Walt Disney World

Planning and construction

Conception

Walt Disney (left) with his brother Roy O. Disney (right) and then-governor of Florida W. Haydon Burns (center) on November 15, 1965, publicly announcing the creation of Disney World.

In 1959, Walt Disney Productions began looking for land to house a second resort to supplement Disneyland in Anaheim, California, which had opened in 1955. Market surveys at the time revealed that only 5% of Disneyland's visitors came from east of the Mississippi River, where 75% of the population of the United States lived. Additionally, Walt Disney disliked the businesses that had sprung up around Disneyland and wanted more control over a larger area of land in the next project.^[4]

Walt Disney flew over a potential site in Orlando, Florida – one of many – in November 1963. After witnessing the well-developed network of roads and taking the planned construction of both Interstate 4 and Florida's Turnpike into account, with McCoy Air Force Base (later Orlando International Airport) to the east, Disney selected a centrally-located site near Bay Lake.^[5] To avoid a burst of land speculation, Walt Disney World Company used various dummy corporations to acquire 30,500 acres (48 sq mi; 123 km²) of land.^[5] In May 1965, some of these major land transactions were recorded a few miles southwest of Orlando in Osceola County. In addition, two large tracts totaling $1.5 million were sold, and smaller tracts of flatlands and cattle pastures were purchased by exotically-named companies such as the "Ayefour Corporation", "Latin-American Development and Management Corporation" and the "Reedy Creek Ranch Corporation". Some are now memorialized on a window above Main Street, U.S.A. in Magic Kingdom. The smaller parcels of land acquired were called "outs". They were 5-acre (2 ha) lots platted in 1912 by the Munger Land Company and sold to investors. Most of the owners in the 1960s were happy to get rid of the land, which was mostly swamp at the time. Another issue was the mineral rights to the land, which were owned by Tufts University. Without the transfer of these rights, Tufts could come in at any time and demand the removal of buildings to obtain minerals. Eventually, Disney's team negotiated a deal with Tufts to buy the mineral rights for $15,000.^[6]

Working strictly in secrecy, real estate agents unaware of their client's identity began making offers to landowners in April 1964 in parts of southwest Orange and northwest Osceola counties. The agents were careful not to reveal the extent of their intentions, and they were able to negotiate numerous land contracts with some including large tracts of land for as little as $100 an acre.^[7] With the understanding that the recording of the first deeds would trigger intense public scrutiny, Disney delayed the filing of paperwork until a large portion of the land was under contract.^[8]

Early rumors and speculation about the land purchases assumed possible development by NASA in support of the nearby Kennedy Space Center, as well as references to other famous investors such as Ford, the Rockefellers, and Howard Hughes.^[8] An Orlando Sentinel news article published weeks later on May 20, 1965, acknowledged a popular rumor that Disney was building an "East Coast" version of Disneyland. However, the publication denied its accuracy based on an earlier interview with Disney at Kennedy Space Center, in which he claimed a $50 million investment was in the works for Disneyland, and that he had no interest in building a new park.^[8] In October 1965, editor Emily Bavar from the Sentinel visited Disneyland during the park's 10th-anniversary celebration. In an interview with Disney, she asked him if he was behind recent land purchases in Central Florida; Bavar later described that Disney "looked like I had thrown a bucket of water in his face" before denying the story.^[8] His reaction, combined with other research obtained during her Anaheim visit, led Bavar to author a story on October 21, 1965, where she predicted that Disney was building a second theme park in Florida.^[8] Three days later after gathering more information from various sources, the Sentinel published another article headlined, "We Say: 'Mystery Industry' Is Disney".^[8]

Walt Disney had originally planned to publicly reveal Disney World on November 15, 1965, but in light of the Sentinel story, Disney asked Florida Governor Haydon Burns to confirm the story on October 25. His announcement called the new theme park "the greatest attraction in the history of Florida".^[8] The official reveal was kept on the previously-planned November 15 date, and Disney joined Burns in Orlando for the event.^[8]

Roy Disney's oversight of construction

Roy O. Disney inspecting design plans on-site in Florida.

Walt Disney died from circulatory collapse caused by lung cancer on December 15, 1966, before his vision was realized. His brother and business partner, Roy O. Disney, postponed his retirement to oversee construction of the resort's first phase.

