It
was originally to be named Disney World, but when Walt Disney
died in 1966, his brother Roy O. Disney took up the Disney World
project & renamed it Walt Disney World. Roy stated "It's going
to be Walt Disney World, so people will always know that this
was Walt's dream".
The
Walt Disney World Resort is located on a 46 square mile site (30,000
acres), yet only 7,100 acres are developed, leaving a lot more
room for future parks & attractions.
The Magic Kingdom occupies 107 acres, Epcot covers 300 acres,
Disney-MGM Studios is 154 acres, & Animal Kingdom 500 acres.
There
are 19 Walt Disney World Resorts with a total of more than 27,000
rooms.
The Walt Disney World Resort employs more than 60,000 during busy
holiday periods, each known as a Cast Member.
Seven Seas Lagoon, a man-made lake, is 14ft deep
Bay Lake, a natural lake, is 12ft deep
Blizzard
Beach is the largest of the three Water Parks, with 66 acres in
total. Typhoon Lagoon is 56 acres& River Country is just 5
acres.
There
are 21 slides at Blizzard Beach.
Summit
Plummet is the highest and fastest flume ride in the country,
at 120 ft. Sliders reach speeds of 55mph.
Summit
Plummet is twice as high as Humunga Kowabunga, Typhoon Lagoon's
biggest slide.
At
Typhoon Lagoon, the home port of Miss Tilly (the stranded ship)
is 'Safen Sound, FL'.
Mount Mayday,
at Typhoon Lagoon is 95 ft high.
At Typhoon
Lagoon you'll find a 362,000-gallon salt-water Shark Reef, where
guests can snorkel with fish, live sharks and coral, and a 2.25-million-gallon
wave pool that creates four-foot waves .
Kodak estimates
that approximately 4 percent of all the amateur photographs taken
in the United States are snapped at Walt Disney World Resort or
Disneyland.
A working wardrobe of approx. 2.5 million costume pieces is made
up of over 3,500 different designs.
About 13,000 costume pieces are manufactured each year.
About 175,000 yards of fabric are used each year.
Mickey Mouse has more than 175 different costumes and Minnie Mouse
has more than 200 different sets of costumes.
More than 46
million Cokes are consumed each year at Walt Disney World Resort.
That goes with 7 million hamburgers, 5 million hot dogs, 5 million
pounds of French fries and 265,000 pounds of popcorn.
There are enough
of the famous "Mouse Ear" hats sold each year to cover the head
of every man, woman and child in Pittsburgh and enough Disney
character T-shirts strike the fancy of Walt Disney World guests
each year to put Mickey Mouse's smiling face on the chest of every
Chicagoan.
More than a
half million character watches -- mainly Mickey -- are slipped
onto wrists out of Walt Disney World gift shops each year. At
any given time, there are more than 200 different varieties of
character watches. The most popular timepiece: a gold-tone relief
of Mickey Mouse.
Disney's Wedding
Pavilion was designed to provide the bride with a view of the
Magic Kingdom's Cinderella Castle while she is standing at the
altar.
There are 12,250
parking spaces on the Magic Kingdom parking lot, and by 10am each
Christmas day they will all be full.
Christmas Day
is the busiest day of the year at WDW.
Each Christmas
season, Walt Disney World is "decked" with more than four miles
of garland, 1,000 wreaths and 300 Christmas trees. The tallest
of the lot is a 96-foot tree in Disney's Contemporary Resort.
In addition, six trees, which range in height from 50-80 feet,
are placed in prominent positions in the theme parks.
Walt Disney
World Lost and Found is one busy place. Every day an average of
100 pairs of sunglasses are turned in at the Magic Kingdom alone.
There have been enough "shades" submitted each year in the Vacation
Kingdom to outfit every resident of Sun City, Arizona, Sun City,
California and Sun City, Florida. Since 1971, an estimated 1.5
million pairs of glasses have found their way into the "lost"
bin.
According to
long-time lost and found staffers, the most unusual items turned
in have been a glass eye and a potty trainer. Both, incidentally,
were claimed (but not by the same person).
Since WDW opened in 1971, some 100,000 trees & more than one
million tended shrubs have been planted.
Gardeners plant more than two million bedding plants each year.
In
all, there are 1,700 species of plants used a WDW, representing
flora gathered from not just the USA, but also 50 foreign countries.
50,000 Sprinkler
Heads and 2,000 miles of irrigation pipe are needed to water more
than 3,500 acres of landscaping at Walt Disney World Resort.
Since 1971,
more than 100,000 trees and 2 million tended shrubs have been
planted. For a burst of color, another 3 million bedding plants
are added annually.
Each year a
horticulture staff of nearly 500 plants 2 million bedding plants
and annuals and maintains millions of other plants including more
than 2 million shrubs, 13,000 roses and 200 or so topiary.
450,000 mowing
miles, to be exact -- that's what it takes to maintain 2,000 acres
of turf. For the record, those mower miles are the equivalent
of 18 trips around the earth at the equator.
The 550 workers
at the Walt Disney World Laundry launder an average of 120,000
pounds each day. In addition, between 30,000 and 32,000 garments
are dry-cleaned daily.
The four custom
Disney colours are lagoon blue, mint green, pumpkin orange and
lavender
The radio frequencies
for WDW information are -
Magic Kingdom (incoming guests) - AM 1030
Magic Kingdom (outgoing guests) - AM 1200
Epcot (incoming guests) - AM 850
Epcot (outgoing guests) - AM 910
