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

It opened on October 1, 1971 with the Magic Kingdom, and has since added Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios, and Disney's Animal Kingdom. 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 twenty resort hotels, and numerous shopping, dining, and entertainment offerings. The 47-square-mile (122 km2) property is the largest theme park resort in the world.

Walt Disney originally envisioned what would eventually become the Walt Disney World Resort as a resort that would have a Magic Kingdom somewhat larger and more elaborate than the Magic Kingdom of Disneyland. There was also to be of course various housing for guests to the resort, along with an industrial park, main resort terminal, and a futuristic airport, but most importantly was Walt Disney's "Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow", or EPCOT as it is better known with respect as an acronym. EPCOT was also known as Progress City. However plans for EPCOT would drastically change after Walt Disney's death. EPCOT became EPCOT Center, the second theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. Much later, concepts from the original idea of EPCOT would be integrated into the community of Celebration, Florida.

Walt Disney focused most of his attention on the "Florida Project" both before and after his participation at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair, but died in December of 1966, almost five years short of seeing his vision realized.

There is no official documentation showing that the Walt Disney World Resort was to be originally spelled as "Disneyworld", for it was already going to be far different than "Disneyland". However Walt Disney did originally reference the Walt Disney World Resort as both "Disney World" and "The Disney World", with both of these versions using the same font that was used in the spelling of Disneyland.

After Walt Disney's death, the title of "Disney World" was settled upon, to be presented in a modern font instead of the original Disneyland font. To reinforce the updated name and image, Disney World's official symbol was to be an oversized "D" with the face of Mickey Mouse depicted as the lines of latitude and longitude of this new World.

While Disneyland has kept its original font, it has lost nearly all references to its offical symbol. Walt Disney World put an end to use of both its original font and official symbol at the conclusion of Walt Disney World's 25th Anniversary Celebration in 1996. The official symbol, however, can still be found in many places around the Walt Disney World Resort, as well as in recent merchandise that uses it once again.

In the end, it was Roy O. Disney, Walt Disney's older brother, who would dedicate the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World, and would officialy proclaim "Disney World" as "Walt Disney World" in his brother's honor

A popular misconception is that the resort exists in Orlando, Florida. In fact, the entire Walt Disney World property is outside Orlando city limits; the majority sits within southwestern Orange County, with the remainder in adjacent Osceola County to the south.

Most of Walt Disney World's Central Florida land, and all of the public areas, are located in the cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, located southwest of Orlando and a few miles northwest of Kissimmee. The land within Walt Disney World Resort is part of the Reedy Creek Improvement District which allows the Disney corporation to exercise quasi-governmental powers over the area.

Walt Disney World Resort is the largest theme park resort in the world.

Walt Disney World Resort features four major theme parks, each with a main attraction that serves as its symbol:

* The Magic Kingdom (Cinderella Castle)
* Epcot (Spaceship Earth, the geodesic sphere.)
* Disney-MGM Studios (The Sorcerer's Hat, though formerly the 'Earful Tower' water tower represented it)
* Disney's Animal Kingdom (the Tree of Life)

There are also two water parks, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach (a third, River Country, is permanently closed), as well as the Disney's Wide World of Sports athletic complex.

The Downtown Disney area contains many shopping, dining, and entertainment venues, including DisneyQuest (a "virtual theme park" inside a building), the House of Blues, and a permanent Cirque du Soleil show (La Nouba).

Another notable aspect is the large number of hotel resort complexes on the Walt Disney World property. The non-themed hotels are owned by private, non-Disney hospitality companies such as Starwood, Holiday Inn, and Hilton. The themed resorts include:

* Disney's All-Star Movies Resort
* Disney's All-Star Music Resort
* Disney's All-Star Sports Resort
* Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge
* Disney's Beach Club Resort
* Disney's Beach Club Villas
* Disney's BoardWalk Inn
* Disney's BoardWalk Villas
* Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort
* Disney's Contemporary Resort
* Disney's Coronado Springs Resort
* Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground
* Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa
* Disney's Old Key West Resort
* Disney's Polynesian Resort
* Disney's Pop Century Resort
* Disney's Port Orleans Resort Riverside (formerly Dixie Landings)
* Disney's Port Orleans Resort French Quarter (formerly Disney's Port Orleans Resort)
* Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa (formerly the Disney Institute)
* Disney's Wilderness Lodge
* Disney's Yacht Club Resort
* Shades of Green (named because of its location between two golf courses; it's currently leased by the United States Department of Defense and used for vacationing active and retired military personnel and their families)
* The Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge
* Walt Disney World Dolphin (operated by Sheraton Hotels and Resorts)
* Walt Disney World Swan (operated by Westin Hotels)

The Walt Disney World resort also includes five 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 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 57,000 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.

In a March 30, 2004 article in The Orlando Sentinel, Walt Disney World president Al Weiss gave some insight into how the parks are maintained:

* More than 5,000 cast members are dedicated to maintenance and engineering, including 650 horticulturists and 600 painters.
* Disney spends more than US$100 million every year on maintenance at the Magic Kingdom. In 2003, US$6 million was spent on renovating its Crystal Palace restaurant. 90 percent of guests say that the upkeep and cleanliness of the Magic Kingdom are excellent or very good.
* The streets in the parks are steam cleaned every night.
* There are cast members permanently assigned to painting the antique carousel horses; they use genuine gold leaf.
* There is a tree farm on-site, so that when a mature tree needs to be replaced, a thirty-year-old tree will be available to replace it.

There is a fleet of Disney-operated buses on property, branded Disney Transport free for use by resort and park guests. They are not to be confused with the Disney Cruise Line and Disney's Magical Express buses, which are run by Mears Transportation. Taxi boats link some locations. Two monorail lines also operate at Walt Disney World Resort: one links the Magic Kingdom, the Contemporary and Polynesian and Grand Floridian resorts, and the Transportation and Ticket Center (with an express track in the other direction, only stopping at the TTC and the Magic Kingdom); the other links Epcot and the Transportation and Ticket Center.

Walt Disney World Resort covers a total of 47 square miles (122km2), about the size of San Francisco or twice the size of Manhattan. Less than one-quarter of the property has been developed. Another quarter has been set aside as a wilderness preserve.

According to Disney's "MouseMail" email newsletter: during the Christmas season, one hundred fifty truckloads of holiday decorations adorn the Walt Disney World Resort and 300,000 yards of ribbon and bows drape over 1,500 Christmas trees. Walt Disney World pastry chefs use more than 1,050 pounds of honey, 100 pounds of sugar, and 50 pounds of dark chocolate to bake gingerbread houses and other decorations for the holidays.