Beginning in 1958 with the contracting of Economics Research Associates (ERA) to find a location for another Disney resort, Disney Productions moved beyond a single park. ERA recommended Florida; another study in 1961 named
Ocala or
Orlando in Florida as possible locations. In , Walt Disney made a trip to Florida for final site selection.:333, 334 In 1962, Disney Productions purchased
Celebrity Sports Center (opened on September 17, 1960, in Denver, Colorado) from its owners, including Walt Disney,
Art Linkletter, and
John Payne, to use as a staff training center for its second resort. In 1963, Roy made plans to buy from , which was carried out in 1964, amassing by . Plans for the Florida project that would eventually become
Walt Disney World were announced to the public in November 1965. Ground breaking followed for the future Reedy Creek park on May 30. In Roy O. Disney's last act as CEO in 1968, he officially named the second park
Walt Disney World. The next year,
The Oriental Land Company contacted Disney about building a theme park. In 1959, the WED-owned
Disneyland-Alweg Monorail System began operations at Disneyland. The first
Audio-Animatronic attraction,
Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, opened at
Disneyland in 1963. Disneyland's first new themed land, New Orleans Square, opened in . Tomorrowland was revamped in 1967 with seven new attractions. Small World and its famous song lasted two years at the fair; it was then moved to Disneyland as an expanded major attraction in 1966 and later duplicated in the other Disney theme parks. In 1965, Walt Disney won a bid with the
US Forest Service to develop
Mineral King as a ski resort. The
Sierra Club sued in to stop the development, which was granted by the federal district judge. The Forest Service appealed and won at the appeal and the Supreme Court. This ruling opened the possibility of refiling to the club. In the next round of lawsuits, the same district judge blocked the redevelopment. The injunction and the passage of the
National Environmental Policy Act led to Disney backing out. $40 million worth of Walt Disney Productions Convertible
Debentures were sold in to fund Disney World (WDW). The next year in February, an agreement was made with multiple labor unions, in which the unions exchanged the right to strike for regular pay increases during the first building phase. By 1971, chairman of the Park Operations Committee and vice president of park operations Dick Nunis was appointed executive vice president of Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
Walt Disney World began operation on , with the
Magic Kingdom park at a cost of $400 million. The Magic Kingdom had six themed lands:
Main Street,
Adventureland,
Fantasyland, Frontierland,
Liberty Square, and Tomorrowland. Additionally, Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort campground and two hotels, Disney's Contemporary Resort and
Disney's Polynesian Village Resort, also opened. Disneyland expanded in 1972 with a seventh themed land,
Bear Country, replacing the Indian Village of
Frontierland, and later renamed Critter Country. In 1979, the Disneyland crafts and maintenance union workers went on strike for 15 days, at first, rejecting and then accepting the park's contract. and the Gold Resort; Disney opened the Buena Vista Club golf club in Lake Buena Vista on . and was renamed Walt Disney World Village in 1977.:280 Celebrity Sports Center, Disney World's training center, was sold on March 29, 1979.:569 renamed Discovery Island in 1977. The first water park,
River Country, opened on at Disney World.:22
EPCOT Center's groundbreaking occurred at Walt Disney World in May 1979. In 1979,
Oriental Land and Disney agreed to build a Japanese theme park.
Walt Disney Outdoor Recreation Division With the retirement of
Donn Tatum as Walt Disney Productions' Chairman and CEO on June 3, 1980, three divisions were formed, including the Walt Disney Outdoor Recreation Division, of which Disney Legend
Dick Nunis was named division president. Disneyland started using
Disney Dollars on May 5, 1987, while Walt Disney World parks started with Epcot on October 2. A renegotiated Disneyland Japan royalty agreement in April 1988 by Chief Financial Officer
Gary L. Wilson netted Disney US$723 million in cash in exchange for lower royalty payments. The steam railroad and monorail at Disneyland were purchased from
Retlaw Enterprises, formerly WED Enterprises, in 1982.
