Walt Disney World Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World and Disney World, is an entertainment complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, in the United States, near the cities Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is owned and operated by Walt Disney Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products, a division of The Walt Disney Company. It was first operated by Walt Disney World Company. The property covers nearly and only half of it has been used, comprises four theme parks, two water parks, twenty-seven themed resort hotels, nine non-Disney hotels, several
Space Mountain (Magic Kingdom) the ride from 1975 to 1993; FedEx sponsored Space Mountain from 1994 to 2004. Walt Disney originally conceived the idea of a space-themed roller coaster for Disneyland following the success of the Matterhorn Bobsleds, which opened in 1959. However, a number of technological limitations and the Disney company's focus on building what would become Walt Disney World led to the project's postponement in the late 1960s. After the early success of the Magic Kingdom park in the early 1970s, the Disney company started looking to build its first thrill ride at the Magic Kingdom. Disney decided that a duplicate of