Happy 40th Birthday Disney World!

Forty years ago today, on October 1st 1971, Walt Disney World opened its doors in Florida for the very first time.

Contrary to popular belief, Disney World (later to be known as the Magic Kingdom) wasn’t actually the first Disney theme park to open, with Disneyland in California opening in 1955.

However due to the limitations in terms of the quantity of land available for development, Walt Disney soon found that original theme park had out grown the site and need a bigger area in which to fully realise all of his ideas. So he set his sights on Florida.

“Here in Florida, we have something special we never enjoyed at Disneyland… the blessing of size. There’s enough land here to hold all the ideas and plans we can possibly imagine.” – Walt Disney, 1965.

Sadly, Walt Disney never saw the opening of Disney World as he died in 1966, just 5 years before completion. His brother Roy Disney took over the project, and named the theme park Walt Disney World in memory of his brother.

Initially after the grand opening of Disney World in Florida, visitor numbers were few and far between, with many believing that the project was doomed to be a failure. However towards the end of the month came the Thanksgiving holiday. So many visitors tried to enter Disney World it that weekend that the park temporarily had to close its doors as it was unable to cope with the number of people!

Walt Disney World continued to grow, and quickly! The Epcot Center was built in 1982, Disney’s Hollywood Studios were added in 1989 and The Animal Kindom was opened in 1998.

Aside from theme parks, Disney World now also includes golf courses, hotels, restaurants and water parks. Disney World is like it’s own state within the US!

Happy Birthday Walt Disney World. Here’s to another wonderful 40 years entertaining people from all over the World!