Tishman Company's plans for two Walt Disney World hotels were rejected by the new CEO
Michael Eisner on September 30, 1984, marking a change in Disney architecture. New plans for the Dolphin and Swan hotels were submitted by Michael Graves in July 1986; ground breaking took place on January 28, 1988. The first non-Disney owned hotel, Pickett Suite Resort, opened in
Disney World Village on March 15, 1987. On June 1, 1982, the Walt Disney World monorail line was extended to EPCOT Center from the Transportation and Ticket Center.:272 Plans for a Hollywood-style theme park were announced in April 1985 for the Walt Disney World resort at a project cost of US$300 million. In April 1985, Disney signed a licensing agreement with
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), giving Disney the right to use the MGM name, logo and movie library for this third park. Construction of the
Disney-MGM Studios theme park began in 1986. Disney-MGM Studios opened on May 1, 1989, along with a Pleasure Island entertainment area; its second water park,
Disney's Typhoon Lagoon, opened on June 1. In 1983, Walt Disney World Village's name was changed to the Disney Village Marketplace. A new themed area, Mickey's Birthdayland, opened in the Magic Kingdom near Fantasyland on June 18, 1988. In 1987, Disney and
Ron Brierley's Industrial Equity (Pacific) Ltd., already a 28% owner of the
Wrather Corporation, agreed to purchase the remaining Wrather Corporation stock with a 50% share each. Wrather Corporation owned the
Disneyland Hotel and operated the
Queen Mary and
Spruce Goose tourist attractions. In January 1990, Disney CEO Eisner announced plans to expand both Disneyland (by 20% in 10 years) and Walt Disney World (WDW). The plan would have WDW add another theme park and 16 new attractions in Disney-MGM Studios. Disney and
The Coca-Cola Company agreed to a 15-year marketing contract on January 25: Coca-Cola products would be exclusive in Disney theme parks, and Coca-Cola would use some Disney characters in their ads. On March 16, 1990, Attractions president Nunis announced a 25-year plan for a development in
Osceola, Florida, with homes, shopping malls and industrial buildings. In 1990, the possibility of a West Coast version of Epcot Center was placed in development. This was announced as
WestCOT in 1991, to be placed at the Disneyland Resort. On December 12, 1991, Disney selected only one California project to go forward with, Disneyland Resort, which was to include the WestCOT Center, hotels, a shopping mall, and a lake. Port Disney was abandoned in March 1992, and Disney canceled its leases on the Queen Mary and Spruce Goose attractions picked up from the Wrather Corporation.
Mickey's Toontown, a new themed land at Disneyland, opened on January 24, 1993. Disney canceled its plans for WestCOT in mid-1995 due to financial issues at
Disneyland Paris and the park's projected high cost. That park was then replaced by plans for the
California Adventure park, hotels, and a retail district. At Walt Disney World, Mickey's Birthdayland closed on April 22, 1991, then reopened on May 26 as Mickey's Starland.324, 329, 333 In order to expand Disney World on wetland, on April 23, 1993, the company agreed to form an wilderness preserve in Florida, known as the
Disney Wilderness Preserve. The Disney Inn hotel was leased starting February 1, 1994, by the US Army, then purchased on January 12, 1996, and later renamed Shades of Green. The third water park at Walt Disney World,
Disney's Blizzard Beach, opened on April 1, 1995. The Magic Kingdom's
Tomorrowland was completely refurbished and reopened in June 1995. Taking up a corner of the Magic Kingdom parking lot, the
Walt Disney World Speedway opened on November 28, 1995. In 1996, the
Disney Institute opened on February 9, and
Disney's BoardWalk opened on July 1. The first of the
World of Disney stores opened in the Disney Village Marketplace on October 3. The Downtown Disney district opened in November 1997, combining Disney Village Marketplace and Pleasure Island. A fourth theme park,
Disney's Animal Kingdom, opened at Disney World the week of April 20, 1998. The first
Disney Vacation Club Resorts, Vacation Club Resort, opened on October 1, 1991, and was renamed Disney's Old Key West Resort in January 1996. These vacation club hotels were operated by Disney Vacation Developments, Inc. as vacation
timeshares. The first off-resort vacation club hotel was Vacation Club Resort, which opened on October 1, 1995, in
Vero Beach, Florida. In 1993, Premier Cruises discontinued its partnership with Disney for one with
Warner Bros. After failing to reach agreements with
Carnival or
Royal Caribbean, Disney announced in 1994 the formation of its cruise line. The
Disney Cruise Line launched with the Disney Magic ship in 1998 along with its exclusive resort island port of Castaway Cay. The history-themed park was announced on November 11, 1993. The plans for the called for a amusement park, a campground, a golf course, of office/commercial space, and 2500 homes. With projections indicating that the park would operate at a loss and with opposition in the press, Disney canceled the project on September 15, 1994.
