Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World

Four icons of Walt Disney World, clockwise from top left: Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom, Spaceship Earth at Epcot, Hollywood Tower Hotel at Hollywood Studios and the Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom.
Industry	Entertainment, hospitality
Founded	October 1, 1971 (52 years ago) (1971-10-01)
Founders	Walt Disney Roy Disney
Headquarters	Bay Lake, Celebration and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States
Key people	Jeff Vahle (President) Jason Kirk (SVP, Theme Parks) Maribeth Bisienere (SVP, Resorts)[1][2]
Number of employees	77,000+[3]
Parent	Disney Experiences
Website	disneyworld.com

The Walt Disney World Resort (also known as Walt Disney World or Disney World) is an entertainment resort complex located about 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of The Walt Disney Company. The property covers nearly 25,000 acres (39 sq mi; 101 km²), of which half has been developed.^[4] Walt Disney World contains numerous recreational facilities designed to attract visitors for an extended stay, including four theme parks, two water parks, four golf courses, conference centers, a competitive sports complex and a shopping, dining, and entertainment complex. Additionally, there are 19 Disney-owned resort hotels and one camping resort on the property, and many other non-Disney-operated resorts on and near the property.

Designed to supplement Disneyland in Anaheim, California, which had opened in 1955, the complex was developed by Walt Disney in the 1960s. Walt wanted to build a new park because Disneyland in California was limited from expanding by the establishments that sprung up around it. "The Florida Project", as it was known, was intended to present a distinct vision with its own diverse set of attractions. Walt Disney's original plans also called for the inclusion of an "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow" (EPCOT), a planned community intended to serve as a testbed for new city-living innovations. Walt Disney died on December 15, 1966, during the initial planning of the complex. After his death, the company wrestled with the idea of whether to bring the Disney World project to fruition; however, Walt's older brother, Roy O. Disney, came out of retirement to make sure Walt's biggest dream was realized. Construction started in 1967, with the company instead building a resort similar to Disneyland, abandoning the planned community concept. Magic Kingdom was the first theme park to open in the complex in 1971, followed by Epcot (known then as EPCOT Center) in 1982, Disney's Hollywood Studios (known then as Disney-MGM Studios) in 1989, and Disney's Animal Kingdom in 1998. It was Roy who insisted the name of the entire complex be changed from Disney World to Walt Disney World, ensuring that people would remember that the project was Walt's dream.

Walt Disney World is also covered by an FAA prohibited airspace zone that restricts all airspace activities without approval from the federal government of the United States,^[5] including usage of drones; this level of protection is otherwise only offered to American critical infrastructure (such as the Pantex nuclear weapons plant), military bases, the Washington, D.C., Special Flight Rules Area, Camp David, and other official presidential travels.

In 2018, Walt Disney World was the most visited vacation resort in the world, with an average annual attendance of more than 58 million.^[6] The resort is the largest single-site employer in the United States,^[3] the flagship destination of Disney's worldwide corporate enterprise^[7] and has become a popular staple in American culture.