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What made Walt Disney World the flagship Disney resort?

Matt N

CF Legend
Hi guys. As most of you probably know, the oldest Disney theme park resort in the world is the Disneyland Resort in California, having opened in 1955. But rather interestingly, very few would ever call it the flagship Disney resort. In the eyes of most, that accolade goes instead to Walt Disney World, which opened in Florida in 1971. Despite not being the first Disney resort, and not even being some people's favourite Disney resort, it is undeniably the most popular and well-known Disney resort. If you ask someone to name you a Disney resort, 98% of people would probably name WDW. But my question to you all is; in your opinion, what made WDW gain this iconic status over its 5 other worldwide siblings?

To tell you the truth, I have a number of thoughts, but my main thought is that it has pretty much everything you could want in a resort, and in some way, it almost has an objective advantage over every other Disney resort in most aspects. It has the advantage of sheer size over the likes of the Disneyland Resort and it has the advantage of an appealing year-round climate over the likes of Disneyland Paris, to name just a few.

But what are your theories as to why Walt Disney World is arguably the flagship Disney resort?
 

cookie

Giga Poster
To me it came down to logistics: Disneyland was landlocked from the start, but WDW had the space to expand into a four park (and two water parks, countless hotels, a whole shopping district etc.) resort before DLR even got its second gate, and being far more massive than its sister resort in a location with a year-round climate made it ideal not just for domestic tourists but visitors coming from overseas as well (since from Europe it's a shorter flight to Orlando than it is to the Los Angeles area).

The international parks aren't even in contention for numerous reasons: Tokyo isn't even owned by Disney, and despite its passionate following a lot of it remains elusive to most western Disney fans. Meanwhile, Paris was a financial black hole for a long time, Hong Kong is minuscule and Shanghai is still too young to say where any of it is going.
 
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Edward M

Strata Poster
One massive reason is that they have so much land. Disney World is MASSIVE, about the size of San Francisco. As a result, they have the land available to build many resorts, parks, and entertainment complexes. In contrast, Disneyland is very land locked, surrounded by a residential area. This is somewhat the same for all the Disney resorts outside Orlando.

Also, there’s the amount of time they’ve had. The second biggest resort would be Tokyo Disney, but they only came around in 1984, after Disney World had opened two parks. Plus those parks aren’t even owned by Disney. That raises the question for Disneyland, but, again, they have limited space to work with.

It’s important to remember that Disney World pulls from a much bigger pool of guests than Disneyland or any other Disney resort. Everyone in America that lives east of the Mississippi River will very likely go to Disney World as opposed to Disneyland. That’s also not including the large amount of European guests. Disney World has the advantage of tourists being their main customer pool while locals make up the base of just about every other Disney resort (maybe not Paris, I’m not sure). Disney World is a destination for many people. It’s arguably a quintessential American experience, and, with 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, and dozens of hotels, it’s a vacation destination in and of itself. People will fly to Orlando simply for theme parks, something that isn’t really true for any other Disney resort.
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
As has been said above: Available land, that's the big one. Disneyland quickly ran out of room to expand (Disney had wanted to expand the park, but it proved so popular that hotel chains quickly snapped up the plots around the park - and by then, Disney's savings had been blown on the park so they couldn't afford to bid over them). Disneyland quickly became locked in and had very little room to build a second gate.

Another important factor is the benefits of hindsight. A lot was learned from the early years of operating Disneyland, and those lessons were taken into account when planning the Florida project. Logistics were made better, more money was spent to make the centrepiece castle truly iconic, everything was made bigger, and they could include the surrounding land in the plans as well. Parking facilities, transport from hotels, a total lack of competitors nearby, at least in the beginning.

And as @cookie said, look over the remaining resorts once again. The ones outside America are smaller, see fewer visitors, and each of them but Tokyo (which isn't owned by Disney) haven't had the decades of gradual development and financial success that made the US parks what they are today. They simply can't contend in the same league.
 
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