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Walt Disney Florida

Article Overview: Following the success of the world famous Disneyland in California, founder Walt Disney wanted to expand his operations. He quietly began purchasing land in central Florida under the mask of fake companies in order to keep prices low. On February 2, 1967, after meeting with various local legislative, civic, and industrial leaders, a new Walt Disney Florida project was announced in a press release by Walt Disney Productions. Called “Disney World,” this new Walt Disney Florida project was to be built on a 43-square mile piece of land sixteen miles southwest of Orlando, Florida.

Walt Disney Florida

Following the success of the world famous Disneyland in California, founder Walt Disney wanted to expand his operations. He quietly began purchasing land in central Florida under the mask of fake companies in order to keep prices low. On February 2, 1967, after meeting with various local legislative, civic, and industrial leaders, a new Walt Disney Florida project was announced in a press release by Walt Disney Productions. Called “Disney World,” this new Walt Disney Florida project was to be built on a 43-square mile piece of land sixteen miles southwest of Orlando, Florida.

Basic elements of the project were to be similar to the California amusement park, including outdoor sports centres and a series of theme motels surrounding the area. However, there were also planned to be a number of major differences between this and California ventures, namely the establishment of an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT), which was supposed to become home to 20,000 permanent residents and serve as a real-life lab for new technologies and ideas about the urban future.

The entire cost of the project was meant to cost $600 million and take years to construct. However, it was estimated that in its first ten years of operation, the park would directly generate $6.6 billion – half from expenditures by tourists and half from new jobs created. At the press conference where it was first announced, CEO Roy O. Disney – Walt’s younger brother – said, “Our corporation is dedicated to making Walt Disney’s dream a reality.” Completing the project had become the founder’s new dream.

Today, that Walt Disney Florida project continues to be one of the top vacation destinations for families around the world. Several parks fill Walt Disney Florida, including Magic Kingdom – the first and most famous of the four, the Animal Kingdom Park, Epcot Park, and MGM Studios, which houses the infamous Tower of Terror. With four separate parks full of shows, rides, and a myriad of other attractions, as well as shopping and restaurants, Walt Disney Florida is always listed as a must-see sight in travel books for the state.

Despite its success the venture has not been without its problems. Indeed, the recent controversy between Disney Vice Chairman Roy Edward Disney – nephew of the company’s founder – and CEO Michael Eisner was much publicized. Disney felt Eisner had turned the company into a “rapacious, soul-less” company, and resigned from his position. In 2004, Disney released this statement: “Closure of the Walt Disney Florida Feature Animation facility is yet another example of Michael Eisner’s de-emphasis of creativity and total indifference to the impact his decisions have on the people who helped to make the company great.”

The project opened its doors on October 1, 1971. Today, the attraction receives over 40 million visitors each year and that number continues to grow. It was one of the largest contributors to the over $34.3 billion in revenues the parent company generated in 2006.

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  Walt Disney Resort
  About Walt Disney
  Walt Disney World
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Article Tags: basic elements, disney florida, disney world, dream today, epcot, experimental prototype community, experimental prototype community of tomorrow, florida project, industrial leaders, magic kingdom, mgm studios, new dream, permanent residents, purchasing land, sixteen miles, top vacation destinations, tower of terror, urban future, walt disney, walt disney productions



Related Forum Posts
Re: 2 New famous entrepreneur features - Thanks Evan These are truly inspirational, I really enjoyed them. Have Twittered the Walt Disney and will do the Hines one as well. It's true that to succeed in something you need to have a passion for it. MichelleJ
Re: My Favourite 7 Boldest Entrepreneur Moves of All Time - Lots of very bold moves in that list. I will vote for Walt Disney as the best. I'm not sure what I would add to the list. Too many of them to pick just one.
Re: 2 New famous entrepreneur features - John M. Rowley's "Believe it is Possible" speech is a great addition to the Walt Disney story as well. Very inspirational. Thanks for sharing Evan. I've seen the first one, but I'll have to check out the second one as well. It's good to view things like this every once in a while. Keeps you motivated when you don't feel like you can keep going.
Re: Disney to refund Baby Einstein DVDs for Marketing Blunder - Hi Kevin, I have found television and especially DVDs to be excellent sources of stimulation and education for my daughter. The opinion that exposing kids to tv is always harmful is a corruption of the sensible opinion that tv and DVDs should be used with discretion. If I remember rightly, my daughter had gone through a whole library of the Japanese Anpan Man DVDs, Winnie the Pooh and - this was my choice! - Tom and Jerry to name a few. She was also keen on the Pink Panther cartoon, but I was less keen on it because of the lack of dialogue (Okay, Tom and Jerry doesn't have much, but a lot more than the Pink Panther...). Watching stuff on tv did a lot to help my develop her English as well as Japanese language skills at exactly the age when you want that to start happening (er, "before they are two"). When I read the comments on the report, I realized that the fuss may have been about children not turning into geniuses because they were being left in front of the tv to watch the DVDs without any adult supervision. I doubt that was what Disney intended. I trust all those who receive refunds from Disney will feel ashamed enough to donate the cash to children's charities, and while they are at it, they might as well donate the DVDs to a charity shop.
Re: Underground Restaurant - Turkey too is going to build an uderground hotel in Istanbul. They say that it will be the fist undergound hotel in the world, but I learnt that there are already such hotels in Florida, Dubai etc.


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