Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, formally Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. and informally known as Disney Parks, was the name of The Walt Disney Company's theme parks and resorts division from the late 1990s and 2000s until March 2018. It was responsible for conceiving, building, and managing Disney's theme parks and vacation resorts, its cruise line, and a range of other family leisure businesses. In March 2018 it was merged with Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media and renamed, beginning the chain of names that led to today's Disney Experiences.
Formation
The division's roots go back to April 1, 1971, six months before Walt Disney World opened in Florida. It was organized as the Walt Disney Outdoor Recreation Division in 1980, under Dick Nunis, and incorporated as Walt Disney Attractions, Inc. on August 10, 1989. The Attractions business added Disneyland Paris (1992) and prepared two ventures that both debuted in 1998: Disney's Animal Kingdom, which opened in April 1998, and Disney Cruise Line, whose first ship, Disney Magic, made its first voyage on July 30, 1998.
By the early 2000s the division was operating as Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, adopting the formal name Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. in 2008. Jay Rasulo became its president in September 2002, succeeding Paul Pressler, and later its chairman. At the end of 2009 Rasulo and chief financial officer Tom Staggs swapped jobs, and Staggs became chairman on January 1, 2010. The last chairman under the name was Bob Chapek, who led the merged successor segment in 2018 and became Disney's chief executive in 2020.
Expansion under the name
The Parks and Resorts era completed Disney's global resort map. Hong Kong Disneyland opened on September 12, 2005, the same year the division celebrated the 50th anniversary of the original Disneyland Park. In 2005 it also launched Adventures by Disney, a guided group vacation business that took the division beyond fixed destinations for the first time. Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, a standalone beach resort with no theme park, opened at Ko Olina, Hawaii, on August 29, 2011.
The era's largest project was Shanghai Disney Resort, built with the Shanghai Shendi Group. Ground was broken on April 8, 2011, and Shanghai Disneyland opened on June 16, 2016 as Disney's sixth resort destination and twelfth theme park worldwide, and its first resort in mainland China. By 2016 the division's theme parks hosted more than 140 million guests in a year, making Disney the world's most visited theme park operator.
Throughout the period, Walt Disney Imagineering sat inside the division, designing attractions, lands, hotels, and cruise ships for all six resorts, while Disney Vacation Club expanded alongside the parks.
End of the name
In a reorganization announced in March 2018, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts was merged with Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media. The combined segment, chaired by Chapek, took the name Walt Disney Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products, was renamed Disney Parks, Experiences and Products on January 1, 2019, and became Disney Experiences on November 16, 2023.
See also
- Disney Experiences
- The Walt Disney Company
- Walt Disney Imagineering
- Disney Cruise Line
- Shanghai Disneyland
- Hong Kong Disneyland
References