Disney World opened to the public on October 1, 1971. Disney World spans thirty-nine square miles just outside Orlando, Florida and is the largest and most visited recreational resort in the world. At one time the resort covered almost the twice the square mileage of Manhattan. The Walt Disney World Resort includes multiple theme parks: Magic Kingdom Park, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Disney's Animal Kingdom Park, Disney's Blizzard Beach and Disney's Typhoon Lagoon. Disney World has over 65,000 employees. More than 8,000 acres of Walt Disney World Resort's property have been set aside as a wildlife preserve and will not be subject to development.

In the early years of Disney World, park goers were given a book of tickets labeled A through E to ride the rides. The ?E? rides were considered the best and if you needed more tickets, you would have to buy them. Disney World's Space Mountain was the first enclosed roller coaster in the world. American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts actually tested this ride. Monorails have been ferrying park-goers around Walt Disney World since 1971. Riding the monorails are actually a highlight of some visitors' trips to the park. The buses in Walt Disney World log a total of about 12 million miles annually. Disney World employs more than one thousand bus drivers. About four tons of food are fed to the one thousand animals living in Disney World's Animal Kingdom every day. Disney World's Epcot center was originally designed to be a model of Utopian society.

Walt Disney World sets off over one thousand displays of fireworks each year. Disney World annually hosts a marathon, the first of which was run in 1994. Since the Walt Disney World Resort began water conservation efforts about seven years ago, it has saved almost 2.5 billion gallons of water. Nevertheless, Disney World uses about 15 million gallons of water every day. Disney World has over 7 million trees, flowers and other plants in the park. Visitors to the park use almost 200,000 miles of toilet paper. Walt Disney World offsets this by recycling over 18 million pounds of paper products annually. Human waste is the third most recycled item at Disney World. Waste is treated and then used in the park as fertilizer. Disney prides itself on continuity, cleanliness and the seamless operation of the park. Every tree on Main Street, USA in Disney World has a nearly identical twin tree growing in a greenhouse. If a tree needs to be replaced, it can be done quickly and easily overnight without guests being the wiser or ever noticing the swap. More than 20,000 different shades of paint are used throughout Walt Disney World.

The only building in Disney World that flies a flag other than the American flag is the Swiss Family Tree House which flies the flag of Switzerland. Cinderella's Castle is a mere twenty feet shy of being required by the Federal Aviation Administration to have red navigation lights on it. A technique called ?forced perspective? is used to make the castle look taller than it is. Some of the castle's spires aren't really attached to the castle. They are attached to nearby buildings, giving the illusion that they are part of the castle.