On February 2, 1967, Roy O. Disney held a press conference at the Park Theatres in Winter Park, Florida. The role of EPCOT was emphasized in the film that was played. After the film, it was explained that for Disney World, including EPCOT, to succeed, a special district would have to be formed: the Reedy Creek Improvement District with two cities inside it, Bay Lake and Reedy Creek, now Lake Buena Vista. In addition to the standard powers of an incorporated city, which include the issuance of tax-free bonds, the district would have immunity from any current or future county or state land-use laws. The only areas where the district had to submit to the county and state would be property taxes and elevator inspections.^[4] The legislation forming the district and the two cities was signed into law by Florida Governor Claude R. Kirk, Jr. on May 12, 1967.^[9] The Supreme Court of Florida then ruled in 1968 that the district was allowed to issue tax-exempt bonds for public projects within the district, despite the sole beneficiary being Walt Disney Productions.

The district soon began construction of drainage canals, and Disney built the first roads and the Magic Kingdom. The Contemporary Resort Hotel and Polynesian Village were also completed in time for the park's opening on October 1, 1971.^[10][11] The Palm and Magnolia golf courses near Magic Kingdom had opened a few weeks before, while Fort Wilderness opened a month later. 24 days after the park opened, Roy O. Disney dedicated the property and declared that it would be known as "Walt Disney World" in his brother's honor. In his own words: "Everyone has heard of Ford cars. But have they all heard of Henry Ford, who started it all? Walt Disney World is in memory of the man who started it all, so people will know his name as long as Walt Disney World is here." After the dedication, Roy Disney asked Walt's widow, Lillian, what she thought of Walt Disney World. According to biographer Bob Thomas, she responded, "I think Walt would have approved." Roy Disney died at age 78 on December 20, 1971, less than three months after the property opened.^[12]

Admission prices in 1971 were $3.50 for adults, $2.50 for juniors under age 18, and one dollar for children under twelve.^[10]

Recent history

Much of Walt Disney's plans for his Progress City were abandoned after his death and after the company board decided that it did not want to be in the business of running a city. The concept evolved into the resort's second theme park, EPCOT Center, which opened in 1982 (renamed EPCOT in 1996). While still emulating Walt Disney's original idea of showcasing new technology, the park is closer to a world's fair than a "community of tomorrow". One of EPCOT's main attractions is their world's showcase which highlights 11 countries across the globe. Some of the urban planning concepts from the original idea of EPCOT would instead be integrated into the community of Celebration much later. The resort's third theme park, Disney-MGM Studios (renamed Disney's Hollywood Studios in 2008), opened in 1989 and is inspired by show business. The resort's fourth theme park, Disney's Animal Kingdom, opened in 1998.

George Kalogridis was named president of the resort in December 2012, replacing Meg Crofton, who had overseen the site since 2006.

On January 21, 2016, the resort's management structure was changed, with general managers within a theme park being in charge of an area or land, instead of on a functional basis as previously. Theme parks have already had a vice-president overseeing them. Disney Springs and Disney Sports were also affected. Now hotel general managers manage a single hotel instead of some managing multiple hotels.^[13]

On October 18, 2017, it was announced that resort visitors could bring dogs to Disney's Yacht Club Resort, Disney's Port Orleans Resort – Riverside, Disney's Art of Animation Resort and Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground.^[14]

Timeline

Some popular Disney characters (from left to right): Goofy, Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, and Minnie Mouse can be found throughout the resort.

Future expansion

The resort has a number of expansion projects planned or ongoing, including:

• Star Wars Hotel (opening date to be announced)
• Disney Riviera Resort, an all new Disney resort opening fall 2019
• Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge due to open at Disney's Hollywood Studios in late fall of 2019.
• A Tron-themed ride at Magic Kingdom due to open in 2021
• Expansion at Epcot including new attractions related to Guardians of the Galaxy and Ratatouille due to open by the end of 2021
• Disney Skyliner, a new gondola lift style transportation system. Select cabins will feature Disney characters on the exterior and will give guests the ability to travel to Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and four Disney resorts: Art of Animation, Caribbean Beach, Pop Century, and the new Riviera Resort.^[17][18][19]

Theme parks

• Magic Kingdom, opened October 1, 1971
• Epcot, opened October 1, 1982
• Disney's Hollywood Studios, opened May 1, 1989
• Disney's Animal Kingdom, opened April 22, 1998

Water parks

• Disney's Typhoon Lagoon, opened June 1, 1989
• Disney's Blizzard Beach, opened April 1, 1995

Other attractions

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, at Disney's Hollywood Studios

Walt Disney World Railroad

Typhoon Lagoon, one of two waterparks at the resort

View of Disney Springs

• Multiple resorts across Disney property offer a variety of spa treatments including Disney's Grand Floridian and Disney's Coronado Springs Resort
• Disney's Boardwalk, located outside of their Boardwalk Inn, functions as an entertainment, dining, and shopping district.^[20]
• 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 Springs, opened March 22, 1975 (Previously known as Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village, Disney Village Marketplace, and Downtown Disney)^[21]
• Disney's Wedding Pavilion, opened July 15, 1995
• ESPN Wide World of Sports, opened March 28, 1997

