The Walt Disney World Resort is located in Bay Lake, Florida. It is close to Orlando and Kissimmee but is not truly located in either of them. Normally known as simply Disney World, the resort and park is operated by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Disney Orlando Florida packages provide an experience of history.
Geography
Disney World comprises 27,258 acres or 43 square miles of real estate between the parks, resorts, restaurants, and other attractions. The property has twenty-seven resort hotels, each themed after a region of the world, time period, or Disney attraction. There are also nine non-Disney hotels. Four theme parks, four complete golf courses, one nine hole golf course that only allows walking are also available on the grounds.
History
In 1955, Walt Disney Productions opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Research had shown that only five percent of Disneyland business came from east of the Mississippi River. Hoping to gain a larger market share, the company began looking for land east of the Mississippi. Also, Walt Disney felt that the company needed control of a bigger plot of land so that they could better control the businesses that sprung up around the park, an ability they did not have in California.
Due to the network of roads in the area, Walt Disney felt that Bay Lake would prove to be an ideal location for the new park. At the time, Interstate 4 was still planned and would provide easy travel to and from the location. To cloak the production in secrecy, the company used a series of dummy corporations to buy the land. These dummy corporations are now honored on the Main Street attraction in the original park, the Magic Kingdom.
If you take advantage of Disney Orlando Florida packages, you might never know the level of secrecy that went into its construction. In 1959, rumors abounded that Walt Disney was seeking to build a park in Orlando. To throw off the speculators, the Disney Company bought series of swampland around California with the claim that they were seeking to expand in California.
In 1965, a reporter caught Disney off guard with a question about Florida and seemed to uncover the plans to build in Florida. In response, Disney announced that they were building an attraction in Florida.
In 1966, Walt Disney died of lung cancer at the age of 65. In 1971, Magic Kingdom opened as the first park in the attraction. Since opening in 1971, Magic Kingdom has only been closed six times. It was closed due to five different hurricanes and from September 11, 2001, through September 12, 2001, in response to terrorist attacks. The tagline for the park is “The Most Magical Place on Earth” to differentiate it from Disneyland which is called “The Happiest Place on Earth.”