Walt Disney World

The Walt Disney World Resort, commonly referred to as simply Walt Disney World or Disney World, is a Disney theme park resort located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, comprised of four theme parks, two water parks, more than twenty-three resort hotels, and many more recreational venues. The resort opened on October 1, 1971, with the Magic Kingdom theme park, and two hotels: Disney's Contemporary Resort and Disney's Polynesian Resort. As in other Disney Parks, visitors to Walt Disney World are referred to as Guests and employees called Cast Members.

Three other theme parks were added over the years: EPCOT Center opened in 1982, Disney-MGM Studios in 1989, and Disney's Animal Kingdom in 1998, and two water parks: Typhoon Lagoon in 1989, and Blizzard Beach in 1995.

In March 2020, Disney announced the temporary closure of both Disney World and Disneyland due to the coronavirus pandemic. Disney parks around the world, such as Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, Tokyo Disney Resort, and Shanghai Disneyland, have also closed due to the threat of the coronavirus to both guests and Cast Members.

Walt Disney World reopened on July 11 with the Magic Kingdom and Disney's Animal Kingdom reopening the same day. EPCOT and Disney's Hollywood Studios reopened 4 days later on July 15. However, with the lingering threat of the COVID-19 virus, safety precautions have been put in place to protect guests and Cast Members from contracting or spreading the virus. Chief among those precautions are distanced Meet-and-Greets with the Disney characters until it is approved by the CDC for physical contact again.

Concept
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Properties
Walt Disney World has four major theme parks, each with a main landmark that serves as its symbol:


 * The Magic Kingdom - Cinderella Castle
 * EPCOT - Spaceship Earth, an 18-story geodesic sphere
 * Disney's Hollywood Studios - Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway or The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (formerly a large Sorcerer Mickey hat, which has been removed)
 * Disney's Animal Kingdom - The Tree of Life

There are also two water parks, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. (A third, River Country, closed permanently in 2001.)

The Disney Springs (formerly known as Downtown Disney) area contains many shopping, dining, and entertainment venues, including DisneyQuest (a "virtual theme park" inside a building), and a permanent Cirque du Soleil show (La Nouba).

Another notable aspect is the large number of hotel resort complexes on the Walt Disney World property. The non-themed hotels are owned by private, non-Disney hospitality companies such as Marriott and Hilton. The themed resorts include:


 * Disney's All-Star Movies Resort


 * Disney's All-Star Music Resort


 * Disney's All-Star Sports Resort


 * Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge


 * Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas


 * Disney's Art of Animation Resort


 * Disney's Beach Club Resort


 * Disney's Beach Club Villas


 * Disney's BoardWalk Inn


 * Disney's BoardWalk Villas


 * Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort


 * Disney's Contemporary Resort


 * Disney's Coronado Springs Resort


 * Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground


 * Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa


 * Disney's Old Key West Resort


 * Disney's Polynesian Village Resort


 * Disney's Pop Century Resort


 * Disney's Port Orleans Resort: Riverside (formerly Dixie Landings)


 * Disney's Port Orleans Resort: French Quarter


 * Disney's Riviera Resort


 * Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa (formerly the Disney Institute)


 * Disney's Wilderness Lodge


 * Disney's Yacht Club Resort


 * Shades of Green (formerly Disney's Golf Resort and The Disney Inn, named because of its location between two golf courses; it's currently leased by the United States Department of Defense and used for vacationing active and retired military personnel and their families)


 * Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser (Opening Spring 2022)


 * The Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge


 * Walt Disney World Dolphin (operated by Starwood)


 * Walt Disney World Swan (operated by Starwood)

The Walt Disney World resort also includes five world-class golf courses. The five 18-hole golf courses are the Magnolia, the Palm, Lake Buena Vista, Eagle Pines, and Osprey Ridge (the last two are part of the Bonnet Creek Golf Club). There are two miniature golf courses: Fantasia Gardens and Winter Summerland.

Walt Disney World paved the way for many other theme parks and attractions in the area, including Sea World and Universal Studios, and helped make Orlando a popular tourist destination for people from all over the world.

