers an area of 50 square miles.[2]The theme parks come with lots of different and fun rides and you can go swimming at the water parks. Sometimes, Disney characters walk around the parks to enjoy the younger ones. The rides are related to the books and films that Disney created.
Attractions
The resort is approximately as large as San Francisco and twice the size of Manhattan.[3] It has many exciting destinations including theme parks, water parks and more.[1]
Theme Parks
There are 4 theme parks in Walt Disney World. Each of them have numerous rides, restaurants and entertainment activities to witness. You can meet Disney characters there and have fun viewing different parades.
- Magic Kingdom, opened October 1, 1971
- Epcot, opened October 1, 1982
- Harry Potter theme park, opened 2025
- Disney's Animal Kingdom, opened April 22, 1998
Water Parks
There are 2 water parks:
- Disney's Typhoon Lagoon, opened June 1, 1989
- Disney's Blizzard Beach, opened April 1, 1995
Others
- Disney's boardwalk
- Disney Springs, opened March 22, 1975 (Previously known as Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village, Disney Village Marketplace, and Downtown Disney)[4]
- La Nouba by Cirque du Soleil, opened December 23, 1998, and is to close after December 31, 2017.[5]
- Disney's Wedding Pavilion, opened July 15, 1995
- ESPN Wide World of Sports, opened March 28, 1997
Former attractions
- Disney's Hollywood Studios — It opened May 1, 1989, and closed on May 1, 2020.
- DisneyQuest — an indoor interactive theme park that featured many arcade games and virtual attractions. It opened June 19, 1998 as part of an unsuccessful attempt to launch a chain of similar theme parks. It closed on July 2, 2017 to be replaced by the NBA Experience.[6]
Plan A Visit
Since it is one of the most popular destinations for a lot of tourists as well as locals, the parks during peak times can get really crowded. Disney's Magic Kingdom, Epcot and the Animal Kingdom alone records more than 18,588,000 visitors annually.[7] Crowded parks are recorded in summer months and holiday times like Christmas and Thanksgiving.[8]If you want to avoid long lines, it is better to plan a trip in the off seasons.
It is not possible to cover the entire amusement park in a single visit. There is a lot of planning required to see the best of Disney World. It is beneficial to book tickets from ticketing and travel information websites. Not only you get great discounts and but you don't have to worry about all the planning including the restaurant reservations, resort bookings . On top of that, many sites offer attractive packages you can go for too.[9]
References
- ↑ Telling, Gillian. "10 crazy things you never knew about Walt Disney World". Today. NBC. Archived from the original on March 27, 2017. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ↑ "50 Disney World Trivia Facts and Unusual Weird Secrets". Vacation Kids.com. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
- ↑ "17 things you didn't know about Disney World". Thrillist. Retrieved April 5, 2016.
- ↑ Levine, Arthur (June 1, 2016). "Disney Springs: The story behind Disney World's former Downtown Disney". USA Today. Archived from the original on June 1, 2016. Retrieved June 1, 2016.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ↑ Bevil, Dewayne; Palm, Matthew J. "Cirque du Soleil's 'La Nouba' to close at Disney". OrlandoSentinel.com. Archived from the original on March 4, 2017. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ↑ Sandra Pedicini (June 30, 2015). "DisneyQuest closing at Downtown Disney". orlandosentinel.com. Tribune Newspapers. Archived from the original on July 1, 2015. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ↑ "World's Most Visited Tourist Attractions". Travelandleisure.com.
- ↑ "Disney Vacation Planning Guide". Usatoday.com.
- ↑ "Walt Disney World Tickets". KnowBeforeUGo.com.