History of Disney World

If you have ever seen the enormous Disney complex in Orlando, you may be wondering about the history of Disney World. It is a story of a man with a dream and a vision for the perfect theme park.

The Disneyland Years

The history of Disney World actually begins with Disneyland in California. Walt Disney had visited amusement parks in the 1920’s and 30’s but found them to be tawdry and kind of sleazy. Walt wanted a place where the whole family could enjoy a magical experience while feeling safe.

Disneyland was such a place, but finances limited Walt’s ability to buy up land around the park. He also didn’t anticipate that sleazy restaurants and hotels would pop up right outside his park. The dream ended up being squashed but his vision remained.

Testing the Waters

Walt Disney knew that if he were to ever build another park, it would need to be in the eastern United States. This would keep it from competing with Disneyland while bringing the Disneyland concept to the larger, eastern population base.

To test the waters, Disney built four attractions for the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. What he found was that people in the East enjoyed his ideas as much as people out West.

History of Disney World: Buying Land

Disney had a hunch that his attractions would be successful in New York, so before the fair he began making plans for Walt Disney World. He scouted land in Florida, near Orlando, and liked that there was good weather, a large city nearby and adequate freeways.

To keep from attracting attention, Disney set up dummy corporations that he used to buy land. Eventually, however, it was noticed that 27,000 acres in central Florida had changed hands. A reporter for the Orlando Sentinel newspaper investigated the story and eventually broke the news that it was Disney that purchased the land. The price of surrounding land immediately jumped in value, making the last few land purchases substantially more expensive than the early purchases.

Making Disney World

In exchange for bringing economic development to central Florida, the governor gave Disney permission to establish his own autonomous quasi-government. This gave him full control over things like building codes, zoning and planning.

One of Walt’s plans was to preserve the nature environment in his park. At the time, he set aside 7,500 acres that would not be developed. Today that number is even bigger at 8,300 acres.

Unfortunately, before construction began, Walt Disney died. Fortunately, his brother Roy Disney took over and helped see the project to completion.

The first construction project was to create a theme park, two resort hotels and a campground. To control the water in the area (from swamps and the underground water table), they built 50 miles of canals. Instead of being straight lines, the canals are curved like a river to blend into the environment.

To be the self-sufficient city that was envisioned by Walt, the park built its own energy plants, food center and laundry to handle the needs of everyone at the park.

In addition to the infrastructure and hotels, the theme park was also being built in various locations across the country. This included Cinderella’s Castle, which required six hundred tons of steel to make.

In the end, Walt Disney World required $400 million and 9,000 workers to construct.

The Opening of Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World opened to the public on October 1, 1971. They purposely picked a slower season to allow them to solve problems before more people arrived. The first few weeks had modest but not staggering numbers. This all changed, however, on the day after Thanksgiving in 1971. Crowds started pouring into the park and eventually they had to close the gates. Traffic was backed up for miles on the highway leading into the park. Disney World was a success.

Additions to the Park

Over the years, Disney has added more attractions to the park. Some of the attractions include:

• 1982 EPCOT Center
• 1989 Disney-MGM Studios
• 1998 Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Conclusion

The history of Disney World is a story of Walt Disney’s vision for the perfect theme park and an unsurpassed family experience. The story is not complete, however. Thanks to Disney’s vision, the theme park has enough land to build whatever they can imagine.