History of Florida to use I-75, and settled along the west coast of Florida. Florida's first theme parks were developed in the 1930s and included Cypress Gardens (1936) near Winter Haven, and Marineland (1938) near St. Augustine. Disney selected Orlando over several other sites for an updated and expanded version of their Disneyland Park in California. In 1971, the Magic Kingdom, the first component of the resort, opened and became Florida's best-known attraction, attracting tens of millions of visitors a year. It stimulated the development of other attractions, as well as large tracts of housing and related businesses. The Orlando area became an
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