The Walt Disney World Resort is an entertainment resort complex located about 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of The Walt Disney Company. The property covers nearly 25,000 acres, of which half has been developed. Walt Disney World contains numerous recreational facilities designed to attract visitors for an extended stay, including four theme parks, two water parks, four golf courses, conference centers, a competitive sports complex and a shopping, dining, and entertainment complex. Additionally, there are 19 Disney-owned resort hotels and one camping resort on the property, and many other non-Disney-operated resorts on and near the property.
Celebration is a master-planned community (MPC) and census-designated place (CDP) in Osceola County, Florida, United States. A suburb of Orlando, Celebration is located near Walt Disney World Resort and was originally developed by The Walt Disney Company. Its population was recorded as 11,178 in the 2020 census.
Disney Springs is an outdoor shopping, dining, and entertainment complex at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, near Orlando. First opened in 1975 as Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village, it has been expanded and rebranded over the years as Walt Disney World Village (1977), Disney Village Marketplace (1989), and Downtown Disney (1997), becoming Disney Springs in 2015. A similar complex is being developed on the opposite side of Walt Disney World called Flamingo Crossings.
Walt Disney Studios Park is the second of two theme parks built at Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallée, France. which opened on 16 March 2002. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division. Upon opening, it was dedicated to show business, movie themes, production, and behind-the-scenes, but in the 2010s, in a similar manner to its sister park, Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida, it began to distance itself from the original studio backlot theming and entered a new direction of attraction development inspired by iconic Disney stories. In 2019, the park hosted approximately 5.2 million guests. The park is represented by the Earffel Tower, a water tower with Mickey Mouse ears similar to the one formerly located at Disney's Hollywood Studios, which in turn was inspired by the water tower at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California.
Disney's River Country was the first water park at Walt Disney World Resort, Florida. River Country, located along the shores of Bay Lake and near Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground, was themed as a rustic, old-fashioned swimming hole. Opening on June 20, 1976, the park closed indefinitely on November 2, 2001. On January 20, 2005, after roughly three years of closure, The Walt Disney Company announced that the park would remain closed, permanently.
The Disney family is an American family that gained prominence when brothers Roy and Walt began creating films through the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, today known as mass media and entertainment conglomerate The Walt Disney Company. The Disney family's influence on American culture grew with successful feature films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 and the opening of the Disneyland theme park in 1955. Other Disney family members have been involved in the management and administration of the Disney company, filmmaking, and philanthropy.
Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc., commonly referred to as Imagineering, is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construction of Disney theme parks and attractions worldwide. The company also operates Disney Live Entertainment and The Muppets Studio and manages Disney's properties, from Walt Disney Studios in Burbank to New Amsterdam Theatre and Times Square Studios Ltd. in New York City. Founded by Walt Disney to oversee the production of Disneyland, it was originally known as Walt Disney, Inc., then WED Enterprises, from the initials meaning "Walter Elias Disney", the company co-founder's full name. Headquartered in Glendale, California, Imagineering is composed of "Imagineers", who are illustrators, architects, engineers, lighting designers, show writers and graphic designers.
Walt Disney World Speedway was a racing facility located on the grounds of the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando.
Follow Me, Boys! is a 1966 American drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions. It is an adaptation of the 1954 novel God and My Country by MacKinlay Kantor and was the final film released by Walt Disney Productions in Walt Disney's lifetime, with Disney dying exactly two weeks after the film's premiere. The film stars Fred MacMurray, Vera Miles, Lillian Gish, Charles Ruggles and Kurt Russell, and is co-produced by Walt Disney and Winston Hibler, directed by Norman Tokar and written by Louis Pelletier. It is one of the few films featuring the Boy Scouts of America and is Disney's paean to the Boy Scouts. The title song "Follow Me, Boys!" was written by studio favorites Robert and Richard Sherman. After the film's production, the Boy Scouts of America considered using the song as their anthem, but efforts toward the end were dropped. The Boys' Life magazine included a teaser article of the film. Follow Me, Boys! was the first of ten Disney films in which Russell appeared over the next ten years. A DVD version was released on February 3, 2004 by Walt Disney Home Entertainment, although it is in 4:3 pan and scan format, not the original 1.66:1 wide screen aspect ratio.
Disney's Mediterranean Resort was a proposed Disney Deluxe resort to be located at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida that originally would have begun operation in the late 1990s. It was going to be themed after a small Greek island and be located on Seven Seas Lagoon. Land was cleared for the building, but due to very swampy and poor ground samples, the resort was never able to be built. The resort was to be a 5 star resort rivaling Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, also on the lagoon.
