Walt Disney World
 Slogan: The Most Magical Place on Earth | |
 | |
| Industry | |
|---|---|
| Founded | October 1, 1971 |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters |
 Boulder Lake, Clark, Kingdom of Sierra |
Key people | Roy Hendricks (President) |
| Parent |
Disney Parks, Experiences and Products (The Walt Disney Company) |
Walt Disney World, also known as the Walt Disney World Resort and Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex located in Boulder Lake, Clark, Kingdom of Sierra, approximately twenty-two miles from Las Vegas. Opened in 1971, the Walt Disney World Resort is owned and operated by Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products, a division of The Walt Disney Company. The resort encompasses a large portion of Boulder Lake, expanding over 25,000 acres of land, of which half has been used. The resort comprises of four theme parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and Disney's Animal Kingdom), two water parks (Disney's Typhoon Lagoon and Disney's Desert Beach), thirty-one themed resort hotels, nine non-Disney hotels, several golf courses, and a number of other entertainment venues. It is considered one of Sierra's largest entertainment resorts.
Opened in 1971, Walt Disney World was designed to supplement Disneyland in Rothenburg, Orange, which had continued to experience massive overcrowding due to its position surrounded by an urbanized environment. Boulder Lake was selected as the site of the new resort because of the largely unpopulated and open area. Along with that, the small town was the location of the World of Tomorrow complex, which was a planned "futuristic" community that both Walt and Roy Disney envisioned a "showcase the futures of Sierran innovation". Because of the high price, the community was only be partially built, and was scheduled to shut down within the coming years. Construction of the resort began in 1967, with the park opening to the public in 1971 with Magic Kingdom. Epcot followed Magic Kingdom in 1983, Hollywood Studios opened in 1989, and Animal Kingdom opened in 1998. It was the first Disney resort constructed and open without the leadership of Walt Disney, who had retired to enter politics in 1968. However, Walt did have a great influence over the construction of the park, with many of the park's attractions and themes originating from Walt's many designs.
In 2018, Walt Disney World was the most visited vacation spot in the world, with an annual attendance of 59 million. It has also considered the most visited resort in Sierra, a title for which it has held since 1993. The resort is the flagship destination of Disney's worldwide corporate enterprise and has become a staple in Sierran and Clarker culture. In 2020, Walt Disney World became the first tehem park in Sierra to host a sports championship, hosting the finals of the Professional Basketball Association for the 2019 to 2020 season. Walt Disney World, along with Disneyland, is also covered by an FAA prohibited airspace zone that restricts any form of flight travel over the resort without approval from the Sierran federal government. Disney World shares this status with the Getty House, Occidental Palace, the Porciúncula Metropolitan Special Flight Area, military bases, and critical infrastructure. The resort gained this status by an act of Parliament following the 9/11 attacks.
History
Conception, construction, and opening
Following the success of the Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney began to pursue options to expand the park. However, because of city of Rothenburg's lax construction laws, a number of non-Disney businesses established locations all around the resort, effectively circling it and preventing further expansion. In 1959, The Walt Disney Company began to search for locations for a second resort to supplement the Disneyland Resort, which had began to experience problems of overcrowding. Although a location was not be chosen until 1965, it was officially decided by Disney to construct the new resort somewhere in eastern Sierra, as it allowed greater expansions due to it being largely unpopulated.
A number of locations were considered before an official one was chosen. Disney originally had Salt Lake City as a potential location for a second resort, though the government of the Deseret opposed the construction of a theme park there, citing the city's inability to hold such a capacity of people at the time and for the possibility of the park "distracting from matters of faith" and becoming a hub of "greed". Following this rejection, The Walt Disney Company began looking at locations in Maricopa and Reno. In 1956, Ulysess Yulo publicly lobbied Disney to construct a new resort in his utopian-style city of Yulonia, but the company declined to do so, mainly because of Walt's negative opinion of Yulo and his business practices. In 1964, Disney visited Las Vegas and after witnessing the success of the city's massive tourism industry, its relatively unpopulated/non-urbanized outskirts, and well-developed road network, Disney begin lobbying company executives into supporting constructing the new resort in the city. In 1965, the town of Boulder Lake, which was around twenty miles from Las Vegas, was officially selected as the site of Disney's second resort. Boulder Lake was already the home of the World of Tomorrow - Clark community complex, which was already partially constructed in 1960, and was selected by Disney because of its "promising economic opportunities" presented by its underdeveloped nature.