Walt Disney Imagineering created
Disney Fair, a U.S. traveling attraction, which premiered in September 1996. The fair was poorly attended and was pulled after a few stops. Disney Entertainment Projects (Asia Pacific) Inc., a new Disney Asian Pacific subsidiary, selected a renamed fair called DisneyFest as its first project, taking it to Singapore to open there on October 30, 1997. In November 1995, Disney announced the building of
Tokyo DisneySea, to be owned by Oriental along with Tokyo Disneyland. In December 1998, Walt Disney Attractions added
Disneyland Paris, Disney Regional Entertainment and
Walt Disney Imagineering to its portfolio, which already held Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and Tokyo Disneyland. Chairman Dick Nunis retired at the same time. On October 31, 1999, Walt Disney Attractions, Inc. was merged into Walt Disney Attractions, LLC. On June 19, 1998, Disney Regional Entertainment opened its first DisneyQuest, a location-based entertainment venue, at Downtown Disney West Side in Walt Disney World. The first DisneyQuest outside of a resort was opened in Chicago on June 16, 1999, with plans for more locations worldwide. In 1999, plans were announced for a new resort in
Hong Kong,
Hong Kong Disneyland, as a joint venture, Hong Kong International Theme Parks Ltd., between the Hong Kong Government and Disney Resorts. The
Disney Wonder cruise ship began operation on August 15. Disney World's
Discovery Island was closed on April 8, 1999.
Disney Destinations Walt Disney Attractions, LLC changed its name to Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, LLC on April 14, 2000, then to Disney Destinations, LLC on April 25, 2006.
Tokyo DisneySea at
Tokyo Disney Resort opened on September 4, 2001. The Walt Disney Company in selling its Japanese and US chains decided to keep the
Disney Stores in Europe, along with the store in Manhattan, which was converted into a
World of Disney store run by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts in 2004.
Downtown Disney opened at the
Disneyland Resort on January 12, 2001, between Disneyland and the future California Adventure.
Disney California Adventure opened at the
Disneyland Resort on February 8, 2001, with three major areas: Paradise Pier, Hollywood Pictures Backlot, and the Golden State. Parks and Resorts chairman Jay Rasulo announced at Disney's D23 Expo in Anaheim, California on September 12, 2009, that Walt Disney World's Fantasyland would be overhauled and increased in size by 2013. A $1 billion expansion/renovation of
Disney California Adventure was announced in 2007 to be completed by 2012.
River Country water park closed on November 2, 2001. Disney-MGM Studios is renamed
Disney's Hollywood Studios in January 2008.
Pleasure Island's core remaining six nightclubs were closed down in late 2008 to change the area to match the family friendly make-up of the other two sections of
Downtown Disney at Disney World.
Walt Disney Studios Park opened March 16, 2002, as the second theme park at the renamed
Disneyland Resort Paris. The first park was renamed
Disneyland Park (DLP). DLP Paris opened
Toy Story Playland in August 2000 with three attractions. Construction on Hong Kong Disneyland began on January 12, 2003, then opened September 12, 2005. Groundbreaking occurred at Hong Kong Disneyland in December 2009 for a three land expansion:
Mystic Point,
Grizzly Gulch, and
Toy Story Land. In June 2005, Disney Magic made the first cruise outside of the Caribbean, by moving its port for the summer to Los Angeles with a Mexican Riviera schedule. The Magic in May 2007 transferred its homeport to Barcelona, Spain, for the lines' first summer Mediterranean itinerary then returned to its permanent port in September. Disney Parks started the
Adventures by Disney tour vacation business in 2005. Disney entered a float, "The Most Magical Celebration on Earth", into the 2006 Pasadena
Tournament of Roses parade. In October 2007, Disney announced plans to build a resort at Ko Olina Resort & Marina in
Kapolei, Hawaii, featuring both a hotel and Disney Vacation Club timeshare units. The 800-unit property, named
Aulani, opened in 2011 and joined the other resorts not associated with a theme park, such as
Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort in South Carolina. With the
Walt Disney World Millennium Celebration starting on October 1, 2000, sanctioned
Disney pin trading was started. In 2001, the
Themed Entertainment Association gave Disney Parks and Resorts the Thea Award for Breakthrough Innovation for the park's FastPass system.
