Jumat, 04 Februari 2011

Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World Resort





Walt Disney World Resort is the most visited and largest recreational resort in the world, containing four theme parks, two water parks, twenty-three themed hotels, and numerous shopping, dining, entertainment and recreation venues. Owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts segment of The Walt Disney Company, it is located southwest of Orlando, Florida.

It opened on October 1, 1971, with the Magic Kingdom theme park, and has since added Epcot (on October 1, 1982), Disney's Hollywood Studios (on May 1, 1989), and Disney's Animal Kingdom (on April 22, 1998).

History and development
In 1959, Walt Disney Productions, under the leadership of Walt Disney, began looking for land for a second resort to supplement Disneyland, which had opened in Anaheim, California in 1955. Market surveys revealed that only 2% 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 control of a much larger area of land for the new project.

Walt Disney first flew over the Orlando site (one of many) on November 22, 1963. He first flew over and appealed to the Sanford, Florida city council to allow him to build Disney World in Sanford, but his appeal was declined. He saw the well-developed network of roads, including Interstate 4 and Florida's Turnpike, with McCoy Air Force Base (later Orlando International Airport) to the east, and immediately fell in love with the site. Walt Disney focused most of his attention on the "Florida Project", both before and after his participation at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair, but he died on December 15, 1966, five years before his vision was realized.

To avoid a burst of land speculation, Disney used various dummy corporations and cooperative individuals to acquire 27,400 acres (110 km ²) of land.
After most of the land had been bought, 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. Plans for EPCOT would drastically change after Disney's death. EPCOT became EPCOT Center, the resort's second theme park, which opened in 1982.










Walt Disney died 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, the last one recorded by Walt Disney before his death. After the film, it was explained that for Walt Disney World to succeed, a special district would have to be formed: the Reedy Creek Improvement District with two cities inside it, the City of Bay Lake and the City of Reedy Creek (now the City of Lake Buena Vista).

The district soon began construction of drainage canals, and Disney built the first roads and the Magic Kingdom. Disney's Contemporary Resort, Disney's Polynesian Resort, and Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground were also completed in time for the park's opening on October 1, 1971. The Palm and Magnolia golf courses near the Magic Kingdom had opened a few weeks before.

Roy O. Disney died on December 20, 1971, barely three months after the property opened.

Disney subsequently opened EPCOT Center in 1982, a theme park adapted from Walt Disney's vision for a "community of tomorrow". The park permanently adopted the name Epcot in 1996. In 1989, the resort added Disney-MGM Studios, a theme park inspired by show business, whose name was changed to Disney's Hollywood Studios in 2008. The resort's fourth theme park, Disney's Animal Kingdom, opened in 1998.

Location
Despite marketing claims and popular misconceptions, the Florida resort is not located in Orlando. The entire property is outside Orlando's city limits. The majority of the resort property sits within southwestern Orange County, with the remainder in adjacent Osceola County to the south; the three All-Star Resorts and Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex are the only facilities located in Osceola County. Most of the resort's land and all of the public areas are located in the cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, about 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Orlando.

The 25,000 acre (101 km²) site is accessible from Central Florida's Interstate 4 via Exits 62B (World Drive), 64B (US 192 West), 65B (Osceola Parkway West), 67B (SR 536 West), and 68 (SR 535 North), and Exit 8 on State Road 429 (Florida), the Western Expressway.

At its peak, the resort occupied approximately 30,000 acres (120 km2), about the size of San Francisco, or twice the size of Manhattan.


