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Disney World: A Brief History

We think of Disney World as the magical place that it is, with amazing fun and entertainment all around the park.  As the vision of Walt Disney, this amazing location in Orland has given the world a place to call one of the happiest locations on Earth with characters dancing around all through the park, lots of amazing rides to enjoy, and of course the shows and music that make up much of the feeling of a Disney movie can be experienced right in the park.  The resort is home to four theme parks and two water parks to give any family a ton of fun when they come and visit.

Unfortunately the mastermind behind all the fun that Disney is known for, Walt Disney, died before Disneyworld was ever opened.  With Walt passing away in December of 1966, his brother, Roy, chose to postpone his eventual retirement to oversee the construction of Disney World which eventually opened on October 1, 1971.

Currently Disney World is the most visited vacation resort in the world with over 52 million visitors each year and who can blame them with all the fun that is to be had at the resort and in the parks.  The property that is known as Walt Disney Resort is actually home to the four theme parks, two water parks, four golf courses, one camping resort, twenty-seven themed resort hotels and nine non-Disney hotels.  This makes for a vacation all in one awesome location for anyone who comes to Disney World to have a great time, but the purchase of the land for this amazing area was wrought with rumors when Disney worked to acquire the land.

The purchase of huge amounts of swampland in 1965 started many newspapers spurning rumors that Walt Disney was buying up land to build another theme park, this time in Florida.  Disney himself dispelled the rumors, even though they were true.  He kept buying up land and working toward having what he needed to create Disney World.  His planned announcement was set for November 15, 1965, but in a newspaper interview he allowed Emily Bavar to release the story in October and confirmed the story.  When he did make his formal announcement, he informed the world of his plan for the theme park and the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) which also went by the name Progress City.

Disney World became a reality in 1971 and has grown ever since adding feature after feature to the park.  Originally the park opened with Magic Kingdom, three hotels (including the campground) and two of the golf courses.  EPCOT made its first appearance in 1982 and neither Walt nor Roy ever saw the opening of this awesome feature of the park since Roy died in 1971.  The magic that is Disney World offers fun and excitement for kids of all ages, but it had its own history and men who had to be shrewd and careful businessmen in order to bring all this fun to world for our enjoyment.

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