The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, or simply abbreviated WDW, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, governed by the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. The resort is located within Orange and Osceola counties, and located closest to the cities of Winter Garden and Kissimmee in Greater Orlando. 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 four separate theme parks, two water parks, two mini-golf courses, and four golf courses. There are twenty-one Disney-operated resorts on the property, and many other resorts on and near the property. Disney World also contains the Boardwalk, The Fort Wilderness area, The ESPN Sports Complex, Disney Springs, Flamingo Crossings areas for shopping, dining, and entertainment.
Bay Lake is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 29 at the 2020 census. It is named after a lake that lies east of the Magic Kingdom. All four of the Walt Disney World Resort theme parks, and one of Walt Disney World's two water parks, are in Bay Lake, though all Disney parks in the region have mailing addresses in nearby Lake Buena Vista.
Lake Buena Vista is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. It is mostly known for being the mailing address for Walt Disney World—although almost all of the resort facilities, including all four theme parks, are physically located in the adjacent city of Bay Lake. It is one of two Florida municipalities inside the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, which also contains Walt Disney World, the other being Bay Lake. The permanent residential population of Lake Buena Vista was 24 at the 2020 census.
State Road 528 (SR 528), alternatively named the Martin Andersen Beachline Expressway, is a partially-tolled freeway in the U.S. state of Florida; it is maintained by the Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (FTE), the Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX), and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). Spanning approximately 53 miles (85 km) along a west–east axis, it connects Interstate 4 (I-4) in Orlando with I-95, Titusville, and Cape Canaveral on the Space Coast. It passes close to the tourist areas of Orlando, including SeaWorld and Universal Orlando, and serves the north entrance to Orlando International Airport. Near its east end, it passes over the Intracoastal Waterway on the Emory L. Bennett Causeway, and ends at SR A1A and SR 401 near Port Canaveral.
State Road 417 (SR 417), also known as the Central Florida GreeneWay, Seminole County Expressway, Eastern Beltway and Orlando East Bypass, is a controlled-access toll road forming the eastern beltway around the city of Orlando, Florida, United States. It is owned and maintained by the Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX) and Florida's Turnpike Enterprise. The CFX section was posthumously named after former Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority chairman Jim Greene.
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.
Disney Transport is the public transit system of the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake, Florida. The system provides free transportation to guests of the resort and consists of buses, a monorail system, a gondola lift system, watercraft, a rideshare system, and parking lot trams. Most of the routes operated by Disney Transport are buses that run along the resort's public roads maintained by the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and private roads. None of these modes of transportation charge a fare, which makes the entire network free to use.
U.S. Route 192 is an east–west route of the United States Numbered Highway system in central Florida. It runs 75.04 miles (120.77 km) from U.S. Route 27 in Four Corners, Lake County, east past Walt Disney World and through Kissimmee, St. Cloud and Melbourne, to end at State Road A1A in Indialantic, one block from the Atlantic Ocean. It crosses its "parent", U.S. Route 92, in Kissimmee, for only 3,700 feet (1,100 m).
The Seven Seas Lagoon is an artificial lake at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. Located south of the Magic Kingdom theme park, the Seven Seas Lagoon serves as a natural buffer between the Magic Kingdom and its parking lot and connects with the adjacent Bay Lake. The lake reaches a depth of 14 feet (4.3 m). The lagoon is used mainly for recreational boating, as well as by the resort's three Disney Transport ferryboats that transport guests between the Magic Kingdom and the Transportation and Ticket Center.
State Road 429 (SR 429), also known as the Daniel Webster Western Beltway or Western Expressway south of US 441, and the Wekiva Parkway north of US 441, is a controlled-access toll road built and maintained by the Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX), the Florida's Turnpike Enterprise, and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). Its mainline extends 51.77 miles (83.32 km) from I-4 (SR 400) in Four Corners north to I-4 in Sanford. Control cities are Apopka and Tampa although the control cities for traffic at the entrances at US 441 and north are Orlando, Tampa, and Daytona Beach. SR 429 was originally planned as a western half of SR 417.
Osceola Parkway, signed as County Road 522 (CR 522) since around 2003, is a 17.5-mile-long (28.2 km), partially tolled arterial road extending east–west across the northern boundary of Osceola County, Florida, roughly paralleling the border with Orange County. It connects Walt Disney World with Interstate 4 and Florida's Turnpike before terminating at Simpson Road near Buenaventura Lakes, and is maintained by Osceola County. Only the section between the Southern Connector and a toll plaza east of Shingle Creek is tolled; the rest includes mainly at-grade intersections. A portion of the Osceola Parkway was once called Dart Boulevard.
WestCOT was a planned second theme park for the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was essentially a replica of EPCOT Center at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and was dedicated to the celebration of human achievement, namely technological innovation and international culture. The park was represented by SpaceStation Earth, a larger version of the geodesic sphere Spaceship Earth featured at EPCOT Center.
State Road 435, signed as Kirkman Road along its entire route, is a state highway in Florida, existing entirely within Orange County. Kirkman Road is a major arterial on the west side of Orlando, and bounds the east side of Universal Orlando Resort. It also connects on its south end into a Lockheed Martin research facility.
The Disney Springs Resort Area includes ten resorts located around Disney Springs in the Walt Disney World Resort. Two of these are Disney Vacation Club resorts. Seven of these hotels are non-Disney owned.
State Road 535 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Florida. The road begins at U.S. Route 192 (US 192) in Kissimmee, heading north, ending at Interstate 4 (I-4) at Lake Buena Vista. Continuing north the road becomes County Road 535. The road is known as Vineland Road in Osceola County and Apopka-Vineland Road in Orange County.
U.S. Highway 17 (US 17) in Florida is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs 317 miles (510 km) from the Punta Gorda, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area northeast to the Jacksonville metropolitan area.
U.S. Route 441 (US 441) in Florida is a north–south United States Highway. It runs 433 miles (697 km) from Miami in South Florida northwest to the Georgia state line, with the overall route continuing to Tennessee in the Rocky Top area.
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 parking and storage lot.
The Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista is a hotel located adjacent to the Disney Springs complex located on Walt Disney World Resort property in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The 23-acre (9.3 ha) hotel, which opened on November 23, 1983, is among seven hotels that make up the Disney Springs Resort Area. The Disney Springs Resort Area Hotels are located on the property of the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, but are not operated by Disney.
SR 535 near Lake Buena Vista
