Resort · Disney
Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World is Disney's largest resort: four theme parks, two water parks, the Disney Springs shopping and dining district and more than 30 Disney-owned hotels on about 27,000 acres in Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake, Florida, about 20 miles southwest of Orlando. Pick a park below for its rides, waits, hours and dining.
The parks
History
Walt Disney planned the resort to supplement Disneyland, and from April 1964 dummy corporations quietly bought 27,443 acres of land; he died in December 1966, five years before Magic Kingdom opened on October 1, 1971. EPCOT followed in 1982, Disney-MGM Studios (renamed Disney's Hollywood Studios in 2008) in 1989 and Disney's Animal Kingdom in 1998, the resort's largest theme park at 580 acres on opening day. Typhoon Lagoon opened in 1989 and Blizzard Beach in 1995. Disney Springs, the shopping and dining district, opened in 1975 as Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village and took its current name in 2015. Magic Kingdom is the most visited theme park in the world.
At a glance
- Opened
- 1971
- Magic Kingdom opened on October 1, 1971
- Theme parks
- 4
- Water parks
- 2
- Size
- About 27,000 acres
- Disney-owned hotels
- 31
- As of 2024, plus the Fort Wilderness campground
- Operator
- Disney Experiences
More from Disney
Facts on this page come from Wikipedia: Walt Disney World, Disney Springs and Disney's Animal Kingdom, read 4 November 2026. Live waits, hours and crowds are on each park's own page.