Disney Institute is the professional development and external training arm of The Walt Disney Company. The company showcases 'the business behind the magic' through seminars, workshops and presentations, as well as programs for professionals from many different industries, including healthcare, aerospace/aviation, government/military, food/beverage and retail.
On Ice is a 1935 theatrical cartoon short in the Mickey Mouse film series, produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. It was the 79th Mickey Mouse short film to be released, and the eighth of that year.
Buena Vista is a brand name that has historically been used for divisions and subsidiaries of The Walt Disney Company, whose primary studios, the Walt Disney Studios, are located on South Buena Vista Street in Burbank, California. The studio lot is also home to the company's corporate headquarters, the Team Disney Burbank building. The logos for the various Buena Vista brands featured the "Buena Vista" wordmark superimposed over the traditional Disney castle logo to signal the affiliation between Buena Vista and Disney.
Epcot Center Ultralight Flightpark was a private-use ultralight airport located in Osceola County, 13 nautical miles (24 km) northwest of the central business district of Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States. It was privately owned by the Walt Disney World Company, and was used to launch aircraft used in the "Skyleidoscope" and "Surprise in the Skies" shows at the Epcot theme park.
Walt Disney World Airport, also known as Lake Buena Vista Airport and Lake Buena Vista STOLport, is a former small airfield owned by The Walt Disney Company, located within Walt Disney World, just east of the former Walt Disney World Speedway, in Bay Lake in Orange County, Florida, United States. When it was active, it accommodated smaller commuter airliners such as the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprop, which had STOL capabilities and could operate from airfields with short runways. It is no longer registered as an active airport by the FAA, ICAO, and IATA, and as of December 2017 serves Walt Disney World as a storage lot.
Golden Oak at Walt Disney World Resort is a residential community within the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It was designed by Walt Disney Imagineering and is owned and operated by Disney subsidiary, Golden Oak Realty, within Disney Signature Experiences. The first phase of development is located southeast of the Magic Kingdom Park in Bay Lake. The area was named to pay homage to Walt Disney's Golden Oak Ranch in California. The first few home sites were available for purchase in late 2010 and completed in late 2011. Later on, a Four Seasons resort was opened north of the property with the company purchasing several properties to serve in its "private residences" initiative on the WDW property.
The Pied Piper is an American Pre-Code animated short film based on the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The short was produced by Walt Disney Productions, directed by Wilfred Jackson, and released on September 16, 1933, as a part of the Silly Symphonies series.
Red Baron is an amusement ride that is primarily intended for small children. It's a common kiddie ride at many amusement parks, carnivals, and fairs. The rider can move the gondola up and down manually. Many ride manufacturers make this type of ride; the Zamperla's "Mini Jet" is a common model of this ride. The "Mini Jet" ride comes in various themes such as bees, dragons, elephants, airplanes, helicopters, spaceships, etc. Some of the Red Baron kiddie rides are restricted to only children under 54 inches tall, such as the ones in Cedar Point Amusement Park and in Kings Island Amusement Park, or the one in Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, California. In quite a few other "Red Baron" type kiddie rides, adults and parents are allowed to ride on the rides, such as "The Busy Bees" and "Amazing Flying Elephants" at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, or at the Red Baron Ride at Funderland in Sacramento, California. Another place where adults can ride on a Red Baron type ride is at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, where Dumbo the Flying Elephant has been a perennial favorite of not only toddlers, preschoolers and young children, but teenagers, adults and seniors as well, for many years.
Disney's Riviera Resort is a Disney Vacation Club resort at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It was built by Disney Experiences between Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios. It is the first newly constructed resort to be served by the Disney Skyliner gondola system and the 15th Disney Vacation Club property to be built. The resort is themed after Walt Disney's trips and experiences in Europe and a love of the French Riviera and Italian Riviera. A collection of his travel images are incorporated into the resort's decor. Popular Disney characters are also painted into the overall theme of the resort including known characters' boat storage. It opened on December 16, 2019.
Kismet is a ghost town in Lake County, Florida, in an area which is now part of the Ocala National Forest. It was founded in 1884 by the Kismet Land and Improvement company and was a citrus town. During the late 1800s, the St. John's and Eustis Railroad had planned to extend a line into Kismet, but the Great Freeze drove many residents to leave. Nothing remains of the town today. The town is best known as the place where Elias Disney and his wife Flora were married. Their son, Walt Disney, visited as a child.