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. was incorporated on September 29, 2008, In November 2009, Disney received approval from the Chinese government to build a
Disneyland resort in
Shanghai's
Pudong district. The resort opened on June 16, 2016. California Adventure completed its overhaul in 2012 adding two new lands:
Cars Land and
Buena Vista Street. The overhaul also included a re-theme of several attractions plus a pair of classic dark rides. with four neighborhoods, and the remainder not in Pixar Pier would be replaced by Paradise Park. Pixar Pier opened on June 23, 2018.
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, a themed land for both
Disneyland and
Disney's Hollywood Studios was announced at the
D23 Expo on August 15, 2015. Construction began at both locations on April 14, 2016. The lands at both parks opened in 2019. The New Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom opened on December 6, 2012. It is the biggest upgrade to the theme park since its opening in 1971. Announced along with its new Star Wars Land expansion at the D23 Expo on August 15, 2015, Hollywood Studios was slated to have a version of
Toy Story Land. Holz became president of New Vacation Operations of Parks & Resorts reporting to
Al Weiss, president of worldwide operations for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. by April 2008. In February 2009, Holz returned to the presidency of Disney Cruise Line in addition to his continuing as head of New Vacation Operations, but initial served in the short Alaska cruise season. DCL's Magic was refitted in late 2013. The first of three expansion theme lands at Hong Kong Disneyland,
Toy Story Land, opened on November 18, 2011.
Grizzly Gulch opened at Hong Kong Disneyland on July 13, 2012. The final land of this expansion,
Mystic Point, opened at Hong Kong Disneyland on May 17, 2013. On February 5, 2015, it was announced that
Tom Staggs had been promoted to Disney Company
Chief operating officer but would continue as chairman of Parks and Resorts until his successor was named. On February 23, 2015,
Robert Chapek was named chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts effective that day. On April 29, 2015, the Walt Disney Company, through the subsidiary, Carousel Holdings Eat LLC, has purchased Carousel Inn & Suites hotel in Anaheim, from Good Hope International for $32 million. The purchase was considered a strategic purchase; the hotel would not be considered a part of the Disneyland hotel portfolio and would operate independently. Disney indicated in August 2016, that the company would be closing the Carousel Inn in October 2016 in preparation for razing it as part of plans to construct a new parking structure, transit plaza and pedestrian bridge over Harbor Boulevard. On February 10, 2017, Disney revealed a deal to purchase
Kingdom Holding Co.'s shares of
Euro Disney S.C.A. as the first step in purchasing the remaining shares held by others. Disney has offered about $2.12 a share, a 67% premium over the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange value as of February 9. The company expects the buyout and delisting to be finished by June. Plans are for the company to invest another $1.4 billion into Disneyland Paris after the buyout to counteract the recent
Paris terrorist attack, which hurt a previous 2014 park hotel investment. If this buyout is successful, it would make the resort the only resort 100% owned and operated by Disney outside of the United States of America. On June 13, 2017, the Walt Disney Company reached the 95% threshold required for a mandatory takeover according to French law, owning 97.08% of Euro Disney S.C.A., paving the way for the Walt Disney Company to become the sole owner and operator of Disneyland Paris.
