Disney and The Lion King

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
The Film
Simba
Mufasa
Scar
Timon and Pumbaa
Rafiki
Nala
Zazu
Shenzi Banzi and Ed
Sarabi
Sarafina
Disney Land
Walt Disney Pictures
Pixar Animation Studios
Elias Disney (Father of Walt Disney)
Roy Oliver Disney (Brother of Walt Disney)
Lillian Disney
Walt Disney Theatrical
Disney Channel
Walt Disney Television
Walt Disney Televison Animation
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Walt Disney World
Walt Disney Feature Animation
Disney TV Shows
Disney Televison Movies
Out Of Print Disney DVD's
Animated Classics
Other Animated Films
(Live Action 1980 Present)
Live Action (Pre 1980)
Direct-To-Video
Disney Documentaries and IMax
Disney DVD and Video
The Lion King III Simba's Heir Ver. 1.4 (Story)
Crossing the Desert (Story)
The Lion King IV Dark Ruler Ver. 1.4 (Story)
The Lion King V : The Final Clash Ver 1.4 (Story)
The Lion King VI Human Encounter Ver. 1.4 (Story)
Scar's Revenge (Story)
The Best On Broadway (Story)
Redemption (Story)
How Shenzi and Banzai Met (Story)
Relations (Story)
The Scarring of Taka (Story)
Zira and Timon (Story)
Fond Memories (Story)
Scar's Revenge (Story) Rene Gorydon
Roy E Disney
The Walt Disney Company
Walt Disney
Jason Raize
The Lion King Broadway CD Reviews
The Lion King Fan Reviews
The Lion King Critics Reviews
Lion King Broadway Reviews
The Lion King Movie Pictures

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is the division of The Walt Disney Company which manages and builds the theme parks and vacation resorts for which Disney is famous. It is one of the four major units of the company, the other three being Consumer Products, Media Networks, and Studio Entertainment.

The Parks and Resorts division was founded in 1971 as Walt Disney Attractions when Disney's second theme park, the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, opened, joining the original Disneyland in California. The chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is James A. "Jay" Rasulo, formerly the chairman of Disneyland Resort Paris.

Administration

  • Chairman, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts - Jay Rasulo
    • President, Worldwide Operations - Al Weiss
      • President, Disneyland Resort - Matt Ouimet
      • President, Walt Disney World Resort - Al Weiss (Interim)
      • President, Disneyland Resort Paris - Karl Holz
      • Executive Vice President, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort - Bill Ernest
      • President, Disney Cruise Line - Tom McAlpin
    • Human Resources and Diversity & Inclusion - Meg Crofton
    • International Development and Walt Disney Attractions Japan - Nick Franklin
    • Walt Disney Imagineering, Walt Disney Creative Entertainment, Adventures by Disney - Don Goodman
    • Public Affairs - Leslie Goodman
    • Finance and IT & Research - Jim Hunt
    • Global Marketing - Michael Mendenhall

      Disneyland Resort

      Main article: Disneyland Resort

      The resort was founded by Walt Disney in 1955 in Anaheim, California. Disneyland soon became famous all over the world as a place that parents could enjoy with their children. Disneyland Hotel adjoins the park. In 2001, the area was officially named "Disneyland Resort" with the opening of Disney's California Adventure Park, two new resort hotels, and Downtown Disney. Disneyland celebrated its fiftieth anniversary on July 17, 2005.

      Properties:

      • Disneyland
      • Disney's California Adventure Park
      • Downtown Disney
      • Disneyland Hotel, Disney's Grand Californian Hotel, Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel (previously Disneyland Pacific Hotel, renamed 2001)

        Walt Disney World Resort

        Main article: Walt Disney World Resort

        The resort opened in 1971 with the Magic Kingdom Park (similar in layout to Disneyland) and three resort hotels in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The property is twice the size of Manhattan, with only about a quarter of it having been developed to date. It has become the largest tourist destination on Earth, with four theme parks, two water parks, a shopping and entertainment complex, dozens of resort hotels, and eight golf courses.

        Properties:

        • Magic Kingdom Park
        • Epcot
        • Disney-MGM Studios
        • Disney's Animal Kingdom
        • Disney's Blizzard Beach water park
        • Disney's Typhoon Lagoon water park
        • Downtown Disney
        • Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Disney's Contemporary Resort, Disney's Polynesian Resort, Disney's Port Orleans Resort, Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, Disney's Old Key West Resort, Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, Disney's Boardwalk Resort, Disney's Beach Club Resort, Disney's Yacht Club Resort, Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, Disney's Pop Century Resort, Disney's All-Star Movies Resort, Disney's All-Star Music Resort, Disney's All-Star Sports Resort, Disney's Wilderness Lodge, Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground

          Tokyo Disney Resort

          Main article: Tokyo Disney Resort

          Tokyo Disney Resort, located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, opened in 1983. Tokyo Disneyland is designed to resemble Disneyland. In 2001 the resort expanded with Tokyo DisneySea. There are several resort hotels on site, but only two are actually owned by the resort, which boasts the largest parking structure in the world. Tokyo Disney Resort is fully owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company and is licensed by the Walt Disney Company. The resort was built by Walt Disney Imagineering, and Disney has a major say in what goes on at the parks - Nick Franklin leads the Walt Disney Attractions Japan team at the Walt Disney Company, which communicates with the Oriental Land Company over all aspects of the Resort, and assigns Imagineers to the Resort.

