Disney World Total Land Area

[donsullivan]

Okay, lets see if I can muddy this up even further.

1) In the initial land purchase back in the 60's the total acreage was a little over 27,000 acres or approx. 43 square miles. That number has fluctuated up and down a bit as Disney has acquired small plots of land in the central Florida area. That is the total area that encompassed the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID) when the overall development began. As of the last reports from RCID, there are a total of 47 permanent residents in RCID and that number hasn't changed for years.

2) The primary landowner for the entire property that makes up RCID is the Walt Disney World Company. That organization markets the entire property (theme parks, hotels, entertainment and shopping areas) as The Walt Disney World Resort. There is no distinction based on land use there. See below for more details on land use breakdown.

3) During the early 90's as the development of Celebration was underway, there were a series of land deals that took place with a property south of this whole area called Walker Ranch. Disney purchased this land and guaranteed that it would stay untouched land in exchange for approval to fill in some wetlands areas in the Celebration area. This acreage is often included in the total acreage when describing WDW. This is where things jumped up to the 47 square mile number that many have heard over the years.

4) As Celebration development continued, all of that land was ceded out of RCID for a number of reasons, not the least of which was to prevent having residents that would be able to influence the governmental operations of RCID and Disney as a result. That new area was known as the Celebration Improvement District under Florida statute. That transaction reduced the total acreage of RCID to approx. 25,000 acres.This is the current acreage of the property that makes up The Walt Disney World Resort.

5) If you want to look at in finer detail, here is the breakdown of land usage in RCID or Walt Disney World as of 1998. The 20008 projection plan is not substantially different other than a slight increase in the Hotel/Resort component of the development and corresponding drop in vacant land as a result.
Residential (11 acres)
Commercial (244 acres)
Hotel/Resort (3,059 acres)
Entertainment (2,237 acres)
Support Facilities (689 acres)
Roads (1,565 acres)
Other Public facilities (867 acres)
Agriculture (1,012 acres)
Undeveloped Resource management (3,558 acres)
Vacant land (2,538 acres)

 

[PhotoDave219]

Easy man!! Don't get so worked up about some minor technicalities!!! Ok you've established that you know more than I do on this subject GOOD FOR YOU:lookaroun ! But who cares? I was just illustrating what I know. And really when you think about what I said: the DL can fit in the MK parking lot, all that really does is show how large WDW is in size!!!

Take a couple of deep breaths, relax...... ok good, now don't you feel better!

Speaking of relaxing... youre better off being polite to people on these forums, its is a Disney forum after all.

 

[Captain Hank]

So more land is allocated to hotels than the entertainment areas? Interesting, though, I guess, not surprising.

 

[Merlin]

And really when you think about what I said: the DL can fit in the MK parking lot, all that really does is show how large WDW is in size!!!

No it doesn't illustrate that at all. That's the point I was making when I said it was funny that people always use that statistic. MOST theme parks' parking lots are bigger than the parks themselves. And since DL is actually relatively small as theme parks go, it's not an effective way (in my opinion) to truly illustrate just how massive the resort is. That's why I was sharing the other stats.

Here's another statistic for you....we only get about 7% of a message in written communication. So tone of voice, intentions, etc. are generally subject to reader interpretation. Consequently, you seem to have thought I was upset when I wrote my post. I wasn't. :wave:

 

[donsullivan]

So more land is allocated to hotels than the entertainment areas? Interesting, though, I guess, not surprising.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Resort acreage number includes the hotels and their associates facilities (1,842 acres) the campground (277 acres) and the golf courses (940 acres).

When you look at Entertainment that is broken up as:
Major Theme Parks-the Big 4 (1,692 acres)
Minor Theme Parks- the Water parks, & Fantasia Golf (341 acres)
Other (204 acres)

 

[Indy95]

I think I can sum up what everyone has been saying thusly:

1. Disneyland is small when compared to WDW
2. WDW is pretty darn big

Can we move on please?

 

[yoda_5729]

Okay, lets see if I can muddy this up even further.

1) In the initial land purchase back in the 60's the total acreage was a little over 27,000 acres or approx. 43 square miles. That number has fluctuated up and down a bit as Disney has acquired small plots of land in the central Florida area. That is the total area that encompassed the Reedy Creek Improvement District (RCID) when the overall development began. As of the last reports from RCID, there are a total of 47 permanent residents in RCID and that number hasn't changed for years.

2) The primary landowner for the entire property that makes up RCID is the Walt Disney World Company. That organization markets the entire property (theme parks, hotels, entertainment and shopping areas) as The Walt Disney World Resort. There is no distinction based on land use there. See below for more details on land use breakdown.

3) During the early 90's as the development of Celebration was underway, there were a series of land deals that took place with a property south of this whole area called Walker Ranch. Disney purchased this land and guaranteed that it would stay untouched land in exchange for approval to fill in some wetlands areas in the Celebration area. This acreage is often included in the total acreage when describing WDW. This is where things jumped up to the 47 square mile number that many have heard over the years.

4) As Celebration development continued, all of that land was ceded out of RCID for a number of reasons, not the least of which was to prevent having residents that would be able to influence the governmental operations of RCID and Disney as a result. That new area was known as the Celebration Improvement District under Florida statute. That transaction reduced the total acreage of RCID to approx. 25,000 acres.This is the current acreage of the property that makes up The Walt Disney World Resort.

