Walt Disney World Guide

Walt Disney World is a mammoth entertainment and leisure resort, spanning a total of 25,000 acres.

It comprises of four theme parks, two water parks and a shopping district – Disney Springs. There are also 25 Disney resort hotels on the Mahattan sized establishment.

Walt Disney Wolrd is the most magical place on earth – not to be confused with the most happiest place on earth, which is Disneyland’s tagline. Walt Disney World was the vision of Walt himself, and came about because of his frustration with the lack of space and immersion over at Disneyland. Walt wanted more land which he could control and keep guests immersed in the magic, no views of the highway or unwanted neighbours, issues at the Anehime location. Walt began snapped up land under false names to avoid speculation and a hike in land prices if sellers where to find out who was really behind all of the land purchases.

Here is our whistle-stop guide to Walt Disney World, so you know what to expect, before you visit.

The Theme Parks

Magic Kingdom

The Magic Kingdom, is the original park that opened with the resort back in 1971. It’s often to referred to as the ‘castle park’. It is the ‘Disneyland’ style park for the Florida resort.

The Magic Kingdom has a total of 55 attractions across it’s seven themed lands which comprise of; Mainstreet USA, Adventure Land, Frontier Land, Liberty Square, Fantasy Land, Storybook Circus, and Tomorrowland. Of all four Disney World theme parks, this park features the largest line up of attractions.

The park is the most popular park at the Walt Disney World resort, and a must do for anyone travelling to the resort with younger kids. If your visit to Walt Disney World doesn’t afford you the luxury of time, we would highly recommend to prioritise this park due to its iconic nature and truly quintessential Disney theming.

The park is home to some classic Disney attractions, including the nestolgic dark ride Peter Pan’s Flight, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and the all new Tron Lightcycle Run.

The Magic Kingdom is actually three stories high, and the reason for that is the hidden network of tunnels and facilities hidden below the park, including massive ‘vaccums’ which transport the rubbish from collection points around the park to the main refuse area. The hidden tunnels were a non-negotiable for Walt, as urban myth proclaims that he once saw a cow boy walking through Tomorrowland over at Disneyland and this shattered the illustion. The secret corridors called utilidoors mean cast memebrs and supplies can get from one area of the park to another without distracting guests from the elaborate themeing of a land.

Epcot

Epcot is the second park at the Walt Disney World resort, and is double the size of the Magic Kingdom.

Epcot stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. It’s original idea was that of Walt’s, but the park today is far from what he had originally intended. Walt intended for a fully operational ‘city of tomorrow’.

The park is split into two distinctive parts. The front portion of the park is focused on world innovations, advancements in technology, and our relationship with the land, sea and space. The second portion of the park is World Showcase, which encircles are large lake called World Showcase lagoon – the lake itself is 38 acres. This part of the park resembles a sort of permenant world’s fair but with the added touch of Disney Imagineering.

One of the most notable things about the park, is it’s ‘golf ball’ park icon, called Space Ship Earth. It’s a geodesic sphere which infact houses a dark ride which showcases the story of man’s progression with technology.

The park opened in 1982, and is connected to the Magic Kingdom via the iconic Walt Disney World Monorail, just one of the many transportation options around the Walt Disney World Resort.

Hollywood Studios

Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the park that places YOU in the movies. It’s home to Toy Story Land, Galaxy’s Edge, and some of the most thrilling attractions on Disney property. It’s also home to arguably the best show on Disney World Property.

The park originally opened as Disney-MGM Studios in 1989, with the concept of taking you behind the scenes of the movie magic. At the time of opening the park was also a working production facility, with films such as Mulan having been created at Disney-MGM Studios. The park at the time was considered a half-day park with only a handful of attractions. The park since has undergone many transformations and expansions, and a name change!

It now comprises of seven themed areas, from glamourised Hollywood, Andy’s backyard, and a galaxy far far away. This is a park that you will definitely want to invest in Genie Plus for, as the park has some headliner attractions which always generate long lines. This includes, Tower of Terror, Rock n’ Roller Coaster, Slinky Dog Dash, Rise of the Resistance.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios is connected to the rest of the Walt Disney World resort via the extensive bus system, boats to neighbouring resort hotels and the Disney Skyliner.

