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Walt Disney World Resort

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The Walt Disney World Resort, often referred to as simply Walt Disney World or Disney World, is a theme park destination resort owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts segment of The Walt Disney Company. The park is located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, outside the city limits of Orlando.

The resort opened on October 1, 1971, with the Magic Kingdom theme park and has since added Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios, and Disney's Animal Kingdom theme parks. In addition to these four main theme parks, the resort contains two water parks, six golf courses, a sports complex, an auto race track, more than thirty resort hotels, and numerous shopping, dining, and entertainment offerings. The 47-square-mile (122 kmē) property is the largest theme park resort in the world. It is directly accessible via Exits 62B (World Drive), 64B (US 192 West), 65B (Osceola Parkway West), 67B (SR 536 West), and 68 (SR 535 North) of Interstate 4.

 

  
     
 

The Walt Disney World resort also includes six world-class golf courses. The five 18-hole golf courses are the Magnolia, the Palm, Lake Buena Vista, Eagle Pines, and Osprey Ridge (the last two are part of the Bonnet Creek Golf Club). There is also a nine- hole walking course called Oak Trail, designed for young golfers. Together, they are known as Disney's "99 Holes of golf." There are two miniature golf courses: Fantasia Gardens and Winter Summerland.

Walt Disney World paved the way for many other theme parks and attractions in the area, including SeaWorld and Universal Studios, and helped make Orlando a popular tourist destination for people from all over the world.

When the Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, the Walt Disney World Resort employed about 5,500 cast members. Today it employs more than 58,000 cast members, spending more than $1.1 billion on payroll and $478 million on benefits each year. The largest single-site employer in the United States, Walt Disney World Resort has more than three thousand job classifications.

The Walt Disney World Resort also sponsors and operates the Walt Disney World College Program, an internship program that has US college students live on-site and work for the Resort, providing much of the theme park and resort "front line" cast members.

Walt Disney World has gained a reputation for being a tolerant but low-key travel destination for gay tourists, specifically gay honeymooners. A list of other popular gay and lesbian destinations world round has been included here