          Properties:

          • Tokyo Disneyland
          • Tokyo DisneySea
          • Disney's Ambassador Hotel and Hotel MiraCosta
          • Ikspiari

            Disneyland Resort Paris

            Main article: Disneyland Resort Paris

            Disney's fourth resort, Disneyland Resort Paris opened in 1992 as Euro Disney Resort. The name was changed in 1994 to fit the romantic image associated with Paris. Despite the name, the resort is not in Paris proper, but in a suburb about 30 km to the east of Paris. The resort has two theme parks, a shopping complex, a camping ground, six Disney resort hotels and a number of hotels run by other operators. It is maintained and managed by Euro Disney SCA, a company partially owned by the Walt Disney Company and whose stock is traded on Euronext.

            Properties:

            • Disneyland Park
            • Walt Disney Studios Park
            • Disney Village
            • Golf Disneyland
            • Disneyland Hotel, Disney's Hotel New York, Disney's New Port Bay Club Hotel, Disney's Sequoia Lodge Hotel, Disney's Hotel Cheyenne, Disney's Hotel Santa Fe, Disney's Davy Crockett Ranch

              Hong Kong Disneyland Resort

              Main article: Hong Kong Disneyland Resort

              Disney's fifth resort (the second in Asia) opened on September 12, 2005. The resort is owned and operated by Hongkong International Theme Parks, an incorporated company jointly owned by The Walt Disney Company the Government of Hong Kong. Currently, the resort consists of one theme park and two hotels, with land reserved for future expansion.

              Properties:

              • Hong Kong Disneyland
              • Inspiration Lake Recreation Centre
              • Disneyland Hotel and Disney's Hollywood Hotel

                Disney Cruise Line

                Main article: Disney Cruise Line

                Though it is part of the Walt Disney World Resort venture, Disney Cruise Line is an altogether separate branch of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Disney Cruise Line was formed in 1995; its two ships, the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder, began operation in 1998 and 1999, respectively, and were designed in collaboration with Walt Disney Imagineering. Both ships offer three-, four- and seven-night Caribbean cruises, each with a stop at Disney's private island in the Bahamas, Castaway Cay.

                Properties:

                • Disney Wonder
                • Disney Magic
                • Castaway Cay

                  Other Properties

                  Disney Regional Entertainment, a division of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, runs the ESPN Zone restaurants. It also ran the failed Club Disney and DisneyQuest concepts.

                  The World of Disney stores, including the non-Resort New York City location, are run by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.

                  Disney Vacation Club sells timeshares of its resorts at Walt Disney World. It has two Resorts located outside Walt Disney World.

                  Adventures by Disney is the operating name for the series of all inclusive guided vacation tour packages run by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.

                  Abandoned concepts

                  Disney reportedly had plans to build a park named Disney's America. The park was to have been located in Virginia, but local opposition to the idea appears to have persuaded Disney not to go forward with it in 1994. [1]

                  Instead of Disney's California Adventure, Disney considered building a West Coast adaption of Epcot, which was deemed too ambitious after the failure of the extravagant Euro Disney in France. Another concept for a Disney park in California was Disneysea, a contrasting park to Disneyland, to be built in Long Beach next to the RMS Queen Mary which Disney, at the time, owned. The park was to have led to a permanent West Coast ship in the Disney Cruise Line, which would dock at the park. The concept, although quickly scrapped, inspired the Imagineers to create Tokyo DisneySea, which has recently been deemed the second best-loved Disney park in the world, after Disneyland.

                  The Disney-MGM Studios Paris was a European copy of the movie theme park in Florida, to have opened in 1996 at the Euro Disney Resort (now Disneyland Resort Paris). Imagineers had been working on plans for six months before they were told to stop by management after the resort was drastically underperforming financially. The Walt Disney Studios Paris opened in 2002 after the resort started to make a profit, though was almost completely different from the plans for the Disney-MGM Studios Paris.

                  Future properties

                  Disney has made no announcements regarding plans for another theme park at the Florida resort and CEO Robert Iger has cited international expansion as one of the company's three strategic priorities.

                  It is possible that a fifth park may someday be built at Walt Disney World Resort, due to the enormous expanse of land that Disney owns in Florida. On November 1, 2005, Kevin Yee of MiceAge reported theories and rumours of a fifth Walt Disney World Resort park connected to the $50,000,000 development of a new highway directly into the heart of the resort. But his "best guess" of the route turned out to be completely wrong, hence voiding his theory.

                  Disney sent scouts to Australia in January 2005 to survey a new site. A likely site is just outside of Melbourne (Rumored to be located on a site near avalon). Scouts are also looking for a suitable site for a Disney resort on mainland China in addition to the Disney resort in Hong Kong, possibly near Shanghai. Disney announced in July that there would be no new resort on the Chinese mainland before 2010, but a site has been allocated and is three times the size of Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, or roughly the size of Disneyland Resort Paris.

                  Both Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Resort Paris have room for future expansion, though no plans have been announced.

                  The only site that is extremely short on land is Disneyland Resort in California, although the company has acquired enough real estate to build a potential third theme park on a former strawberry farm near the existing resort; the remainder of the original Disneyland parking lot, now behind Disney's California Adventure, will more than likely be demolished eventually to expand the park.

                  Timeline

                  1950s and '60s

                  1970s and '80s

                  1990s

                  2000s