Animal Kingdom

Disney’s Animal Kingdom is the fourth and final park to be built at the Walt Disney World Resort (well, at least for now…). The park is dedicated to the natural world and animal conservation, something which Walt championed himself.

This park is the largest on property at 580 acres, which is double the size of the Magic Kingdom. Whilst the park is sprawling, the majority of the park area is actually dedicated to animal facilities. The park is certainly the most chilled out of all four theme parks at the Florida resort – with beautiful foliage and plenty of greenery, meandering paths and trails, and animal exhibits. The park is split into lands predominatly based on continents from around the world and the animals that reside in each of the respective continents.

The park features the Kilimanjaro Safari, a safari attraction that is a realisation of Walt’s original idea for the Jungle Cruise. Instead animatronics were used. On Kilimanjaro Safari real animals are on show, and guests are transported through the savanna like landscape on open-sided safari vehicles driven by knowledgeable Cast Members who narrate the journey pointing out animals through the adventure. Disney uses clever techniques to ensure that the illusion of a real savanna is maintained, there are no cages or fences in sight. Instead, the Imagineers have used hidden trenches, forced perspective and rockery to make it appear that the animals are roaming freely, when in fact they’re perfectly segregated.

Animal Kingdom is also home to the tallest attraction on Walt Disney World property – Expedition Everest. The mammoth attraction stands at just shy of 61 metres tall. And at the time of being built, it was the most expensive roller coaster to ever be built in the WORLD! It’s an impressive attraction and was the first real thrill attraction at the park.

Animal Kingdom is also home to Pandora: The World of Avatar. This land features some impressive imagineering, as somehow they’ve managed to overcome gravity and recreate the floating mountains from the Avatar movie franchise. The two attractions in this land also feature some impressive technology, with the Na’vi River Journey having one of the most impressive and advanced animatronic ever created by Disney Imagineering.

The Water Parks

There are two water parks at Walt Disney World; Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.

Typhoon lagoon was the first of the two water parks to open, and is themed to an island that was thrown into disarray after a typhoon hit. This is evident in the theming of the park with bits of debris, from broken surfboards to fishing nets. The park’s icon is a wrecked ship, the Miss Tilly, which sits atop of Mount Maday. The water park is home to one of the largest outdoor wave pools, and is a popular feature of the park. In total there are 15 attractions at Typhoon Lagoon, with the majority of the slides a lot tamer than at its sister park, Blizzard Beach. A big draw to this park is Crush ‘n’ Gusher – a water coaster.

Blizzard Beach is the second water park at Walt Disney World, located in the Animal Kingdom area of the wider Walt Disney World resort. It opened in 1995 and is home to record breaking slide, Summit Plummet. This is one of the largest and fastest water slides in the world! The park is themed to a ski resort, following a freak snowstorm in Florida. Unfortunately the snow began to melt as the Floridian sun returned, causing much of the snow to melt – the ski resort was repurposed to a water park. The park is split into several areas categorised by ‘ski slopes’, similar to how in a ski resort different slopes would be categorised and colour coded based in the difficulty. As with Typhoon Lagoon, there are 15 attractions at the park, including an operating chair lift, similar to what you would find at a ski resort. The one of the best attractions here, in our opinion, is Teamboat Springs a family style raft ride. For those thrill seekers, and for a spectacular view of the whole Walt Disney World Resort – Summit Plummet is not to be missed.

Disney Springs

Disney Springs is the Walt Disney World Resort shopping and entertainment district. It’s located on the western side of the property, near Typhoon Lagoon and the I4. The 120-acre, free to enter venue, includes four distinct areas: Marketplace, The Landing, Town Center, and West Side. There’s plenty of resturants and bars too choose from, a range of branded shops, a bowling alley, and a cinema.

Disney Springs has had multiple rebrands, redevelopments and expansions over it’s varied past, initally opening in 1975 as Lake Beuna Vista Shopping Village – rebranding to Disney Springs in 2015.

Getting to Disney Springs is simple, it is easily reachable by road with the I4 also near by. There are three large parking structures which provide ample of free parking. Disney Springs is also accessible by Disney Transportation, being served by buses and boats to other areas of the Walt Disney World Resort. It is worth noting however, that transportation from Disney Springs does not serve any of the theme parks.

The newest addition to Disney Springs is the free-to-view nightime drone shone, Disney Dreams That Soar.