The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or simply Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, a division of The Walt Disney Company. The property covers nearly 25,000 acres, of which half has been used. The resort comprises four theme parks, two water parks, 31 themed resort hotels, nine non-Disney hotels, several golf courses, a camping resort, and other entertainment venues, including the outdoor shopping center Disney Springs.
Disney California Adventure Park, commonly referred to as California Adventure or by its acronym DCA, is a theme park located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. The 72-acre (29 ha) park is themed after the history and culture of California, which celebrates the adventure of the state through the use of various Disney, Pixar and Marvel Studios properties. The park opened on February 8, 2001 as Disney's California Adventure Park and is the second of two theme parks built at the Disneyland Resort complex, after Disneyland Park.
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 Parks, Experiences and Products 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 similar to one that was installed at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California.
Fantasmic! is a nighttime show at Disneyland Park and formerly at the Disney-MGM Studios and Tokyo DisneySea. It features fireworks, characters, live actors, water effects, pyrotechnics, lasers, music, audio-animatronics, searchlights, decorated boat floats, and mist screen projections. The narrative of Fantasmic! is a voyage through Mickey Mouse's imagination that culminates in a battle against the Disney Villains.
Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, Inc., formerly Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. and informally known as Disney Parks, is one of The Walt Disney Company's five major business segments and a subsidiary. It was founded on April 1, 1971, exactly six months before the opening of Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, just outside of Orlando.
The Happiest Homecoming on Earth was the eighteen-month-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Disneyland theme park, which opened on July 17, 1955. The Happiest Celebration on Earth commemorated fifty years of Disney theme parks, and celebrated Disneyland's milestone throughout Disney parks all over the globe.
Martin A. "Marty" Sklar was a scriptwriter and construction developer. He was The Walt Disney Company's international ambassador for Walt Disney Imagineering, the subsidiary of the company which designs and constructs Disney theme parks and resorts across the world. He was formerly vice president of Concepts and Planning for the company, before being promoted to president, then vice chairman and principal creative executive before his final role. Disney honored him with a Disneyland window dedication ceremony on his date of retirement, July 17, 2009.
Magic Music Days is a program put on by the Disneyland Resort, the Walt Disney World Resort, the Disneyland Resort Paris and the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. It brings in school and community groups to perform in the parks and/or take part in workshops or clinics. Types of groups include:
Disney Live Entertainment is the theatrical live entertainment production division of Walt Disney Imagineering, the design and development arm of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, a segment and direct subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.
The Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade is an American television special that airs on Christmas Day on ABC, airing live and taped, primarily inside the Magic Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, approximately one month prior to Christmas Day.
Disney's Fantillusion!, later known as Disney's Fantillusion Parade, was a regularly scheduled night-time parade, created by Ron Logan, that performed nightly at Disneyland Park (Paris) during its summer and winter seasons. It featured floats and live performers covered in thousands of electronically controlled lights and a synchronized soundtrack controlled by a Dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) tone broadcast along the parade route. The parade was originally created for Tokyo Disneyland where it ran for six years from 1995 to 2001. An updated version of the Main Street Electrical Parade replaced Disney's Fantillusion at Tokyo Disneyland known as the Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade: DreamLights as Fantillusion was sent to Paris to become the Disney's Fantillusion Parade.
The Golden Pass is a ticket which allows the holder lifetime access to all nine of the theme parks owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. First awarded in 1955 to Dave MacPherson, the first member of the public to become a paying guest at Disneyland, the Pass is awarded to all Disney Legends and has been handed to dignitaries, the President of the United States and sitting heads of state, and all members of the board of directors.
Edward Arthur Grier is the dean of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business. Before coming to VCU, he was an executive at The Walt Disney Company.
Summer Nightastic! was a seasonal event from Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, celebrating summer at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World. It started in 2009 at Disneyland Resort and had returned the next year, with the introduction at the Walt Disney World Resort. The event included special nighttime events and ride operations. Disneyland Resort featured events at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, while at Walt Disney World, events were featured at Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios. The event was replaced by Disney Soundsational Summer at Disneyland, however the fireworks were retained. The event did not return to Walt Disney World.
Mickey's PhilharMagic is a 4D film attraction found at several Disney theme parks around the world, including Magic Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort, Hong Kong Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Park (Paris), and Disney California Adventure. The film was directed by George Scribner, who also directed Disney's 1988 animated film Oliver & Company. Mickey's PhilharMagic is a 12-minute-long show featuring 3D effects, scents, and water, as well as a number of characters from Disney movies. It is shown on the largest purpose-built 3D screen ever made, at 150 feet wide.
Edward Anthony "Eddie" Sotto III is an American experiential designer, mixed-media producer, and conceptualist. Sotto was formerly the Senior Vice President of Concept Design for Walt Disney Imagineering, and is currently president of the Los Angeles design firm SottoStudios Incorporated. He also established the think tank Futureproof Experiences in 2020 to address the challenges posed to the experiential industries by COVID-19. In 2002 Sotto was named one of the thousand most creative people in America in the book 1000: Richard Saul Wurman's Who's Really Who by TED founder Richard Saul Wurman. In 2018 he addressed the TEDxBermuda event with his presentation "The How of Wow". He was also named one of the Blooloop 50 list of theme park influencers in 2020.
Steve Davison is Lead Creative Executive of Parades and Spectaculars for Walt Disney Creative Entertainment, and is responsible for the overall creative direction of daytime parades, firework displays, and nighttime spectaculars at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts worldwide. He created such shows as Believe... There's Magic in the Stars, Wishes, World of Color, and Disney Dreams!.
Walt Disney World Inside Out is an American monthly television show that aired on the Disney Channel from 1994 to 1997. The show featured footage of attractions at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
Ahmad Jafari is an architect based in USA whose career began in the 1960s. He was with Disney Imagineering as an Architect and Art Director from 1966 to 2004 and has worked alongside Walt Disney and many Disney Legends. In 2006, he received the NFFC Disney Legend awards.
