Disney Experiences, commonly known as Disney Parks, is one of the three major business segments of The Walt Disney Company. It oversees Disney's theme parks and resorts, cruise line, vacation ownership businesses, consumer products and other travel and leisure operations.
Disney Experiences is led by chairman Thomas Mazloum. Its operations include six resort destinations with 12 theme parks in the United States, France, Japan, China and Hong Kong, as well as Disney Cruise Line, Disney Vacation Club, Adventures by Disney, Aulani, Walt Disney Imagineering and Disney Consumer Products. Disney theme parks collectively recorded an estimated 145.2 million visits in 2024, the highest attendance of any theme park group worldwide. Disney Experiences employs more than 185,000 people.
The division traces its origins to Disney's parks organization, established in 1971 ahead of the opening of Walt Disney World. In March 2018, Disney merged its Consumer Products and Interactive Media division with Parks and Resorts to form Walt Disney Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products. It was later renamed Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, before adopting the name Disney Experiences in 2023.
History
Originally, entry into the theme park and travel business was a side project of Walt Disney himself. As the Disneylandia project started to become a reality, Walt Disney Productions at Walt's request set up Disneyland, Inc. (DLI) in 1951 and agreed to a design deal in March 1953 with WED Enterprises (WED), Walt's personal corporation, which then included what would now be called Walt Disney Imagineering. With the WED concept designs and prospectus for Disneylandia, Roy Disney in September 1953 met with TV networks in a deal for Disney-produced TV show and Disneyland investment. American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres (AB-PT) agreed to the Disneyland, Inc. investment. Joining AB-PT as Disneyland investors were Walt Disney Productions (WDP), Western Publishing and Walt Disney. Walt Disney Productions had the option to repurchase the Walt Disney, WED and Western Publishing shares (31%) by May 1, 1959, for $562,500.
With a need for the Disneyland Hotel nearby and no funding available for Disney to build it, Walt Disney approached Jack Wrather to build the hotel who agreed.
Disneyland, changed from Disneylandia, was announced in by Walt to be opened in .Walt Disney, by Jim Fanning, 1994. Page 100.Walt Disney – Hollywood's Dark Prince, by Marc Eliot, 1993. Page 223. On , the Disneyland park opened with five themed "lands" containing eighteen attractions with double the expected guests.Walt Disney, by Jim Fanning, 1994. Page 102. WED owned Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad opened, too.
On June 29, 1957, Disney Production exercised its options to purchase all but AB-PT's common stock outstanding. This allowed WDP to consolidate DLI into its 1957 annual accounting statements adding four months' worth of net profits, $511K. In June 1960, Walt Disney Productions completed the purchase of AB-PT's share of the company for nearly $7.5 million and its TV contract, and the theme park became a fully owned subsidiary of Walt Disney Productions.
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.Walt Disney – An American Original, by Bob Thomas, 1994.: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 .Building a Company – Roy O. Disney and the Creation of an Entertainment Empire, by Bob Thomas, 1998. Pages 278, 279, 281–282.Walt Disney – An American Original, by Bob Thomas, 1994. Page 337. Plans for the Florida project that would eventually become Walt Disney World were announced to the public in November 1965. Legislation forming the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the Reedy Creek Improvement Act, was signed into law by Florida Governor Claude R. Kirk, Jr. on May 12, 1967, allowing Disney to build the infrastructure for the second park. 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.:357
Disneyland International was incorporated on November 20, 1961. 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. The design and architectural group and the WED Enterprise name was purchased from Walt's corporation, renamed as Retlaw Enterprise.
Disney expanded into attractions at the 1964 New York World's Fair with It's a Small World and costumed character appearances. When the characters proved a hit at the 1964 World's Fair, Walt wanted another outlet for "live" characters; thus, Disneyland put on Disney on Parade, a self-produced live arena show starting in 1969. 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. Space Mountain opens at Disneyland in 1977.
Two more hotels opened in 1973 at Walt Disney World: the Golf Resort and the Gold Resort; Disney opened the Buena Vista Club golf club in Lake Buena Vista on .:71 Lake Buena Vista Village, the shopping area, opened 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.
At Walt Disney World, the Treasure Island nature preserve pens opened on April 8, 1974,Disney A to Z – The Updated Official Encyclopedia, by Dave Smith, 1998.:569 renamed Discovery Island in 1977.:126 On , the WEDway PeopleMover opened in the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland.Disney Magazine, Summer 1999. Page 85. The first water park, River Country, opened on at Disney World.Birnbaum's Walt Disney World 1997, by Hearst Business Publishing, 1996.:22 EPCOT Center's groundbreaking occurred at Walt Disney World in May 1979.Walt Disney World, by The Walt Disney Company, 1994?.
In 1979, Oriental Land and Disney agreed to build a Japanese theme park. Tokyo Disneyland opened on on in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan.
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.The New York Times, June 4, 1980 . Page D1. Disneyland started using Disney Dollars on May 5, 1987,Canadian Coin News, July 21, 1987, Volume 25, Number 6. Page 2. while Walt Disney World parks started with Epcot on October 2.Canadian Coin News, October 27, 1987, Volume 25, Number 13. Page 1. 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.Forbes, March 6, 1989 , Volume 143. Page 42.
The steam railroad and monorail at Disneyland were purchased from Retlaw Enterprises, formerly WED Enterprises, in 1982. Bear Country was renamed Critter Country on November 23, 1988. Disneyland: Then, Now, and Forever, by Bruce Gordon and Tim O'Day, 2005. Page 99.
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;Building a Dream – The Art of Disney Architecture, by Beth Dunlop, 1996. Pages 63,66. ground breaking took place on January 28, 1988.The New York Times, January 28, 1988. Page C1. The first non-Disney owned hotel, Pickett Suite Resort, opened in Disney World Village on March 15, 1987.Disney A to Z – The Official Encyclopedia, by Dave Smith, 1996. Page 387.
On June 1, 1982, the Walt Disney World monorail line was extended to EPCOT Center from the Transportation and Ticket Center.:338 The EPCOT Center theme park opened on October 1, 1982, at a building cost of US$1.2 billion, with two areas, Future World and World Showcase.Walt Disney – Hollywood's Dark Prince, by Marc Eliot, 1993.: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.Prince of the Magic Kingdom, by Joe Flower, 1991. 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. sources:
Construction of the Disney-MGM Studios theme park began in 1986.Walt Disney World – 20 Magical Years, by the Walt Disney Company, 1991/2?. Disney-MGM Studios opened on May 1, 1989,Page D5. The New York Times, May 1, 1989, Volume 138, Number 47857. along with a Pleasure Island entertainment area;Birnbaum's Walt Disney World 1997, by Hearst Business Publishing, 1996. Page 18. its second water park, Disney's Typhoon Lagoon, opened on June 1.Orlando Attractions, Summer 2009. Page 33. In 1983, Walt Disney World Village's name was changed to the Disney Village Marketplace.Disney A to Z – The Official Encyclopedia, by Dave Smith, 1996. Page 132. A new themed area, Mickey's Birthdayland, opened in the Magic Kingdom near Fantasyland on June 18, 1988.Disney A to Z – The Official Encyclopedia, by Dave Smith, 1996. Page 324.