5) If you want to look at in finer detail, here is the breakdown of land usage in RCID or Walt Disney World as of 1998. The 20008 projection plan is not substantially different other than a slight increase in the Hotel/Resort component of the development and corresponding drop in vacant land as a result.
Residential (11 acres)
Commercial (244 acres)
Hotel/Resort (3,059 acres)
Entertainment (2,237 acres)
Support Facilities (689 acres)
Roads (1,565 acres)
Other Public facilities (867 acres)
Agriculture (1,012 acres)
Undeveloped Resource management (3,558 acres)
Vacant land (2,538 acres)

Recently I was looking into this, just out of curiosity, and in relation to the size of Universal Orlando.I know Disney is bigger, though I also know Universal is getting larger. That all being said, I found your post very informed. Perhaps I am misunderstanding it though as you stated WDW is 25,000 acres as of now, but in the detailed account, you only represented 15,780 of it. From my understanding (and I could be wrongs), was this even included vacant land. Is WDW still 25,000 acres, or 15,780? I would think if those numbers accurate, then the Vacant land number would be larger?

 

[donsullivan]

Recently I was looking into this, just out of curiosity, and in relation to the size of Universal Orlando.I know Disney is bigger, though I also know Universal is getting larger. That all being said, I found your post very informed. Perhaps I am misunderstanding it though as you stated WDW is 25,000 acres as of now, but in the detailed account, you only represented 15,780 of it. From my understanding (and I could be wrongs), was this even included vacant land. Is WDW still 25,000 acres, or 15,780? I would think if those numbers accurate, then the Vacant land number would be larger?

Since this thread is nearly 11 years old, I'm not going to re-engage in the dialog.

I would encourage that you go to the RCID website and get the latest available data since it most certainly has changed in 11 years

 

[yoda_5729]

Since this thread is nearly 11 years old, I'm not going to re-engage in the dialog.

I would encourage that you go to the RCID website and get the latest available data since it most certainly has changed in 11 years

Oh, apologies. I did not mean to annoy or irritate anyone. I thought the total land area of Disney World was always a reasonable topic to discuss. I do realize it was an older discussion, but I thought I was supposed to use them as apposed to making a brand new topic. I went to the webpage, but didn't find the right area for the website where it discusses such things, and even then I'd be a rookie in analyzing it. I was simply asking why it didn't equal out to 25,000, as once again, I'm not very informed in land area allocations and engineering language. Because of that, I was curious if anyone who did know might respond. Disney World always seems to be changing, either growing or reducing in size, so I thought it best to ask based on the last research I could find. I meant no disrespect.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Oh, apologies. I did not mean to annoy or irritate anyone. I thought the total land area of Disney World was always a reasonable topic to discuss. I do realize it was an older discussion, but I thought I was supposed to use them as apposed to making a brand new topic. I went to the webpage, but didn't find the right area for the website where it discusses such things, and even then I'd be a rookie in analyzing it. I was simply asking why it didn't equal out to 25,000, as once again, I'm not very informed in land area allocations and engineering language. Because of that, I was curious if anyone who did know might respond. Disney World always seems to be changing, either growing or reducing in size, so I thought it best to ask based on the last research I could find. I meant no disrespect.

Not a problem, but, you are correct. Around here if you start a new thread that has an older one out there you get the "That's what the search is for" spiel in the typical snotty way they have of doing that. If you bring up an old own, well then you are probably a troll or at the very least an idiot because you reopened an old tread. I'll tell you it is tough to make people happy around here. Whether or not there is anything wrong with opening an old thread is totally in the minds, and therefore becomes the problem of, those that don't like you too. Try not to let them intimidate you. If the ownership of the board wanted to not let you open an old one, they would lock it and you would only be able to read it and not post on it.

All that said, I do not know exactly what the land possession is right now, except to say a lot. Even the old argument that all of DL could fit into the parking lot at MK, is true but misleading. When that thought was first mentioned, or thought of all of, the DLR would have fit in the MK parking lot. It doesn't take an over active imagination to understand the difference in area between the two resorts.

Anyway, without doing a whole lot of research, over the years, The Disney company has sold off and added to the properties, but, it appears that they have sold off a lot more then they have added, so logically the acreage would be less then when it was first purchased. Not really complex because what they didn't sell is still there and what they bought is currently part of the package. Unless someone is planning on buying the property the exact numbers are not really relevant. The Manhattan/San Francisco comparisons are really all that is necessary to understand just how big the overall property is.

Spoiler

Just for fun, someone, with that type of savvy (not me) should find out or map all of Anaheim and superimpose it on the map of just WDW and see how that compares. Anyone up to the challenge?

 

[yoda_5729]

Thanks for the reply. Once again, I didn't mean to be bringing up old news, I just figured Disney World's total size was something that as a topic could be addressed at anytime, especially since it changes. People have said some of it has been sold off, and I can see with Celebration at the very least that makes sense. I was just wondering if it was still "twice the size of Manhattan?" or was it markedly smaller then that. I've seen people say that Disney World has tons of area to grow, or at the very least they did, but now, using numbers from above, I see 2,500. Don't get me wrong, I understand that still is quite a bit (roughly equal to all the entertainment occupied land), but in all truth that's nowhere near as much as I had imagined. I do want to say again, I wasn't doing this to troll, but simply ask people who knew far more about it then I ever did. Those on this forum are far more informed or analytical then I am.