Theme parks
Walt Disney World Resort features four theme parks. Each park is represented by an iconic structure:

-Magic Kingdom - Cinderella Castle
-Epcot - Spaceship Earth
-Disney's Hollywood Studios - The Sorcerer's Hat
-Disney's Animal Kingdom - The Tree of Life

Other attractions

-Typhoon Lagoon
-Blizzard Beach
-Disney's Wedding Pavilion
-Disney's BoardWalk
-Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex
-Walt Disney World Speedway / Richard Petty Driving Experience
-Downtown Disney



Downtown Disney consists of three sections, Marketplace, Pleasure Island, and West Side, that contain many shopping, dining, and entertainment venues. They include the DisneyQuest indoor arcade, a House of Blues restaurant and nightclub, a Planet Hollywood restaurant and a Cirque du Soleil theater and original production, La Nouba.




The resort has a small aircraft runway located east of the Magic Kingdom parking lot. When the resort opened in 1971, Shawnee Airlines began regular passenger service from Orlando's McCoy Air Force Base (now Orlando International Airport) directly to Disney World's STOLport (Short Take Off and Landing) on a daily basis, with flights lasting only a few minutes. Today, the runway mostly is used as a staging area for buses and no longer is in service for aircraft.

Golf and recreation
Disney's property includes five golf courses. The four 18-hole golf courses are the Magnolia, the Palm, Lake Buena Vista and Osprey Ridge. There is also a nine-hole walking course called Oak Trail, designed for young golfers. Additionally, there are two themed miniature golf complexes, each with two courses, Fantasia Gardens and Winter Summerland.

Catch-and-release fishing excursions are offered daily on the resort's lakes. A Florida fishing license is not required because it occurs on private property. Cane-pole fishing is offered from the docks at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground and Disney's Port Orleans Resort.




Resorts and hotels

On-site Disney resorts
There are 32 resorts and hotels located on the Walt Disney World property. Of those, 22 are owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company. The Disney resorts are classified into five categories: Deluxe, Deluxe Villa, Moderate, Value, and Campground. The other hotels are owned by private, non-Disney hospitality companies such as Starwood (Westin and Sheraton), Holiday Inn, Best Western, and Hilton.

Guests arriving at Orlando International Airport can be transported to their Disney resort from the airport using Disney's Magical Express service, and have their bags picked up and transported for them through a contract with BAGS Incorporated. Guests board custom motor coaches, watch a video about the Walt Disney World Resort, and their luggage is later delivered directly to their rooms.

Value Resorts
-Disney's Pop Century Resort
-Disney's All-Star Movies Resort
-Disney's All-Star Music Resort
-Disney's All-Star Sports Resort

Moderate Resorts
-Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort
-Disney's Coronado Springs Resort
-Disney's Port Orleans Resort French Quarter
-Disney's Port Orleans Resort Riverside

Deluxe Resorts
-Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge
-Disney's Beach Club Resort
-Disney's BoardWalk Inn
-Disney's Contemporary Resort
-Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
-Disney's Polynesian Resort
-Disney's Wilderness Lodge
-Disney's Yacht Club Resort

Cabins and Campgrounds
-Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground

Deluxe Villas
-Disney's Old Key West Resort
-Disney's BoardWalk Villas
-The Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge
-Disney's Beach Club Villas
-Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
-Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas

Future resorts on Disney property

Treehouse Villas at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa: 60 new single-family villas built in place of the original Treehouses, located near Downtown Disney and the Lake Buena Vista golf course, scheduled to open in the summer of 2009.

Bay Lake Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort: Permits were filed with the South Florida Water Management District in November 2006 for the construction of a 16-story tower containing approximately 300 Disney Vacation Club units. The property will open in the fall of 2009.

Four Seasons: On March 1, 2007, Disney announced plans to convert its Eagle Pines and Osprey Ridge golf courses into a new 900-acre (3.6 km2) luxury resort that will include a Four Seasons hotel, an 18-hole championship golf course, plus single- and multi-family vacation homes and fractional ownership vacation homes. The hotel is estimated to open in 2010.


