Sprawling over 25,000 acres in Orlando, Florida, the Walt Disney World Resort is the largest of the Disney resorts and features seven themed resorts and 17 hotels, with 22,343 hotel rooms as of October, 2009.
Theme parks include the Magic Kingdom, which captures the magic ins seven lands; Epcot, which takes you to the future and to 11 countries around the world; and Typhoon Lagoon, a water park with fast slides and raft rides. Other parks include MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom.
Lodgings accommodate all price ranges from the inexpensive campgrounds of Fort Wilderness to the deluxe villas of Animal Kingdom Villas to the southwest styling of the moderately priced Coronado Springs Resort.
Walt Disney World opened on October 1, 1971, and was constructed by 9,000 workers at a cost of $400 million. Disney set aside 7,500 acres of his originally purchased land for a natural environment that would remain free of development.
The resort features a well-developed transportation system that is generally included with admission. Buses connect all the parks, hotels and shopping centers. Boats join the waters of selected areas, like the Magic Kingdom and the Polynesian Resort. Finally, the monorail whisks visitors between the Contemporary Resort and Epcot, among others.
The resort offers a complex array of ticket options from relatively inexpensive full-day admission for just one park to multi-day vacations allowing multiple entry into all the parks to vacation packages costing thousands of dollars.
