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.
The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, shortened to EPCOT or E.P.C.O.T., was an unfinished concept for a planned community, intended to sit on a swath of undeveloped land near Orlando, Florida. It was created by Walt Disney in collaboration with the designers at Walt Disney Imagineering in the 1960s. Based on ideas stemming from modernism and futurism, and inspired by architectural literature about city planning, Disney intended EPCOT to be a utopian autocratic company town. One of the primary stated aims of EPCOT was to replace urban sprawl as the organizing force of community planning in the United States in the 1960s. Disney intended EPCOT to be a real city, and it was planned to feature commercial, residential, industrial, and recreational centers, connected by a mass multimodal transportation system, that would, he said, "Never cease to be a living blueprint of the future".
Disney Transport is the public transit system of the Walt Disney World resort near Orlando, Florida, United States. It offers guests a variety of fare-free options to navigate the resort, including buses, the iconic Walt Disney World Monorail System, the Disney Skyliner gondola lift system, and watercraft. This network facilitates movement between the resort's four theme parks, its shopping district, and all Disney-owned lodging on the property. Additionally, Disney Transport operates trams, providing assistance navigating large parking lots, and the Minnie Van rideshare service, offering on-demand, point-to-point transportation.
The Disney Development Company (DDC) was a fully owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, incorporated in Florida. Beginning in 1984, its primary role was in the master planning, design and construction of resort, commercial and business areas within the Walt Disney World Resort, and the development of the planned community, Celebration, Florida.
The Disney Vacation Club (DVC) is a vacation timeshare program owned and operated by Disney Vacation Development, Inc., a subsidiary of Disney Signature Experiences, a division of Disney Experiences, a segment of The Walt Disney Company. It allows buying a real estate interest in a DVC resort via a flexible points-based membership system. There are an estimated 220,000 club members.
Robert Arthur Morton Stern is a New York City–based architect, educator, and author. He is the founding partner of the architecture firm, Robert A. M. Stern Architects, also known as RAMSA. From 1998 to 2016, he was the Dean of the Yale School of Architecture.
Disney's Beach Club Resort is a beach-themed resort at the Walt Disney World Resort. It opened on November 19, 1990. The resort is owned and operated by Disney Parks, Experiences and Products.
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.
Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort is a resort located within the Walt Disney World Resort. It is located in the Epcot Resort Area of Walt Disney World, close to the water park Typhoon Lagoon and is classified as a moderately priced resort. The resort started operating on October 1, 1988 and is owned and operated by Disney Experiences.
Shades of Green is a resort owned by the United States Department of Defense (DOD) on the Walt Disney World Resort property near Orlando, in the city of Bay Lake, Florida. The resort is on the grounds of Walt Disney World but it is annexed as a military resort. It is one of five Armed Forces Recreation Centers (AFRC) resorts, and a part of the military's Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) program. The resort, which was expanded between 2004 and 2006, is self-supporting; it operates from non-appropriated funds, and all profits are put back into it.
The Walt Disney World Dolphin is a resort hotel located between Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios in the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, and across from its sister resort, the Walt Disney World Swan, both of which are operated by Marriott International. It is one of the few resorts inside Walt Disney World that is not owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. The resorts opened on June 4, 1990, partially in response to a lack of convention center space inside Walt Disney World.
The Walt Disney World Swan is a resort hotel located between Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios in the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, and across from its sister resort, the Walt Disney World Dolphin, both of which are operated by Marriott International. It is one of the few resorts inside Walt Disney World that is not owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. The resorts opened on January 13, 1990, partially in response to a lack of convention center space inside Walt Disney World.
Ronald Logan was an American businessman who served as executive vice president of Walt Disney Entertainment. After retiring from the company in 2001, he was formally a professor at the University of Central Florida Rosen College of Hospitality Management in Orlando, Florida, United States.
Disney's BoardWalk Resort is a hotel and entertainment complex at the Walt Disney World resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. First opened in 1996, the BoardWalk Resort is located in the Epcot Resort Area, alongside Crescent Lake, between Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios. The resort is owned and operated by Disney Experiences. The inn and the villas share a common lobby with the rest of the resort. The Inn, Atlantic Dance Hall, and other features of the boardwalk were designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects.
The Epcot Resort Area is the area between Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort which consists of six individual resorts, five of which are interconnected via footpaths and waterways surrounding a large central lake known as Crescent Lake.
The Disney Newport Bay Club is a hotel situated at Disneyland Paris. It was designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects and styled after archetypal New England architecture with its white clapboard exterior, porches, woodwork and nautical memorabilia. Its name was derived from the town of Newport, Rhode Island. Restaurants feature seafood and the hotel itself is built in a crescent shape around one extreme of Lake Disney, which itself features a small lighthouse. It is the largest hotel on property and at the time of its opening held more rooms (1093) than any other hotel in Western Europe.
Journey into Narnia: Prince Caspian was a one-room walk-through style attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park at Walt Disney World Resort, which opened on June 27, 2008. It replaced Journey into Narnia: Creating The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which closed on January 1, 2008.
Walt Disney World Inside Out was an American television show that aired on the Disney Channel from 1994 to 1997. Initially airing monthly, it later became a weekly program, and featured footage of attractions at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
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.
The Disney Skyliner is a gondola lift system, part of the Disney Transport system, that opened on September 29, 2019, at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The system is composed of five stations that service four resorts and two theme parks, with a fleet of over 250 gondola cabins that can accommodate up to ten guests per cabin, or up to six with an open wheelchair or other mobility device. Guests sit on twin, inward-facing, wooden benches.