Golf and recreation

Disney's property includes four golf courses. The three 18-hole golf courses are Disney's Palm (4.5 stars), Disney's Magnolia (4 stars), and Disney's Lake Buena Vista (4 stars). There is also a nine-hole walking course (no electric carts allowed) called Oak Trail, designed for young golfers. The Magnolia and Palm courses played home to the PGA Tour's Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Classic. Arnold Palmer Golf Management manages the Disney golf courses.^[22]

Additionally, there are two themed miniature golf complexes, each with two courses, Fantasia Gardens and Winter Summerland.^[23] The two courses at Fantasia Gardens are Fantasia Garden and Fantasia Fairways. The Garden course is a traditional miniature-style course based on the "Fantasia" movies with musical holes, water fountains and characters. Fantasia Fairways is a traditional golf course on miniature scale having water hazards and sand traps.^[24]

The two courses at Winter Summerland are Summer and Winter, both themed around Santa. Summer is the more challenging of the two 18-hole courses.^[24]

Former attractions

• Discovery Island — an island in Bay Lake that was home to many species of animals and birds. It opened on April 8, 1974, and closed on April 8, 1999.
• Disney's River Country — the first water park at the Walt Disney World Resort. It opened on June 20, 1976, and closed on November 2, 2001.
• Walt Disney World Speedway — a racetrack at Walt Disney World and included the Richard Petty Driving Experience. It opened November 28, 1995, and closed on August 9, 2015.
• 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.^[25]
• La Nouba by Cirque du Soleil — opened December 23, 1998, and closed after December 31, 2017.^[26]

On-site Disney resorts

• 
  The Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Walt Disney World's flagship resort
• 
  Disney's Polynesian Resort, a deluxe level resort
• 
  Caribbean Beach Resort, the first moderate resort at Walt Disney World
• 
  Fort Wilderness, Disney's campground and cabin resort
• 
  Disney's All Star Movies Resort, one of five value resorts

On-site non-Disney hotels

• 
  Shades of Green Resort, owned and operated by the United States Military
• 
  The Walt Disney World Dolphin
• 
  The Walt Disney World Swan
• 
  The Hilton at Walt Disney World, located at Hotel Plaza Boulevard

Former resorts

• The Golf Resort — Became The Disney Inn, and later became Shades of Green.
• Disney's Village Resort — Became the Villas at Disney Institute and then Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa. The "Tree House" Villas were decommissioned for a time because they were not accessible to disabled guests. Until early 2008, they were used for International Program Cast Member housing. In February 2008, Disney submitted plans to the South Florida Water Management District to replace the 60 existing villas with 60 new villas.^[28] The Treehouse Villas opened during the summer of 2009.
• Celebration — a town designed and built by Disney, now managed by a resident-run association.
• Lake Buena Vista — Disney originally intended this area to become a complete community with multiple residences, shopping, and offices, but transformed the original homes into hotel lodging in the 1970s, which were demolished in the early 2000s to build Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa)

Proposed resorts

• Star Wars Hotel — planned to be built on the south side of Disney's Hollywood Studios, just east of World Drive and just outside of the under-construction Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge land theme park planning to open in 2019.^[29]
• Riveria Resort — Disney's 15th Vacation Club property, the 300-unit resort is slated to open in the fall of 2019, and will be served by the new Disney Skyliner gondola lift system.^[30]

Never-built resorts

• Disney's Asian Resort
• Disney's Persian Resort
• Disney's Venetian Resort
• Disney's Mediterranean Resort
• Fort Wilderness Junction

Disney's Magical Express

Guests with a Disney Resort reservation (excluding the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin) that arrive at Orlando International Airport can be transported to their resort from the airport using the complimentary Disney Magical Express service, which is operated by Mears Destination Services. Guests can also have their bags picked up and transported to their resort for them through a contract with BAGS Incorporated on participating airlines. Many resorts feature Airline Check-in counters for guests returning to the airport. Here their bags will be checked all the way through to their final destination and they can also have boarding passes printed for them. Some participating airlines are Delta, United, American, Jet Blue, Southwest and Alaska Airlines.

Transportation

The Walt Disney World Monorail System provides free transport across the resort.

The Walt Disney World Resort is serviced by Disney Transport, a complimentary mass transportation system allowing guest access across the property. The Walt Disney World Monorail System provides free transportation at Walt Disney World. Guests can board the monorail and travel between the Magic Kingdom and Epcot, including select on-property resorts such as The Grand Floridian and The Polynesian Village. The system operates on three routes that interconnect at the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC), adjacent to the Magic Kingdom's parking lot. A fleet of Disney-operated buses on property, branded Disney Transport, is also complimentary for guests.