Disney Parks, Experiences and Products As part of
the Walt Disney Company's March 2018 strategic reorganization, Disney Consumer Products, and Interactive Media was merged into the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts segment and renamed Walt Disney Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products. Parks and Resorts Chairman Bob Chapek was named chairman of this new segment, who also previously served as head of Disney Consumer Products. At the time, the Consumer Products chairman position was vacant, as its former holder, James Pitaro, had been recently appointed as the new head of
ESPN and co-chair of
Disney Media Networks. In March 2018, a Disney Parks West regional division was formed with Disneyland Resort in California, Walt Disney World in Florida, and Disneyland Paris under Catherine Powell, outgoing Disneyland Paris president. This mirrors the Disney Parks East regional division consisting of Shanghai Disney Resort, Hong Kong Disneyland and Walt Disney Attractions Japan and headed by
Michael Colglazier. Imagineering was expected to take on the development of merchandise, games, publishing, and apps. Paul Gainer moved up from Disney Retail head to head up the new Global Product Management and Distribution unit, which includes Disney Retail, Global Licensing, and digital guest experience. New Vacation Operations and Disney Cruise Line division was renamed Disney Signature Experiences along with a new president, Jeff Vahle, for the division in April 2018. On January 1, 2019, Walt Disney Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products changed its name to Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. Disney Cruise Line purchased in early March 2019 another Bahamas destination, the Lighthouse Point property on the island of Eleuthera. With the
acquisition of 21st Century Fox by August 2019,
National Geographic Partners' non-TV operations were transferred into its Disney counterpart with NG Media and National Geographic Expeditions moving to the segment's units, Disney Publishing Worldwide and Disney Signature Experiences, respectively. Powell supervised the two Star Wars-themed land,
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, openings in May at Disneyland and August 2019 in Disney's Hollywood Studios. However, initial numbers showed an attendance dropped instead of the boost such an opening should have generated. In late September, Powell left the company with the Parks West regional division being dissolved, thus having those resorts' executives directly report to chairman Chapek. He denied that Powell was let go because of the low attendance issue from Galaxy's Edge, but instead, Powell's position was a temporary one to allow Chapek to focus on the
acquisition of 21st Century Fox. Powell's departure from Disney was soon followed by a domino of executive appointments, as announced on September 26, 2019. In February 2020, Chapek was promoted from chairman of this segment to chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Company under executive chairman Bob Iger. With the closure of all Disney parks in 2020 during the
coronavirus pandemic, Disney donated 150,000 rain ponchos usually sold at the parks to
MedShare, to be distributed in hospitals. In May 2020, CEO Chapek named new appointees under the Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products segment. Succeeding Chapek as chairman of this segment is Josh D'Amaro, then-president of the Walt Disney World Resort. Jeff Vahle, then-president of Disney Signature Experiences, replaced D'Amaro as president of the Walt Disney World Resort. Thomas Mazloum, senior vice president for transportation and resort operations at the Walt Disney World Resort, succeeded Vahle as president of Disney Signature Experiences. In addition,
Kareem Daniel, former president of operations/product creation/publishing/games at Walt Disney Imagineering, was named president of consumer products, games and publishing. Ken Potrock replaced Rebecca Campbell as president of the Disneyland Resort; On July 15, 2020, it was announced that Jill Estorino, then-executive vice president, global marketing and sales, replaced Michael Colglazier as president and managing director of Disney Parks International, supervising Tokyo Disney Resort, Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disney Resort. On September 28, 2020, D'Amaro announced the difficult decision to lay off over 28,000 employees in the parks division, many of them being part-time workers. D'Amaro cited the uncertainty of the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic as well as California's continued reluctance to reopen Disneyland as factors. Nearly 6,700 Central Florida employees, including almost 6,500 Disney World workers, were also among those laid off. On October 13, 2020, Disney CEO and former Disney Park, Experiences and Products head
Bob Chapek agreed to keep Disney World at only 25% capacity until the Center For Disease Control (CDC) issued new guidance and also stated that with regards to reopening Disneyland, "It's not much of a negotiation. It's pretty much a mandate that we stay closed." Disneyland Resort was finally allowed to reopen on April 30, 2021, after a 412-day closure. Historically, Imagineering and certain other Disney units merged into DPEP were physically headquartered in the
Los Angeles metropolitan area (near the Walt Disney Company's
film and
television divisions)—even as the rapid growth of Walt Disney World meant that by the start of the 21st century, most Disney U.S. domestic theme park jobs were based in Florida, not California. In July 2021, it was reported that approximately 2,000 DPEP positions would be transferred over the next couple of years to a new 60-acre corporate campus in the
Lake Nona area of
Orlando, Florida, and it was later reported that fall that as many as 90% of the transferred positions would be Imagineering positions. The relocation was reportedly motivated in part by $570 million in
tax breaks from the state of Florida, as well as Florida's business-friendly climate, lower
cost of living, and lack of a
state income tax.
Disney Experiences On November 16, 2023, the division was renamed Disney Experiences. He brought out
All-4-One to sing "
I Swear" to celebrate Disney's announcement that they will build four more cruise ships on top of four already under construction, bringing its fleet to a total of 13 by 2031. Disney executives did not address the increasing ticket prices at Disney parks over the preceding decade during the event. The pricing changes had rendered Disney theme parks largely inaccessible to most middle class consumers because the cost of one day and one night at a Disney theme park was now higher than what many people spend on vacation in an entire year. On August 16, D'Amaro responded to such criticism by stressing the broad range of Disney's ticket pricing and options and explaining that the company would "provide as much access and flexibility as we possibly can, so as many of our fans can experience these things as possible". == Leadership ==