Disney World (1971- ) is the most visited place in America. It is a huge park in the middle of Florida, twice the size of Manhattan, making it the largest man-made playground in the world. It gets four times more visitors than Florence, Italy.

It is run by Disney, the American film company that gave the world Mickey Mouse. It is like their Disneyland in California, but it is newer and far larger. The lessons learned in building Disneyland were applied to Disney World.

Disney World has four parks:

  • 1971: Magic Kingdom: This is like the Disneyland in California: it has Cinderella’s castle in the middle, Tomorrowland and all that. Since it was built after the first Disneyland it is newer and somewhat better.
  • 1982: Epcot: like a world’s fair. It has a huge white ball in the middle: inside it is a ride that tells the history of invention from fire to the Internet (first written by Ray Bradbury). Learn a bit about 11 other countries. The best part: “Mission: Space!”: see what it is like to journey to Mars in a rocket!
  • 1989: Disney MGM Studio: Yes, Disney makes some of their films here. You can see them at work! There are also rides based on the Disney and MGM films. It is like Universal’s park which opened nearby the same year. Disney owns the old MGM films. It bought them in the 1980s.
  • 1998: Animal Kingdom: a wildlife park. In the middle is the Tree of Life (44 metres tall). You can see animals from different parts of the world living in the wild. Animal Kingdom is made up of six lands:
    • Africa - This is the best of the six. It is even better than Africa itself since you get to see more different kinds of animals than you would there.
    • Asia - tigers!
    • Dinoland USA
    • Camp Minnie Mouse
    • Discovery Island
    • Rafiki’s Planet Watch

In addition to the big parks, you also have:

  • Downtown Disney – for shopping, eating and bad nightlife
  • Wide World of Sports – for playing sports.
  • Typhoon Lagoon – water rides and swimming
  • Blizzard Beach – another water park

It is not cheap, but children love it. For many there is nowhere else in the country they would rather go. There are parades and fireworks there every day! There are plenty of roller coasters too.

If you have the time, you should allow one day for each park. If you can, try to go when children are in school: the lines will be much shorter. Summer and Christmas are the worst times to go. Late afternoons are the worst; mornings are best.

The wait in line for some rides can be more than an hour. To avoid that you can get a FASTPASS, a ticket with a time printed on it that tells you when to come back.

Under Florida law Disney World has all the rights and powers of a city.

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