There is a lot of conflicting information out there about Disney World.

It can make it very difficult for someone unfamiliar with the area to understand where it is, and what it is.

If one is trying to choose where to stay for a Disney vacation, all of this conflicting and confusing information doesn’t help at all. To make matters worse, most people don’t understand where and what Disney World is even after they’ve been there!

The Disney World Property covers about 40 square miles of land, SouthWest of Orlando, FL. As such, it is actually West of Kissimmee. It’s not actually in Orlando itself at all! Millions of visitors come and go each year, and never actually set foot in the city of Orlando, but that is where they will tell people they went.

It’s not a theme park!

The ‘resort’ as Disney refers to it (it’s not a theme park itself) consists of a large area of land made up of pine forests, palm scrub land, a large swampy area dedicated to conservation that runs right through it, and of course; four of the most amazing theme parks in the world; a dining, shopping and entertainment district called Disney Springs; two of the best water parks in the world; a number of golf courses (plus four fabulous miniature golf courses); a huge sports complex called ESPN Wide World of Sports; along with about 15 amazing (and very expensive) resort properties and other hotels that together offer 30,000 rooms – plus a whole host of support facilities and other properties that keep the whole thing functioning; such as its own fire department, emergency services, security/police force, electrical utility, zoning office and even its own local government!

All of this makes Walt Disney World the largest single-site employer in the United States, with a total of over 100,000 people employed! And they are all there to make you and other guests have the time of your life while visiting.

In addition to this, there is also the City of Celebration, a preplanned city designed in the late 20th Century by four of the pre-eminent architects in the USA as a living and working proof-of-concept for neo-traditional whole-city planning, which was build in the SouthEast corner of the property. Celebration is still being built and expanded, so if you want to live within Disney World it is a possibility, with new homes currently (2025) available. And if your wallet is big enough, there is a separate, small subdivision in the NorthEast corner of the property, called Golden Oak, where the wealthy can purchase a home in the $4,000,000 + price range and see Magic Kingdom fireworks from their backyard each night.

Whew!

In my driving directions that we supply to our guests, I tell them to keep an eye out for the Disney cows which inhabit the pastures you pass on your way. These are actually on the Disney World resort property, and if you look really closely, you can see a few wearing mouse-ears hats!

No wonder it is hard to understand exactly what Disney World is, and even where it is! The fact is, Disney adds a lot to the confusion themselves, because in some ways, their success is so overwhelming that they actually work to minimize the public’s awareness of it, lest people become concerned that the Mouse has simply gotten too big! Plus, there are political and tax issues to be considered as well, especially with a property that stretches across two different counties in Central Florida.

Cutting across the SouthEast corner of the property is the major highway in the area, the interstate I-4, which runs between Tampa and Daytona. Even though it crosses right over the Disney World Resort Property, there is NO indication where the property starts or stops!

You can tell roughly when you’re there because of all the road signs indicating exits to the various Disney parks and attractions, but there is NO marker when you cross the boundary. Nothing says “Hey! You’re on the Disney property! Welcome to Walt Disney World!” Thousands of people drive across Disney World every day and have no idea that they are!

Well, actually there is one very special marker along the highway that always delights people! It’s a utility pole! I won’t say anything more about that here; you’ll just have to visit the area to see what I mean by that.

Entering Disney World – Approaching the ‘real’ entrance to Disney World is not nearly as exciting as one might expect. The only indication is the incredible places listed on the standard roadside exit signs. Driving by one that says “Magic Kingdom 3 Miles” is almost heart-wrenching when you don’t take the exit!

If you read books on the history of Disney World like I do, you will learn how the Disney Imagineers specifically decided to put the ‘gates’ to Disney World far inside the property, close to the theme parks, because they didn’t want children in cars to get upset if they drove through Disney Gates but then did not arrive anywhere soon.

The first three theme parks are all clustered fairly close together on the northern half of the property, while Animal Kingdom (the last park opened and the biggest of all of them) is in the centre on the West side. So the gates are relatively close to the theme parks.

Unfortunately, the placement of those gates causes a lot of confusion for people about where Disney World stops and starts, because they just assume that the gate would be at the edge of the property! They’re not!

It is also confusing for people to think that the City of Celebration is within Disney World, especially when Disney themselves will describe it as being ‘five miles from Disney World,’ but they really mean that it’s five miles from the theme park area. (Yes, the place is that big!)

So what and where is the Walt Disney World Resort?

The simplest way to come to terms with it is to understand that way back in the 1960’s, Disney started secretly buying large swaths of land. Then, at Disney’s request, the State of Florida created a governmental district from the Disney property in order to hold what would become Walt Disney World, and that entity was called the Reedy Creek Improvement District. (That name has recently been changed by the Florida state Governor.) The District stretches across two counties, and is about nine miles by five miles covering 25,000 acres (43 square miles), located southwest of the city of Orlando. (Disney has since acquired even more land in the area, but it has not been incorporated into the District.)

It contains two phoney cities…

The District itself contains two incorporated areas called Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, (names which you may see on a map, but mean little). Technically these areas are legally cities, but in reality they’re just parts of the property, with few of the features that normally define what a city is. So for the most part, you can completely ignore these names. All they really do is cause confusion for anyone trying to find them or understand what they refer to. In practical terms, they don’t exist.

And lots of other land… and a real city!

Beside the two incorporated areas there is a lot of unincorporated land used for other purposes (agriculture, conservation and utilities), and the actual City of Celebration (which is a real, living city with residents, schools, a hospital, and all of the services a city of 10,000 people needs).

You don’t really need to know any of that to have a great Disney Vacation, but it helps to understand why so many people have a hard time understanding what Disney is, where it is, and where they will be staying in relation to it!

Why does any of this matter?

Besides being good for trivia game night, why does any of this matter, and why am I writing about it? Unfortunately, all of this confusion leads to a lot of false or contradictory claims about the location of accommodations relative to ‘Disney World’. In fact, some folks take advantage of how confusing it is to make guests think they’ll be staying someplace they’re really not!

For guests trying to sort out where to stay, we believe it’s worth it to take the time and learn a bit about the area, so that they’ll be armed with the knowledge they need to sort out all of the contradictory advice (and even downright untruths) they may hear while planning their trip.

Of course, if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to drop us a line, and we would be happy to assist you in any way possible. With real, actually helpful information!

For more information related to this topic, see the articles How far away are the villas from the Theme Parks?, How close are you to Disney’s ‘Main Gate’?, and Does staying within Walt Disney World save you time?

Or see here to learn how staying ‘off-site’ can save you hundreds of dollars on your Walt Disney World Vacation! And see a comparison of our villa to a Disney Resort Hotel Room here!