The Walt Disney Company purchased around 35,000 acres of land from the Clark provincial government and a number of private owners for a total of KS$2.3 million. Many of these purchases were carried out by affiliate and dummy corporations of Disney, many of which have been memorialized in Main Street, Sierra in the Magic Kingdom. Most of the previous owners of the land, and the Clark provincial government, were happy to sell the land for a lowered cost, mainly because it was all desert and in need of development. However (and more famously), the Walt Disney Company came into conflict with Willard Gilmore, who had refused to sell his land to Disney. If not purchased, Gilmore's two acre property was placed directly in the middle of the new resort. After a year of negotiations, Gilmore sold his property in exchange for KS$900,000 and recognition in the resort. Gilmore was officially be memorialized in Frontierland of Magic Kingdom, where a replica of his original estate and a memorial to him and his agreement with Disney stand.
Construction of the new resort, which at the time was referred to as "Disneyland Clark", began in 1967. Details of the project was placed in secrecy in order to avoid massive press attention, as news of a new Disneyland being constructed was not yet public knowledge. Although Walt retired from business and be elected as the Governor of Orange in 1968, he would still have a large, yet unofficial role, in the construction of the new resort, with his brother, and new Disney CEO, Roy Disney following the original wishes his brother had for the resort. Walt Disney World was officially be revealed to the public in December of 1969. Construction continued until 1971, where the park opened in October. Like the Disneyland Resort, the opening ceremony was televised by a number of news outlets, most notably SBC, RBC, and Tokki. The park was officially opened by Walt Disney and Roy Disney.
1972-2020s
The opening of Walt Disney World was a financial success for the Walt Disney Company, and unlike the opening of the Disneyland Resort in 1955, went largely without incident. Following its success, Disney began plans to expand the park, looking towards developing a second theme park. The second theme park of Walt Disney World, Epcot, began construction in 1978, though a number of delays related to technical problems pushed construction to 1983. Epcot was based off of the original plans for the World of Tomorrow planned community and was set to become the technological center of the Walt Disney Company, where new innovations was put on display. Epcot was last theme park officially opened by Walt Disney, who passed away due to natural causes three months later. Epcot experienced a number of problems and criticism following its open, largely because of lack of many attractions and frequent technological shutdowns.
In 1987, Disney began construction of Disney's Hollywood Studios, the resort's third theme park. As the name suggested, the park was heavily inspired by culture of Hollywood and the film industry. Originally, Disney had plans to have Hollywood Studios act as both a theme park and a film studio, which acted as a competitor to the popular Universal Studios in Porciúncula. However, this idea was scrapped, with the park solely being an amusement park. Hollywood Studios was opened in 1989, and opened with a number of attractions. Following continued financial success, a fourth theme park, Disney's Animal Kingdom, began construction in 1992, being opened the following year. Animal Kingdom has the distinction of being both a traditional Disney theme park and exhibiting a number of live animals. Although popular among guests, the use of live animals attracted the criticism of a number of animal rights groups, specifically the inclusion of animals not suited to desert environments and resulted in a number of provisions, added both voluntary and compulsory, to be added to the park in order to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the animals.
In 1993, Walt Disney World became the most visited resort in the Kingdom of Sierra, overtaking the Disneyland Resort in Rothenburg. In the same year over 20 million guests visited the park, according to a number of reports. Walt Disney World became the most visited resort in the world in 2001, with over 37 million visitors. Since its opening, Walt Disney World is considered the flagship resort of the Walt Disney Company, with every international Disney theme park resort following the park's multi-park, multi-resort complex system. During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Walt Disney World, along with every other Disney resort, was closed in April of 2020. Unlike other Disney locations, Walt Disney World was the first Disney resort to reopen, reopening in December of 2020 in accordance with Clark provincial health guidelines. It was the only Disney resort to open at full capacity until Hong Kong Disneyland Resort in June of 2021.
Location
Although listed as apart of Las Vegas, Walt Disney World is not located in the boundaries of the city, instead being twenty two miles south of downtown Las Vegas in Boulder Lake. However, Boulder Lake is considered apart of the Las Vegas metropolitan area, and due to its size is sometimes, though unofficially, considered a suburb of Las Vegas. The entire resort is apart of Fremont County. The entrance of Walt Disney World is directly connected to Interprovincial 11. The road leading up to Walt Disney World is known as "Walt's Road" and is considered apart of Interprovincial 11. At its founding, Walt Disney World encompassed 35,000 acres of land. Small portions of the land have been sold or de-annexed over the years, most notably the Disney-built community of Destiny, which was constructed in 2012.
