Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Inspired by an unrealized concept of the same name developed by Walt Disney, the park opened on October 1, 1982, as EPCOT Center, and was the second of four theme parks built at Walt Disney World. The park spans 305 acres, more than twice the size of Magic Kingdom. Often referred to as a "permanent world's fair", Epcot is dedicated to the celebration of human achievement, particularly technological innovation and international culture.
The Seas with Nemo & Friends is a pavilion located in the World Nature section of Epcot, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The pavilion is themed as an oceanic exploration base called SeaBase Alpha, with several exhibits devoted to oceanic study. The building includes an aquarium and its attached dark ride attraction, a talk show-type attraction called Turtle Talk with Crush, and the Coral Reef Restaurant. With 5.7 million US gallons of tank volume, the pavilion is also the second-largest aquarium in the U.S. and the sixth-largest in the world.
Living with the Land is a slow-moving boat ride consisting of a dark ride and greenhouse tour located within The Land, a pavilion at World Nature at the Epcot theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The focus of the ride is on agriculture, especially new technology to make agriculture more efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly.
Disney's Coronado Springs Resort is a resort hotel at the Walt Disney World Resort that opened on August 1, 1997. The resort is located in the Animal Kingdom Resort Area. Its theme is American colonial Spanish and southwestern American. This hotel is categorized as a 'moderate' resort. This was Walt Disney World's first attempt at a 'moderate' resort with a convention center. It is the only moderate level Disney resort with suites, a cafeteria-style restaurant, a formal dinner restaurant, a gift shop, an arcade, one large pool, three quiet pools, a salon, fitness center, and a dance club. The resort is owned and operated by Disney Parks, Experiences and Products.
The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) is an international non-profit association that represents creators, developers, designers and producers of themed entertainment. It is also noted for its THEA Awards, which were founded in 1995 and are distributed annually in a range of themed entertainment categories.
The Morocco Pavilion is a Moroccan-themed pavilion that is part of the World Showcase, within Epcot at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida, United States. It was the first expansion pavilion to be added to World Showcase, opening on September 7, 1984.
Ariel's Grotto is a meet-and-greet area at several Disney parks, as well as a former restaurant in Disney California Adventure based on Disney's 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid.
The Orlando Sharks were a professional American indoor soccer team based in Orlando, Florida, United States. Founded in 2007, by Buena Vista Corporation the Chairman Mr. Sham Maharaj acquired the franchise early 2006. the first game was played in November 2007. MISL Commissioner Steve Ryan announced the Orlando during the championship game in St. Louis. The game, between the St. Louis Steamers and the Baltimore Blast, televised on ESPN2. Sham Maharaj, owner of the Orlando franchise, and team president Rich Bradley, the former executive vice-president and chief operating officer of the Kansas City Comets of the MISL, both were present for the announcement. The team played in the Major Indoor Soccer League, but the team played for only a season due to conflicts with the Amway's calendar.
Disney Sea was an aquatic-themed amusement park proposed by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Disney Sea, California was unveiled on July 31,1990 as one part of the Disney Decade Expansion. This part of the expansion would be focused on the development of Disney Port, as part of the canceled resort complex, Port Disney, in Long Beach, California.
Plaza Beach Resort Bonaire is the largest diving resort in the southern Caribbean Island of Bonaire, located at 80 Julio A. Abraham Boulevard, south of Kralendijk, just north of Flamingo International Airport. It is operated by the Van der Valk family of hoteliers and is also known as the Plaza Resort Van der Valk. American divers have reportedly voted it one of the top 10 dive resorts in the world. The resort, which claims to be five-star, although this is disputed by several independent publications, is situated on a peninsula, at the mouth of a man-made lagoon with turquoise blue waters. Plaza Beach Resort Bonaire Its beach measures 500 metres (1,600 ft) long and 50–100 metres (160–330 ft) deep and is a notable scuba diving location, known as Toucan Diving.
The Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant is a theme restaurant at Disney's Hollywood Studios, one of the four main theme parks at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida, United States. Established in May 1991, the restaurant is modeled after a 1950s drive-in theater. Walt Disney Imagineering designed the booths to resemble convertibles of the period, and some servers act as carhops while wearing roller skates. While eating, guests watch a large projection screen displaying clips of 1950s and 1960s films as Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster, Plan 9 from Outer Space, and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.
Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano is an Italian-American restaurant in the Grand Avenue area at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Located near Muppet*Vision 3D and Star Tours, the restaurant specializes in Italian cuisine, serving such dishes as ossobuco, wood-fired flatbread pizza, and grilled salmon and sausage grinders. A Fantasmic! dinner package is available that grants restaurant guests quicker access to this show. This package is also offered at two other restaurants in the park: the Hollywood Brown Derby and Hollywood & Vine. Ron Douglas included the recipe for Mama Melrose's cappuccino crème brûlée in his cookbook America's Most Wanted Recipes: Just Desserts.
The 50's Prime Time Café is a restaurant at Disney's Hollywood Studios, one of the four main theme parks at Walt Disney World. The restaurant replicates the kitsch of a 1950s diner. The waitresses dress similarly to Leave It to Beaver character June Cleaver, and each acts as though she is the mother of the guests she is serving, to the point of scolding and giving (mild) discipline to the patrons if they are "misbehaving". While eating, guests watch 1950s television shows such as Leave It to Beaver and Topper on black-and-white televisions.
The ABC Commissary is a restaurant on Commissary Lane at Disney's Hollywood Studios, one of the four main theme parks at Walt Disney World. The restaurant has an Art Deco design. It is more popular than the other counter service restaurants in the park, and offers a larger variety of menu options. The ABC Commissary's menu is themed to programs broadcast by American Broadcasting Company (ABC), including such items as Down the Hatch, a reference to the hatch in the television series Lost. The restaurant also offers a fried prawn burger. The deep-fried foods on the menu do not contain trans fat. In 2013, the ABC Commissary was one of several restaurants in the park to offer apple pie cupcakes in celebration of Independence Day. The ABC Commissary is located next to the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant. In The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World with Kids 2012, Bob Sehlinger and Liliane Opsomer write that the ABC Commissary is "hard to find" but "usually not too crowded".
The Disney Dining Plan is a prepaid meal package that guests staying at Walt Disney World hotels can purchase to receive discounts of up to 30% on food in the complex. It was first introduced in 2005 and has developed in complexity over time, so there are now many different plan forms. The Disney Dining Plan allows guests to eat at park restaurants without needing to have cash on their persons. The plan does now include alcoholic beverages but not gratuities. More than 100 Walt Disney World restaurants accept the plan. The plan is particularly cost-effective for families who intend to eat many meals at sit-down restaurants or character dining restaurants. However, to get the most value when using the plan, families must be mindful when using their Dining Plan Credits otherwise they may risk spending more than if they ordered the same food but paid out of pocket.
Hollywood & Vine is a restaurant located next to the 50's Prime Time Café in Disney's Hollywood Studios, one of the four main theme parks at Walt Disney World. This restaurant is one of only five restaurants in park that recommend or require advance reservations, the others being the Hollywood Brown Derby, Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano, the 50's Prime Time Café, and the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant. Both beer and wine are served at Hollywood & Vine. Hollywood & Vine is one of three restaurants in the park that offer early entry into the show Fantasmic! Prior to 1998, the restaurant was called Hollywood & Vine Cafeteria; "of the Stars" was added to the name that year in recognition of the restaurant's newly instituted star-themed character meals. In 2003, there were twenty character meals offered at Walt Disney World, during which actors portraying various Disney characters would interact with guests while they ate at the parks' restaurants, and Disney was in the process of increasing the presence of costumed characters in the parks at the time. Nonetheless, Minnie Mouse character meals held at Hollywood & Vine were discontinued that year, and Robert Johnson of the Orlando Sentinel partially attributed this cancellation to competition from the Sci-Fi Dine-In, which he said "almost always has a line of customers waiting." Hollywood & Vine had resumed its Minnie Mouse character meals by 2005. By 2012, the character meals had been changed to be Playhouse Disney-themed. By 2015, the Playhouse Disney characters had been switched out for Disney Junior characters. During Star Wars Weekends, the restaurant offers Jedi Mickey's Star Wars Dine, a character meal with Star Wars-themed decorations, music, and food.
Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, also known as Ratatouille: L'Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy, is a motion-based trackless 3D dark ride, based on the 2007 Disney-Pixar animated film Ratatouille, located at Disneyland Paris's Walt Disney Studios Park in France and at Walt Disney World's France Pavilion at Epcot.
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.
