History-of-Walt-Disney-World

The Walt Disney World Resort, sometimes shortened to Walt Disney World or Disney World, is the world's largest and most visited recreational resort; over seventeen million people visit the resort during the summer period.

The resort covers a 30,080-acre (47.00 sq mi; 121.7 km2) area. WDW is just southwest of Orlando, Florida, USA and encompassing four theme parks, two water parks, 23 on-site themed resort hotels (excluding 8 that are on-site, but not owned by the Walt Disney Company),

The attraction includes a campground, two health spas and fitness centers, and other recreational venues together with a wide range of entertainment.

Mickey Mouse

One of the most interesting aspects, which I am sure most people will agree with is the sheer fun and excitement that the attraction creates, this is seen on a daily basis throughout the theme park and is not something that is confined to children, Lynn and I have witnessed this excitement in our elderly friends who have no hesitation when it comes to joining in with the fun.

We have often seen grandparents posing for a memorable photograph with Mickey Mouse, and other famous Disney characters.

Magic Kingdom

Walt Disney World opened on October 1, 1971 with only the Magic-Kingdom,

theme park and has since added Epcot (October 1, 1982), Disney-Hollywood-Studios (May 1, 1989) and Disney-Animal-Kingdom theme park (April 22, 1998).

This world famous resort was inspired by the dreams of Walt Disney and his creation of Disneyland in California.

Its original theme park, Magic Kingdom, is designed similarly to Disneyland.

Walt Disney created "Disney World" in order to have a vacation resort that was much different from Disneyland's one-day visit; this includes a much wider variety of sports, recreation, uniquely-themed resort hotels and entertainment.

Walt Disney

Market surveys revealed that only 2 percent of Disneyland's visitors came from east of the Mississippi River, where 75 percent of the population of the United States lived.

Additionally, Walt Disney disliked the businesses that had sprung up around Disneyland and wanted control of a much larger area of land for the new project.

A more romanticized anecdote was that Walt Disney himself once encountered a family who left Disneyland early because they saw building congestion on the Santa Ana Freeway (I-5) from the Skyway ride, an incident that committed him to producing a greater buffer from reality at future parks.

Walt Disney World Orlando

To avoid a burst of land speculation, Disney used various dummy corporations to acquire 27,443 acres (11,106 ha) of land. Some of these names are memorialized on a window above Main Street, U.S.A. in the Magic Kingdom.

Disney Orlando

Two large tracts totaling $1.5 million were sold, and smaller tracts of flatlands and cattle pastures were purchased by exotic-sounding companies such as the Latin-American Development and Management Corporation and the Reedy Creek Ranch Corporation.

In addition to three huge parcels of land were many smaller parcels, referred to as "outs."

Much of the land had been platted into 5-acre (2.0 ha) lots in 1912 by the Munger Land Company and sold to investors.

In most cases, the owners were happy to get rid of the land, which was mostly swamp.

Yet another problem was the mineral rights to the land, 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.

Walt Disney -Epcot

A press conference soon was organized for November 15.

At the presentation, Walt Disney explained the plans for the site, including EPCOT, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, which was to be a futuristic city (and which was also known as Progress City).

Roy O. Disney

Plans for EPCOT would drastically change after Disney's death.

Epcot became EPCOT Center, the resort's second theme park, which opened in 1982.

Concepts from the original idea of EPCOT would be integrated into the community of Celebration much later.

The Reedy Creek Drainage District was incorporated on May 13, 1966 under Florida State Statutes Chapter 298, which gives powers including eminent domain to special Drainage Districts. To create the District, only the support of the landowners within was required.

Walt Disney died from 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.

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