walt disney parks and resorts worldwide inc. 1 type wholly owned subsidiary 1 of a public corporation industry travel founded 1971 ; 45 years ago 1971 headquarters burbank california us key people bob chapek chairman 2 services theme parks hotel lodging cruises timeshares guided tours travel packages attraction design number of employees 130 000 2015 3 parent the walt disney company divisions disneyland resort subsidiaries walt disney imagineering research & development inc. walt disney parks and resorts u.s. inc. euro disney investments inc. disneyland international website disneyparks.disney.go.com corporate walt disney parks and resorts worldwide inc. 1 also known informally as walt disney parks and resorts or disney parks is one of the walt disney company s four major business segments and a subsidiary . originally known as walt disney outdoor recreation division then walt disney attractions it is responsible for the conception building and managing of the company s theme parks and vacation resorts as well as a variety of additional family oriented leisure enterprises . it was founded in 1971 after the opening of magic kingdom at walt disney world in florida joining the original disneyland in california which opened in 1955 . in 2014 the company s theme parks hosted approximately 134 million guests making disney parks the world s most visited theme park company 4 ahead of the second most visited rival merlin entertainments . it is by far the largest disney business segment by employee headcount with about 130 000 3 of disney s total number of 180 000 5 employees as of 2015 . the chairman of walt disney parks and resorts is bob chapek formerly president of disney consumer products . chapek reports to disney ceo bob iger . contents 1 background 2 history 2.1 walt disney outdoor recreation division 2.2 walt disney attractions 2.3 walt disney parks and resorts 2.4 walt disney parks and resorts worldwide 3 disney resorts 3.1 disneyland resort 3.2 walt disney world resort 3.3 tokyo disney resort 3.4 disneyland paris 3.5 hong kong disneyland resort 3.6 shanghai disney resort 4 other ventures 4.1 disney cruise line 4.2 disney regional entertainment 4.3 disney sports enterprises 4.3.1 dse background 4.3.2 dse history 5 training 6 abandoned and misreported concepts 7 future projects 8 properties outside disney parks 9 references 10 external links background edit main article disneyland inc. in 1949 ice capades added a disney segment to its performances . costumes from those shows were used at the opening of disneyland in 1955 with some performers hired away for disney . 6 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 disney imagineering . 7 cdl 1 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 . 7 joining ab pt as disneyland investors were walt disney productions wdp western publishing and walt disney . cdl 2 walt disney productions had the option to repurchase the walt disney wed and western publishing shares 31 % by may 1 1959 for 562 500 . 8 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 . 9 disneyland changed from disneylandia was announced in 000000001954 04 01 0000april 1954 by walt to be opened in 000000001955 07 01 0000july 1955 . cdl 3 cdl 4 on 000000001955 07 17 0000july 17 1955 the disneyland park with five themed lands containing eighteen attractions with double the expected guests . cdl 5 wed owned santa fe & disneyland railroad opened too . 10 on 000000001957 06 29 0000june 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 . 11 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 . cdl 6 the first audio animatronic attraction walt disney s enchanted tiki room opened at disneyland in 1963 . 12 history edit 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 000000001963 11 01 0000november 1963 walt disney made a trip to florida for final site selection . cdw 1 333 334 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 . 13 in 1963 roy made plans to buy from 5 000 to 10 000 acres 2 000 to 4 000 ha which was carried out in 1964 amassing 27 443 acres 11 106 ha by 000000001965 10 01 0000october 1965 . cdw 2 cdw 3 plans for the florida project that would eventually become walt disney world were announced to the public in 000000001965 11 01 0000november 1965 . cdw 3 legislation forming the reedy creek improvement district 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 . cdw 4 ground breaking followed for the future reedy creek park on may 30 . cdw 5 in roy o. disney s last act as ceo in 1968 he officially named the second park walt disney world . cdw 1 357 disneyland international was incorporated on 000000001961 11 20 0000november 20 1961 . 14 the next year the oriental land company contacted disney about building a theme park . 15 in 000000001959 01 01 00001959 the wed owned disneyland alweg monorail system was installed at disneyland . 10 16 disneyland s first new themed land new orleans square opened in 000000001966 01 01 00001966 . tomorrowland was revamped in 1967 with seven new attractions . 16 the design and architectural group and the wed enterprise name was purchased from walt s corporation renamed as retlaw enterprise . 10 disney expanded into attractions at the 1964 new york world s fair with it s a small world 17 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 . 6 18 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 . 17 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 000000001969 06 01 0000june 1969 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 . the supreme court ruling left open to the club the possibility of refiling . 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 . 19 40 million worth of walt disney productions convertible debentures were sold in 000000001968 01 01 0000january 1968 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 . cdw 6 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 . 20 walt disney world began operation on 000000001971 10 01 0000october 1 1971 with the magic kingdom park at a cost of 400 million . the magic kingdom had seven themed lands main street adventureland bear country fantasyland frontierland liberty square and tomorrowland . cdw 7 additionally disney s fort wilderness resort campground and two hotels disney s contemporary resort and disney s polynesian village resort also opened . cdw 8 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 . 16 space mountain opens at disneyland in 1975 . 16 two more hotels opened in 1973 at disney world the golf resort 21 and the gold resort ; cdw 9 disney s village resort hotel opened in 1974 . citation needed disney opened the buena vista club golf club in lake buena vista on 000000001974 11 22 0000november 22 1974 . cdw0 1 71 lake buena vista village the shopping area opened on 000000001975 03 22 0000march 22 1975 cdw0 1 and was renamed walt disney world village in 1977 . 22 280 celebrity sports center disney world s training center was sold on march 29 1979 . 13 at walt disney world the treasure island nature preserve pens opened on april 8 1974 cdw0 2 569 renamed discovery island in 1977 . cdw0 1 126 on 000000001975 07 01 0000july 1 1975 the wedway peoplemover opened in the magic kingdom s tomorrowland . cdw0 3 the first water park river country opened on 000000001976 06 20 0000june 20 1976 at disney world . cdw0 4 22 epcot center s groundbreaking occurred at walt disney world in may 1979 . cdw0 5 in 1979 oriental land and disney agreed to build a japanese theme park . 15 tokyo disneyland opened on 000000001983 04 15 0000april 15 1983 on 200 acres 80 ha in urayasu chiba japan . 23 walt disney outdoor recreation division edit with the june 3 1980 retirement of donn tatum as walt disney productions chairman and ceo three divisions were formed including the walt disney outdoor recreation division of which nunis was named division president . cdw0 6 disneyland started using disney dollars on may 5 1987 cdl4 1 while disney world parks started with epcot on october 2 . cdw1 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 . cdw0 7 the steam railroad and monorail at disneyland were purchased from retlaw enterprises formerly wed enterprises in 1982 . 16 bear country was renamed critter country on november 23 1988 . cdl4 2 tishman company s plans for two walt disney world hotels were rejected by 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 ; cdw1 2 ground breaking took place on january 28 1988 . cdw1 3 the first non disney owned hotel pickett suite resort opened in disney world village on march 15 1987 . cdw1 4 on june 1 1982 the disney world monorail line was extended to epcot center from the ticket and transportation center . cdw0