Disney Transport also operates a fleet of watercraft, ranging in size from water taxis, up to the ferries that connect the Magic Kingdom to the Transportation and Ticket Center. Disney Transport is also responsible for maintaining the fleet of parking lot trams that are used for shuttling visitors between the various theme park parking lots and their respective main entrances.

On July 31, 2017, Walt Disney World Resort partnered with Lyft to offer a different type of transportation service available to anyone that is within the Walt Disney World Resort limits. This service is called the Minnie Van Service. These Minnie Vans have the classic Minnie Mouse red and white polka dot design around the car and are owned and operated by Walt Disney World Resort. Each Minnie Van can accommodate up to 6 people and have 2 carseats. To take advantage of this service, all that is needed is using the Lyft app within the resort limits, requesting a ride to a resort destination and waiting for a Disney cast member to drive up with the Minnie Van. Rides cost $25 and operate between 6:30am to 12:30am daily. ^{[42] [43]}

A gondola lift system, dubbed Disney Skyliner, is under construction as of June 2018. The system's three lines will connect Disney's Hollywood Studios and Epcot with four resort hotels.^[19] Completion is expected some time in 2019.

Walt Disney World previously had its own small airport: the Walt Disney World Airport which was also known as the Lake Buena Vista STOLport. During the early 1970s, scheduled passenger service was operated by Shawnee Airlines with small de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter commuter turboprops which had STOL (short take off and landing) capabilities on flights to Tampa and Orlando.^[44][45] The airport is no longer in operation.

Employment

When the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, the site employed about 5,500 "cast members".^[46] Today, Walt Disney World employs more than 74,000 cast members,^[47] spending more than $1.2 billion on payroll and $474 million on benefits each year. The largest single-site employer in the United States,^[48][49] Walt Disney World has more than 3,700 job classifications. The resort also sponsors and operates the Walt Disney World College Program, an internship program that offers American college students (CP's) the opportunity to live about 15 miles (24 km) off-site in four Disney-owned apartment complexes and work at the resort, and thereby provides much of the theme park and resort "front line" cast members. There is also the Walt Disney World International College Program, an internship program that offers international college students (ICP's) from all over the world the same opportunity.

Corporate culture

Walt Disney World's corporate culture uses jargon based on theatrical terminology.^[50][51] For example, park visitors are always "guests", employees are called "cast members", rides are "attractions" or "adventures", cast members costumed as famous Disney characters in a way that does not cover their faces are known as "face characters", jobs are "roles", and public and nonpublic areas are respectively labeled "onstage" and "backstage".^[50][51]

Security

Disney's security personnel are generally dressed in typical security guard uniforms, though some of the personnel are dressed as tourists in plain clothes. Since September 11, 2001, uniformed security has been stationed just outside each Disney park in Florida to search guests' bags as they enter the parks.

Disney Security Vehicle, picture taken July 2, 2009 in front of Epcot

The land where Walt Disney World resides is part of the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID), a governing jurisdiction created in 1967 by the State of Florida at the request of Disney. RCID provides 911 services, fire, environmental protection, building code enforcement, utilities and road maintenance but does not provide law enforcement services. The approximately 800 security staff are instead considered employees of the Walt Disney Company. Arrests and citations are issued by the Florida Highway Patrol along with the Orange County and Osceola County sheriffs deputies who patrol the roads. Disney security does maintain a fleet of security vans equipped with flares, traffic cones, and chalk commonly used by police officers. These security personnel are charged with traffic control by the RCID and may only issue personnel violation notices to Disney and RCID employees, not the general public.^[52][53]

Despite the appearance of the uniformed security personnel, they are not considered a legal law enforcement agency. Disney and The Reedy Creek Improvement District were sued for access to Disney Security records by Bob and Kathy Sipkema following the death of their son at the resort in 1994. The court characterized Disney security as a "night watchman" service not a law enforcement agency and was not subject to Florida's open records laws. An appeals court later upheld the lower court's ruling.^[54]

In late 2015, Disney confirmed the addition of randomized secondary screenings and dogs trained to detect body-worn explosives within parks, in addition to metal detectors at entrances. It has also increased the number of uniformed security personnel at Walt Disney World and Disneyland properties.^[55]

Disney Security personnel in Florida have investigated traffic accidents and issued accident reports. The forms used by Disney Security may be confused with official, government forms by some.

The Orange County Sheriff maintains an office on Disney property, but this is primarily to process guests accused of shoplifting by Disney security personnel.^[56]