Walt Disney World as the Lake Buena Vista STOLport. During the early 1970s, scheduled passenger service was operated by Shawnee Airlines with small de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter commuter turboprops which had STOL (short take off and landing) capabilities on flights to Tampa and Orlando. The airport is no longer in operation. When the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, the site employed about 5,500 "cast members". Today, Walt Disney World employs more than 74,000 cast members, spending more than $1.2 billion on payroll and $474 million on benefits each year. The largest single-site employer in the United States, Walt Disney World has
Marriott's Orlando World Center Marriott's Orlando World Center The Marriott's Orlando World Center Resort is a hotel and convention center near Orlando, Florida. The resort, which is close by to Walt Disney World, is located off of World Center Drive, which was renamed from International Drive to the resort's namesake after the southern extension of I-Drive was built. Marriott's Orlando World Center opened on March 24, 1986, which at the time was the largest hotel in Florida, and is now the largest Marriott in the World. The 2,008-room, 28-story building contains a nine-story lobby atrium, and also has the largest pillar free ballroom in