Walt Disney World Resort

Properties

Most of the Walt Disney Company's Central Florida land, and all of the public areas, are located in the Cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, located southwest of Orlando and a few miles northwest of Kissimmee. The land within Walt Disney World is part of the Reedy Creek Improvement District which allows the Disney Corporation to exercise quasi-governmental powers over the area.

Related Topics:
Bay Lake - Lake Buena Vista - Orlando - Kissimmee - Reedy Creek Improvement District

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Walt Disney World Resort's claim to being the largest theme park resort in the world will be passed on to Dubai Land, to be twice its size, in 2006.

Related Topics:
Dubai Land - 2006

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Walt Disney World Resort features four major theme parks, each with a main attraction that serves as its symbol:

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• The Magic Kingdom (Cinderella Castle)
• Epcot (Spaceship Earth, the geodesic sphere which resembles a giant golf ball)
• Disney-MGM Studios (the giant Mickey sorcerer's cap, though formerly the 'Earful Tower' water tower represented it)
• Disney's Animal Kingdom (the Tree of Life)

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

Related Topics:
Typhoon Lagoon - Blizzard Beach - River Country

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The 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).

Related Topics:
Downtown Disney - DisneyQuest - Cirque du Soleil

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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:

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• 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 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 and Spa
• Disney's Old Key West Resort
• Disney's Polynesian Resort
• Disney's Pop Century Resort
• Disney's Port Orleans Resort Riverside (formerly Dixie Landings)
• Disney's Port Orleans Resort French Quarter (formerly Disney's Port Orleans Resort)
• Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa (formerly the Disney Institute)
• Disney's Wilderness Lodge
• Disney's Yacht Club Resort
• Shades of Green (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)
• The Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge
• Walt Disney World Dolphin (operated by Starwood Hotel and Resorts Worldwide)
• Walt Disney World Swan (operated by Starwood Hotel and Resorts Worldwide)

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.

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

Related Topics:
SeaWorld - Universal Studios

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When the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, the Walt Disney World Resort employed about 5,500 cast members. Today it employs more than 57,000 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.

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The Walt Disney World Resort also sponsors and operates the Walt Disney World College Program, an internship program that has US college students live on-site and work for the Resort, providing much of the theme park and resort "front line" cast members.

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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:

Related Topics:
March 30 - 2004 - Orlando Sentinel - Al Weiss

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• 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 (run by Mears Transportation), free for use by resort and park guests. Taxi boats link some locations. 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.

Related Topics:
Disney Transport - Monorail

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Walt Disney World Resort covers a total of 47 square miles (122km2), about the size of San Francisco or twice the size of Manhattan. Less than one-fourth of the property has been developed. Another fourth has been set aside as a wilderness preserve.

Related Topics:
San Francisco - Manhattan

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