When the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, the Walt Disney World Resort employed about 5,500 cast members. Today it employs more than 65,000 cast members, spending more than $1.1 billion on payroll and $478 million on benefits each year. The largest single-site employer in the United States, Walt Disney World Resort has more than three thousand job classifications.

In a March 30, 2004 article in the Orlando Sentinel, Walt Disney World president Al Weiss gave some insight into how the parks are maintained:


 * More than 5,000 cast members are dedicated to maintenance and engineering, including 650 horticulturists and 600 painters.
 * Disney spends more than US$100 million every year on maintenance at the Magic Kingdom. In 2003, US$6 million was spent on renovating its Crystal Palace restaurant. 90 percent of guests say that the upkeep and cleanliness of the Magic Kingdom are excellent or very good.
 * The streets in the parks are steam cleaned every night.
 * There are cast members permanently assigned to painting the antique carousel horses; they use genuine gold leaf.
 * There is a tree farm on-site so that when a mature tree needs to be replaced, a thirty-year-old tree will be available to replace it.

There is a fleet of Disney-operated buses on property, branded Disney Transport, free for use by resort and park guests, though drivers rarely check. Two monorail lines also operate at Walt Disney World Resort: one links the Magic Kingdom, the Contemporary and Polynesian and Grand Floridian resorts, and the Transportation and Ticket Center (with an express track in the other direction, only stopping at the TTC and the Magic Kingdom); the other links Epcot and the Transportation and Ticket Center. A ferry line also operates on the Seven Seas Lagoon going from the TTC to the Magic Kingdom as an alternate route versus the monorail lines.

Popular Attractions

 * Magic Kingdom
 * "It's a Small World"
 * The Haunted Mansion
 * Pirates of the Caribbean
 * Space Mountain
 * Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
 * Splash Mountain
 * Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
 * Carousel of Progress
 * Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover
 * Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin
 * Jungle Cruise
 * Country Bear Jamboree
 * EPCOT
 * Spaceship Earth
 * Test Track
 * Mission: SPACE
 * Soarin' Around the World
 * The American Adventure
 * Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros
 * Frozen Ever After
 * Disney's Hollywood Studios
 * The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
 * Rock 'n' Roller Coaster
 * Fantasmic!
 * Toy Story Midway Mania!
 * Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
 * Alien Swirling Saucers
 * Slinky Dog Dash
 * Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway
 * Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
 * Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
 * Disney's Animal Kingdom
 * Kilimanjaro Safaris
 * Dinosaur (formerly named Countdown to Extinction)
 * Expedition Everest
 * Avatar: Flight of Passage
 * Na'vi River Journey
 * It's Tough to be a Bug!
 * Kali River Rapids

Development
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Tickets
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Kingdom Keepers
This book series is written by Ridley Pearson. There are seven books in the series that take place in locations all around The Walt Disney World Resort. The following parks, resorts and other facilities inside Walt Disney World Resort appear in the books:


 * Magic Kingdom
 * EPCOT
 * Disney's Hollywood Studios
 * Disney's Animal Kingdom
 * Disney's Blizzard Beach (Mentioned)
 * Disney's Typhoon Lagoon
 * Downtown Disney
 * Disney's Wide World of Sports
 * Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge
 * Lake Buena Vista Cogeneration Facility
 * Transportation and Ticket Center

Slogans

 * "Where Dreams Come True"
 * "The Most Magical Place on Earth"
 * "Where Magic Lives"

Trivia

 * WDW's opening day in 1971 went off fairly smoothly; however, there was one arrest. A woman insisted she get in free to the park because she was Cinderella. WDW police cleverly and humorously convinced the lady to get into the police car, by telling her it was a pumpkin.
 * Disney's housekeeping staff washes more than 285,000 pounds of laundry and dry-cleans at least 30,000 garments (including characters' outfits) each and every day. The equivalence of washing and drying two loads of laundry every day for 26 years.
 * There used to be a hidden airstrip south of Epcot that was used to launch aircraft for Skylaidescope and Surprise in the Skies. It is known as the Epcot Center Ultralight Flightpark, and was eventually replaced with Disney's Art of Animation Resort