Attractions
Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom
Spaceship Earth at Epcot
The Chinese Theatre at Disney's Hollywood Studios
Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom
Entrance to Disney's Blizzard Beach waterpark
Aerial shot of Disney's Typhoon Lagoon water park
Paddlefish restaurant at Disney Springs
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Theme parks
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- Magic Kingdom, opened in 1971.
- Epcot, opened in 1983.
- Hollywood Studios, opened in 1989.
- Animal Kingdom, opened in 1993.
Water parks
Other attractions
- Multiple resorts across Disney property offer a variety of spa treatments including Disney's Grand Desert and Disney's Colorado River Resort
- Disney's Boardwalk, located outside of their Boardwalk Inn, functions as an entertainment, dining, and shopping district.
- Epcot has annual festivals that run for limited amounts of time throughout the year like the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, Epcot Festival of the Arts, and the Epcot Food and Wine Festival
- Disney does special ticketed events throughout the year including the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, which usually runs late August through October, and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.
- Disney Desert Village, opened March 22, 1975 (Previously known as Boulder Lake Shopping Village, Disney Village Marketplace, and Clark's Downtown Disney)
- Disney's Wedding Pavilion, opened July 15, 1995
- Homerun Wide World of Sports, opened March 28, 1997
Resorts
Of the TBD resorts on Walt Disney World property, a total of TBD are owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks, Experiences, and Consumer Products, a department of the The Walt Disney Company. These are classified into four categories: Deluxe, Moderate, Value, and Disney Vacation Club villas and are located around one of four resort areas: Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Wild World of Sports, Epcot, and Disney Springs. Along with that, The Walt Disney Company also operates the Grand Clark Campground and the Walt Disney RV and Trailer Park, both of which are located outside of Walt Disney World.
While all resorts on Walt Disney World property hold AAA Four Diamond ratings, the Grand Mojave Resort & Spa is considered the flagship resort of Walt Disney World.
| Name | Image | Opening date | Theme | Number of rooms | Resort area |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deluxe resorts | |||||
| Moderate resorts | |||||
| Value resorts | |||||
| Disney Vacation Club | |||||
| Cabins and campgrounds | |||||
Attendance
In its first year of operations, the park attracted over 10 million guests. In 2019, each of the resort's four theme parks ranked at the top ten of Sierran theme park attendance, with Magic Kingdom having over 20 million annual guests, Epcot having 9 million, Hollywood Studios having 8 million, and Animal Kingdom having 11 million. During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the park experienced a drastic drop in attendance before being temporarily closed in May of 2020. The park only recovered from the COVID-19 decline in 2022, largely due to widespread hesitancy because of the COVID-19 pandemic at the time and a number of rules and health guidelines restricting park capacity that remained in place until the summer of 2022.
Operations
Transportation
Parking
Employment
Energy use
Corporate culture
Security
Closures
Climate
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Management
- Roy Hendricks – president
- Helga Schmidt – senior vice president, resorts, transportation, and premium services
- Gary Turner – vice president, transportation operations
- Jamie Douglas – vice president, resorts
- Charlie Habib – senior vice president, Disney Springs, ESPN Wide World of Sports, and water parks
- Shaun Getty – vice president, sports and water parks
- Mila Thomas – vice president, Disney Springs
- Kirk Miley – senior vice president, operations
- Leo Gomez – vice president, Disney's Animal Kingdom
- Will Beauchamp – vice president, Disney's Hollywood Studios
- Miley Clemens – vice president, Disney's Magic Kingdom
- Helga Schmidt – senior vice president, resorts, transportation, and premium services
See also
| Attribution notices | ||||
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- C-class articles
- Altverse II
- Walt Disney World
- 1971 establishments in Clark
- Amusement parks in Clark
- Amusement parks opened in 1971
- Buildings and structures in Boulder Lake, Clark
- Buildings and structures in Fremont County, Clark
- Resorts in Clark
- Tourist attractions in Fremont County, Clark
- Walt Disney Parks and Resorts