On-site non-Disney hotels
-Best Western Lake Buena Vista Resort Hotel
-Doubletree Guest Suite Resort
-Regal Sun Resort
-Hilton, located in the Walt Disney World Resort
-Holiday Inn in the Walt Disney World Resort
-Royal Plaza
-Shades of Green (owned and operated by the United States Department of Defense and used for vacationing active and retired military personnel, their families, and DOD civilians only)
-Buena Vista Palace Resort & Spa
-Walt Disney World Dolphin (operated by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide)
-Walt Disney World Swan (operated by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide)

Attendance
The May 2008 issue of trade magazine Park World reported the following attendance estimates for 2007 compiled by Economic Research Associates in partnership with TEA (formerly the Themed Entertainment Association):

Magic Kingdom, 17 million visits (No. 1 worldwide)
Epcot, 10.9 million visits (No. 6)
Disney's Hollywood Studios, 9.51 million visits (No. 7)
Disney's Animal Kingdom, 9.49 million visits (No. 8)




Employment
When the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, the site employed about 5,500 "cast members". Today it employs more than 63,000, 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 3,000 job classifications.

The resort also sponsors and operates the Walt Disney World College Program, an internship program that has American college students live on site and work for the resort, providing 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 has college students from all over the world.

Maintenance
In a March 30, 2004, article in The Orlando Sentinel, then-Walt Disney World president Al Weiss gave some insight into how the parks are maintained:



-More than 5,000 cast members are dedicated to maintenance and engineering, including 750 horticulturists and 600 painters.
-Disney spends more than $100 million every year on maintenance at the Magic Kingdom. In 2003, $6 million was spent on renovating its Crystal Palace restaurant. 90% 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.
-The resort features a Automated Vacuum Collection system for waste disposal.

Transportation
A fleet of Disney-operated buses on property, branded Disney Transport, is available for guests at no charge. In 2007, Disney Transport started a guest services upgrade to the buses. SatellGPS systems controlling new public address systems on the buses give safety information, park tips and other general announcements, with music. They are not to be confused with the Disney Cruise Line and Disney's Magical Express buses which are operated by Mears Transportation.

The Walt Disney World Monorail System also provides transportation at Walt Disney World. A fleet of 12 monorail trains operates on three routes that interconnect at the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC) adjacent to the Magic Kingdom's parking lot. One line provides an express non-stop link from the TTC to the Magic Kingdom, whilst a second line provides a link from the TTC to Epcot. The third line links the TTC and the Magic Kingdom to the Contemporary, Polynesian, and Grand Floridian resorts.


Development Timeline
1965 Walt Disney announces Florida Project
1967 Construction begins
1971 Magic Kingdom
Palm and Magnolia Golf Courses
Disney's Contemporary Resort
Disney's Polynesian Resort
Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground
1972 Disney's Village Resort
1973 Disney's Golf Resort
1974 Discovery Island
1975 Disney's Village Resort
Walt Disney Village Marketplace
1976 Disney's River Country
1980 Walt Disney World Conference Center
Disney's Village Resort - Club Lake Villas
1982 Epcot
1988 Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort
1989 Disney's Hollywood Studios
Disney's Typhoon Lagoon
Pleasure Island
1990 Disney's Yacht Club and Beach Club Resorts
Walt Disney World Swan
Walt Disney World Dolphin
1991 Disney's Port Orleans Resort
Disney Vacation Club
1992 Disney's Dixie Landings Resort
Bonnet Creek Golf Club
1994 Disney's All-Star Sports Resort
Disney's Wilderness Lodge
1995 Disney's All-Star Music Resort
Disney's Blizzard Beach
Disney's Fairy Tale Wedding Pavilion
Walt Disney World Speedway
1996 Disney Institute
Disney's BoardWalk Inn and BoardWalk Villas
1997 Disney's Coronado Springs Resort
Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex
Downtown Disney West Side
1998 Disney's Animal Kingdom
DisneyQuest
1999 Disney's All-Star Movies Resort
2001 Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge
2002 Disney's Beach Club Villas
2003 Disney's Pop Century Resort
2004 Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
2007 Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas

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