Walt Disney World
In the mid 1960's, Walt Disney wanted to build a theme park in Florida, based on Disney Land which is located in California. Unfortunately, Walt passed away in 1966 and never got to see the park fully bloom. It was Walt’s brother, Roy, that made Walt’s dream come true and execute Walt’s plans.
All four of the Disney parks were officially built by 1998, but each park has undergone renovations since then. Currently, the Disney resort consists of four theme parks, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Animal Kingdom, two water parks, 27 themed resort hotels, plus much more. Walt Disney World was the most visited vacation resort in the world, in 2018, with the average annual attendance of over 58 million people.
A cool feature throughout all of the parks is that there is extreme thought put into every scent, color, location, and sound that is throughout the parks. For example, Walt did a study to see what colors photograph vibrantly and painted the bricks those colors.
Magic Kingdom was the first of the four parks to be built and opened. The park is dedicated to the Disney princesses and characters. Magic Kingdom is represented by Cinderella’s castle, in which you are able to go inside and have breakfast with the Princesses. There is also an underground tunnel system so that the characters are able to walk around the park without being seen.
Although there are multiple actors that play the same characters, you will never see more than one of the same characters in Disney World at the same time. There are six lands within Magic Kingdom, all having their own themes. The six lands are Main Street USA, Frontierland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Liberty Square, and Fantasyland.
Disney World also puts on firework and light shows on and near the castle.
Animal Kingdom was the last of the four parks to open, opening in 1998. Animal Kingdom has typical attractions but it also has hundreds of live animals in the park. The correct precautions were taken to ensure that the animals are safe. It is separated from the rest of the parks and they do not have any firework shows so they do not disrupt the animals. Animal Kingdom is represented by The Tree of Life, where you can watch “A Bug’s Life” 3-D attraction inside.
There are seven areas inside Animal Kingdom, the newest one being Pandora - The World of Avatar. Disney does not allow plastic straws, plastic lids, or plastic cups in the park so that they do not accidentally travel to the animals. In Animal Kingdom you are able to go on a safari ride that imitates the safaris in Africa.
Epcot was the second out of the four theme parks to open, opening in 1982. Epcot has twice as many acres as Magic Kingdom does. Spaceship Earth represents Epcot. Epcot has two main divisions, Future World and World Showcase. The Future World section is innovation with technology and science, all pavilions having distinct architectures.
The World Showcase section currently contains 11 pavilions, all a different country in the world. Each pavilion takes on the architecture and styles as if you were in the country itself. There are many events throughout the year at Epcot, for example the Food & Wine Festival.
Hollywood Studios was the third of the four parks to open, opening in 1989. This park is dedicated to film, television, music, and theatre. The Sorcerer's Hat used to be the center of the park, but now the Chinese Theater represents the park. Hollywood Studios is home of the popular water show, Fantasia. It consists of a water and light show as well as using Disney characters to add to the experience.
Hollywood Studios is divided into seven parts, most of them based off of Hollywood and Los Angeles, with a few based on movies such as Toy Story and Star Wars. There is live entertainment that is constantly going on throughout the days when the park is open.
