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Walt Disney Orlando

Article Overview: It is consistently ranked one of the top vacation destinations in the U.S., if not the world, and has become a mainstay in the cultural landscape of America. If you have never been to Walt Disney Orlando, you are missing out on a unique experience – a unique experience that you will be sharing with over 40 million people each year that is.

Walt Disney Orlando

It is consistently ranked one of the top vacation destinations in the U.S., if not the world, and has become a mainstay in the cultural landscape of America. If you have never been to Walt Disney Orlando, you are missing out on a unique experience – a unique experience that you will be sharing with over 40 million people each year that is.

It is the largest theme park resort in the world, with over 20,000 acres to its name. In addition to its four major theme parks – the Magic Kingdom, the Epcot Centre, the Disney-MGM Studios, and the Animal Kingdom – it is home to two water parks, six golf courses, a sports complex, an auto race track, twenty resort hotels, and a host of other shopping and dining facilities. Believe it or not, it even has its own fire department.

Plans for its construction first began in 1959, when the company founder decided that he wanted to take advantage of the success he had experienced with Disneyland in California. The project was announced in 1965 and construction began eight years later. It first opened in 1971 with the Magic Kingdom. The other theme parks and attractions would be launched over time. The most recent addition came with the opening of Disney’s Beach Club Villas, Pop Century Resort, and Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa. A fleet of twelve monorails also runs between each of the theme parks and the resorts in what is perhaps the best known monorail system in North America.

In order to run all these facilities, Walt Disney Orlando employs over 58,000 people and spends more than $1.1 billion on payroll. It is in fact the largest single-site employer in the U.S. With the streets of the parks being cleaned every night and the painting of the antique carousel horses using genuine gold leaf, Walt Disney Orlando costs an annual $100 million to maintain. These costs rise during Christmas season, when 150 truckloads of decorations are brought in, carrying over 300,000 yards of ribbon and 1,500 Christmas trees.

It is interesting that despite the claim to fame the city of Orlando has experienced since its opening, the entire attraction does not even exist within the city. In fact, it lies outside of the city limits, within Orange and Osceola counties. This, however, has not prevented the people of Orlando from claiming it as their own. The attraction also donates much of its revenues to Orlando-based charities. In 2006, it donated more than $22 million to Central Florida charities and non-profit organizations. Its employees also contributed over 200,000 hours of community service to local organizations.

Walt Disney Orlando is a large place with even larger crowds. High temperatures and even hotter temperaments can risk taking the fun out of your vacation, so if you and your family are planning a visit, make sure to pace yourself.

Related Articles
  Walt Disney Resort
  Walt Disney Florida
  About Walt Disney
  Walt Disney World
  What's Your Dream Worth?

Article Tags: animal kingdom, auto race, club villas, company founder, disney mgm studios, disneyland, epcot centre, fire department, magic kingdom, mainstay, resort hotels, saratoga, saratoga springs, sports complex, theme park, theme parks, top vacation destinations, walt disney, walt disney orlando, water parks



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.
Giving Gifts - In my business, I don't call it gifts, I call it premiums. Best time I give a premium is when I'm trying to close a tough sale, and the client is stuck on the fence. What I do is throw in a free 3 day 2 night stay in choice hotels in Las Vegas, or Orlando. Normally that will be just enough to win them over, but it doesn't work all the time.
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.


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